operagallery.com
Pablo Picasso
September 2015
18 September - 18 October 2015
2 Orchard Turn # 04-15 ION Orchard 238801 Singapore
T. + 65 6735 2618 - [email protected]
Opening Hours
Weekdays: 11 am - 8 pm • Weekends: 10 am - 8 pm
Preface
2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of Singapore’s independence, and such a substantial milestone
calls for an exhibition of equal merit. It is with this in mind that we are proud to showcase one of
the most illustrious names in 20th century art: Pablo Picasso.
Heralded as one of the biggest names of Modern Art and one of the pioneers of Cubism, Picasso
dramatically changed the landscape of his contemporary art scene. Excelling in various mediums
and movements, Picasso strived to cast aside conventional ideals, driving forward and exploring
new limits all the while establishing himself as one of the most important figures within the art
3
world.
We are pleased to present to you these prestigious works by the world’s most illustrious and
recognizable Modern artist, in an intimate setting for collectors and appreciators alike.
Gilles Dyan
Founder and Chairman
Opera Gallery Group
Stéphane Le Pelletier
Director
Opera Gallery Asia Pacific
4
Researching an illustrious figure such as Picasso is bound to elicit an array of polarizing definitions.
The life of Pablo Picasso began in Málaga, Spain on October 25th in 1881. Not a particularly bright
‘Genius’, surely, is one that repeats itself often, ‘visionary’ another. Tormented, manipulative,
student academically, at the age of eight Pablo was already displaying signs of artistic aptitude, a
misanthropic – also phrases that pepper history’s perception of the persona, a man whose namesake
talent his artistic parents recognized and encouraged. Moving to Barcelona after the tragic death of
ensued the archetypical illustration of the Modern artist. Saturated in superlatives (not to mention
his younger sister, Picasso was accepted into a local art school where he quickly excelled, graduating
history-making auction prices), Picasso’s legacy has been morphing steadily and consistently since
by the age of 14 to the advanced courses. He enrolled a couple years later in the prestigious Royal
his death in 1973. Separated from his public voice, the Picasso we experience today – assembled
Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, but soon after stopped attending classes and began instead
through his works, fragmented epithets, ex-lovers and surviving family – is an absorbing yet fabricated
to develop an art language independent from the traditional teachings at the institution. A flaneur
figure that whets our intrigue into the psyche of the eccentric man. Lionized for his creativity, the
drawn to the subversive, Picasso’s early works depicted the prostitutes, beggars and gypsies he
revelatory individual that was Pablo Picasso presented a vision of carnality and contradiction, raw
would come across in his long walks cutting class, and by 1899 the young artist had fallen out with
originality and available brilliance to a society fascinated as much with the human mind as with the
traditional methods and into a crowd of vagabond artists and intellectuals in Barcelona.
art it produced. Beyond his obvious contributions to the history of art, Picasso was and remains
an art world rock star – a rebellious, paradoxical, emphatic communicator whose life and works
Moving to Paris at the turn of the 20th century marked a significant period in Picasso’s career. Young
demand to be deciphered.
and isolated, the works produced in his first three years in Paris are characterized by scenes of misery
and isolated torment painted primarily in shades of blue and green. Deeply depressed following the
‘It takes a long time to become young’, mused an 85-year-old Picasso to a journalist in Cannes in 1966
suicide of his close friend, Picasso’s ‘Blue Period’ marked a profoundly melancholy psychological
who asked him to explain the transition from the somberness of his early painting to the exuberance
state in the artist’s life, while his cheerless paintings inspired little affection in potential buyers.
of his later work. Perhaps best-known for his contribution to the birth of Cubism together with
Settling in Montmartre in 1904 with the beautiful Fernande Olivier, Picasso gradually emerged
Georges Braque - that heroic collaboration that introduced the first truly modern movement in art
from his psychological abyss and began painting in lively, vivid hues of reds and pinks, a period
in 1907– Picasso’s iconic status was enhanced with each passing decade, a motif of modern art that
known as the ‘Rose Period’ that is believed to have culminated in the creation of the proto-Cubism
obliterated convention and scrutinized the nuances of change through metamorphoses and repetition.
masterpiece, The Ladies of Avignon.
