3232 - PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO (Málaga 1881–1973 Mougins) Still Life on a Table. 1919. Watercolor 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. Bibliography: - Zervos, Christian: Pablo Picasso. Supplement to the Years 1914–1919, Paris 1975, vol. XXIX, p. 168, no. 456 (ill.). - Wofsy, Alan (ed.): Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings & Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog 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). This 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 onward he increasingly turned toward 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 World War I. 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 been among his preferred subjects since the early 1910s—were reduced to characteristic forms and assembled into new pictorial arrangements. The present work depicts 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. Particularly 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 especially clear compositional parallels with the painting “Nature morte sur une table devant une fenêtre ouverte,” also painted in 1919. The similar arrangement of the objects and the geometric organization of the pictorial space suggest that this work on paper may be understood as a preparatory study within this group of works. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *; that is, VAT is charged on the amount and will be refunded to purchasers who provide a validly stamped export declaration.