3232 - PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO (Málaga 1881–1973 Mougins) Nature morte sur une table. 1919. Watercolour over pencil on paper. Signed lower right: Picasso. 27.5 × 19.5 cm. Provenance: - Galleria BLU, Milan. - Private collection, Verona, acquired from the above gallery. Literature: - Zervos, Christian: Pablo Picasso. Supplément aux années 1914–1919, Paris 1975, vol. XXIX, p. 168, no. 456 (ill.). - Wofsy, Alan (ed.): Picasso's paintings, watercolors, drawings & sculpture. A comprehensive illustrated catalogue 1885–1973. From Cubism to Neoclassicism 1917–1919, San Francisco 1995, p. 260, no. 19-294 (ill.). - Prof. Dr Enrique Mallen: Picasso Project. Digital Catalogue raisonné, no. Opp.19:509 (online catalogue raisonné: https://picasso.shsu.edu/index.php?view=ArtworkInfo&OPPID=OPP.19:509). The present still life was created in 1919, at a time when Pablo Picasso was developing his Cubist visual language while also exploring new artistic directions. Following the radical experiments of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism in the years before the war, from 1917 onwards he increasingly turned towards a more classical vocabulary of forms. This development was linked to the so-called ‘retour à l’ordre’, the renewed interest in classical models that emerged after the First World War. Picasso by no means abandoned Cubism, however, but pursued both approaches in parallel for several years. Still life, in particular, remained a central field of experimentation in his Cubist painting. Everyday objects such as guitars, bottles, glasses and jugs, which had featured among his preferred subjects since the early 1910s, were reduced to characteristic forms and assembled into new pictorial arrangements. The present work suggests an interior distilled into a small number of geometric elements, with objects arranged on a tabletop against an architecturally structured background. The overlapping planes, shifting viewpoints and interplay between representation and abstraction recall the achievements of Synthetic Cubism. Especially revealing is its relationship to a group of still lifes from 1919 in which Picasso explored the subject of a table with objects in front of an open window. There are particularly clear compositional parallels with the painting ‘Nature morte sur une table devant une fenêtre ouverte’, also executed in 1919. The related arrangement of the objects and the geometric organisation of the pictorial space suggest that the present work on paper may be understood as a preparatory study within this group of works. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.