Stunningly prolific (13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 book illustrations and
300 ceramics and sculptures have been attributed to his name over the course of a 75-year career),
Honing in on particular pieces from Picasso’s oeuvre would do well to elucidate periods of
Picasso’s oeuvre delineates the inner workings of a figure consumed by visual stimuli and external
personal and professional growth, however reductionary: the chilling, distorted prostitutes of the
attention, carefully documenting a lifetime that he knew would transcend his living self.
aforementioned The Ladies of Avignon as a precursor to Analytical Cubism; the 1921 Ladies at the
5
Spring that marked a brief yet somber return to Classical Realism; the momentous anguish and
and physical experience, from ambiguity to definition; love to lasciviousness; political freedom to
terror of war captured in the 1937 Guernica, a work that remains one of the most potent anti-
financial greed. Unapologetically himself, Picasso’s fame, publicly tumultuous love affairs and quote-
war paintings in history and revealed a political zealousness that defined much of Picasso’s work
worthy ‘Picassoisms’ may have overshadowed the art he produced later in his life, during a time
and persona in the years following World War II. Despite these transitions – some so varied they
when Surrealism and Post-Expressionism – influenced by his own Cubism – dominated the fine art
could have been the product of numerous masterful artists rather than just one – there exists an
conversation. Having proven himself a master, Picasso’s later works recall the raw honesty of his
inscrutable stealth at the centre of Picasso’s artistic identity that counters his increasing fame.
‘Blue Period’, a reminder to both himself and the public of his first and foremost love of making art.
Already the world’s most famous living artist, Picasso’s post-war works take a turn away from the
creation of single masterpieces into the varying motif of creation itself, a curious shift into the realm
6
of the naïve, demonstrated through crude, childlike imagery that strikingly contrasted with the
technical complexity of the Realism, Cubism and Surrealism that marked the previous forty years
of creation.
Painting with phenomenal speed in simplified forms, Picasso’s later years are characterized with a
rapid, almost desperate rate of creation whereby the act of painting seems to transcend the artwork
itself. Having proven himself a master of form and technique, these later pieces, made with a
range of watercolours, felt-tip pens and coloured wax crayons, convey a dramatic reduction of form
into purely compositional ideas, teasing concepts of productivity and repetition through a deeply
humanist lens of wisdom and fear.
In the spirit of singling out masterpieces, Picasso’s Self Portrait Facing Death, made with pencil
and crayon the year before his death at age 91, epitomizes the artist’s focus at this stage in his
life, serving as a stunning look into the cryptic eye of this loved and loathed modern genius.
A scrupulous evaluator of medium and technique to achieve his desired emotion, Picasso’s
penchant for style diversity speaks to a singular devotion to capturing the girth of human emotional
Gili Karev
Curator
7
Nature morte au bougeoir et à la cruche,
29 January 1937
Dated ‘29-1-37’ (lower left)
Oil on canvas
38.1 x 46 cm - 15 x 18.1 in.
Price on request
8
Provenance
Estate of the artist
E. V. Thaw, New York
Vivian Horan, New York
Exhibited
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Picasso, 3 Oct. 2002-2 Feb. 2003
Literature
Picasso, 1901-1971, Galerie Claude Bernard, 1980, No. 15, ill. in colour
Edward Quinn, Pierre Daix, The Private Picasso, 1987, ill. p. 151 and 159
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. Spanish Civil
War 1937-1939, San Francisco 1997, No. 37-023 (a), ill. p. 11
Certificate
Claude Ruiz-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Tête de femme,
1 May 1944
Signed ‘Picasso’ (lower right)
Oil on canvas
46 x 33 cm - 18.1 x 13 in.
