After several years of working in oil and papier collé, this work heralds Picasso’s return to the media of watercolor and gouache. It also revisits one of his favorite themes, the man with a guitar, who is shown here within a teetering environment of interlocked and colored planes. Clearly recognizable elements (a guitar, the scrolled side of an armchair, faux-marble wallpaper) compete with illegible, opaque forms. The man, who appears as if framed by a doorway or reflected in a mirror, is neither fully abstract nor fully convincing as a figure. In fact, he may not be a man at all: his rigid form and simple outline recall the tailors’ mannequins that appear in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, an artist in whom Picasso was deeply interested at the time.
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Inscription: Signed (upper right, in graphite): Picasso [underlined after P]
Marking: watermark: & MONTGOLFIER VIDALON-LES-ANNONAY B CRA[YON]
[Galerie L’Effort Moderne (Léonce Rosenberg), Paris, probably April 1920; inv. no. 6808, photo no. 257]; Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber, Lausanne (in 1924; sold or possibly given to Eichmann); Dr. Ingeborg Eichmann (later Dr. Ingeborg Pudelko Eichmann), Zürich and elsewhere (by 1953–d. 1980); her heirs (1980–99; sold in September 1999 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1999–2013; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
Musée de Lyon. "Picasso," June 1953, no. 36 (as 1915).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 188; as autumn 1915).
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Facets of Cubism," December 7, 2005–April 16, 2006, not in brochure.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 79.
Philadelphia. The Barnes Foundation. "Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change," February 21–May 9, 2016, no. 18 (lent by The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection).
Columbus Museum of Art. "Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change," June 10–September 11, 2016, no. 18.
Carl Einstein. Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. 3rd ed. (1st ed, 1926). Berlin, 1931, p. 637, ill. p. 316, as 1915.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 549, pl. 254, as 1915.
Joan Merli. Picasso, el artista y la obra de nuestro tiempo. 2nd ed. (1st ed.,1942). Buenos Aires, 1948, p. 600, no. 222, ill., as Paris, 1915.
John Richardson. Pablo Picasso: Watercolours and Gouaches. London, 1964, pp. 10, 44, pl. 15, as 1915.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 126, no. 847, ill., as 1915.
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 126, no. 847, ill., as 1915.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1979, French]. Boston, 1979, p. 353, no. 875, ill., as late 1915 or early 1916.
William Rubin, ed. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1980, ill. p. 188.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 524, no. 1446, ill. p. 470, as "Man with Guitar, Sitting," Paris or Montrouge, second half of 1916.
Dorothy Kosinski. "G. F. Reber: Collector of Cubism." Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1061 (August 1991), p. 531, as 1915.
Carl Einstein. Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ed. Uwe Fleckner and Thomas W. Gaehtgens. New ed. (1st ed., 1931). Berlin, 1996, p. 774, ill. p. 449, as 1915, by Carl Einstein; as 1916, by Uwe Fleckner and Thomas W. Gaehtgens.
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, pp. 181, 511, fig. 409, as "Seated Man with a Guitar," Paris or Montrouge, second half of 1916; (French ed., pp. 176, 181, 511, fig. 409 [as "Homme à la guitare, assis"]).
Peter Kropmanns and Uwe Fleckner. "Von Kontinentaler Bedeuteung: Gottlieb Friedrich Reber und Seine Sammlungen." Die Moderne und Ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik. Ed. Andrea Pophanken and Felix Billeter. Berlin, 2001, p. 402, no. 53, as 1915.
Emily Braun inGiorgio de Chirico, la fabrique des rêves. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 2009, pp. 67, 77.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47.
Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 239.
Pepe Karmel inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 187, 191–92, no. 79, ill. p. 193 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 301, figs. 58 (on display in the residence of Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber, Lugano, ca. 1924), 79 (documented in Léonce Rosenberg's photo album of the artist's work in the stock of the Galerie L'Effort Moderne, Paris).
Ann Bremner inPicasso: The Great War, Experimentation, and Change. Exh. cat., The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. New York, 2016, pp. 141–42, no. 18, ill. p. 63 (color).
Lauren Rosati in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 2016–2018." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 76 (Fall 2018), pp. 68–69, ill. (color).
Doris Kachel inBiografien der Bilder: Provenienzen im Museum Berggruen. Ed. Petra Winter, Doris Kachel, and Sven Haase. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin, Museum Berggruen. Berlin, 2018, ill. frontispiece and p. 31 (on display in Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber’s residence, Lugano, ca. 1924).
Doris Kachel inBiografien der Bilder: Provenienzen im Museum Berggruen. Ed. Petra Winter, Doris Kachel, and Sven Haase. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin, Museum Berggruen. Berlin, 2021, ill. frontispiece and p. 31 (on display in G. F. Reber’s residence, Lugano, ca. 1924; photograph by Irmgard Fritsch).
Written on the verso (upper left, in pencil): 6808 [Galerie L’Effort Moderne inv. no.]; (upper-right corner, in pencil): [?]41; (center, in pencil): [framing instructions]
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1921
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