Price on request
10
Provenance
Galerie Louis Carré, Paris
Diego della Valle, Milan
Sale: Sotheby’s, London, 26 March 1985, lot 51
Private collection
Sale: Franco Semanzato, Milan, 16 December 1998, lot 240
Carlo Corbelli, Brescia
Private collection
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 13 : œuvres de 1943 et de 1944, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
2013, No. 268, ill. p. 132
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, 1940-1944,
No. 44-060, ill. p. 336
Certificate
Claude Ruiz-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Nature morte,
13 July 1945
Signed Picasso (upper right) and dated ‘13 juillet 45’ (on the reverse)
Oil on canvas
64.5 x 100 cm - 25.4 x 39.4 in.
Price on request
12
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Jane Wade, New York (acquired from the above, 1969)
Sale: Christie’s, London, 30 November 1976, lot 69
Private collection, Europe
Exhibited
Culan, France, Château de Culan, Exposition Picasso, 1967, No. 28
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Picasso - Werke von 1932-1965, 1967, No. 27, ill. in colour
Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Picasso - Das Spätwerk, 1968, No. 4, ill. in colour
Literature
Galerie Beyeler (ed.), Picasso, Basel, 1968, No. 72, ill. p. 107
Klaus Gallwitz, Picasso laureatus, Lucerne, 1971, No. 24, ill. p. 37
Certificate
Claude-Ruiz Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Composition,
8 October 1948
Signed ‘Picasso’ and dated ‘8.10.48’ (upper left)
Oil on board
30 x 40 cm - 11.8 x 15.7 in.
Price on request
14
Provenance
William Drown Ltd., London
Sale: Sotheby’s, London, 7 July 1971, lot 43
Private collection (acquired at the above sale)
Galerie Ile de France, Paris
Galleria Gissi, Turin
Galleria Seno, Milan
Private collection, Italy (acquired from the above, 1980s)
Exhibited
Turin, Galleria Gissi, Collettiva di Maggio 1980, 1980
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 15 : œuvres de 1946 à 1953, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1965, No. 80, ill. p. 48
Picasso, The Mediterranean Years, 1945-1962, Gagosian Gallery, London, 2010, ill. p. 62 (listed
with incorrect dimensions)
Broc et verre,
16-17 April 1959
Signed ‘Picasso’ (upper right), dated and numbered ‘V.16.17.4.59.I’ (on the reverse)
Oil on canvas
92 x 73 cm - 36.2 x 28.7 in.
Price on request
16
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Galleria Seno, Milan
Private collection, Italy (1980)
Exhibited
Barcelona, Sala Gaspar, 1960
Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Picasso, Peintures, Vauvenargues 1959-1961, 1962, No. 11
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 18 : œuvres de 1958 à 1959, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1967, No. 442, ill. p. 130
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: The Fifties II,
1956-1959, San Francisco, 2000, No. 59-136, ill. p. 315
Tête de faune,
24 January 1956
Signed, numbered and dated ‘Picasso 24.1.56.XI’ (on the reverse)
Partially glazed ceramic tile, unique piece
20.5 x 20.5 cm - 8.1 x 8.1 in.
Price on request
20
Literature
Georges Ramié, Céramique de Picasso, éditions Cercle d’Art, Paris, 1974, No. 321, ill. p. 150
Certificate
Alain Ramié has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Tête de faune,
14 April 1958
Signed and dated ‘Picasso 14.4.58.’ (lower right)
Coloured wax crayons on paper
32.8 x 25.7 cm - 12.9 x 10.1 in.
Price on request
22
Provenance
Galerie Raymonde Cazenave, Paris
Spiro Skyrus, Los Angeles
Private collection (acquired from the above, 1975)
Certificate
Claude Ruiz-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Nu debout et trois têtes d’hommes,
4-5 February 1969
Signed, dated and numbered ‘Picasso 4.2.69 V 5.2.69’ (upper left)
Coloured wax crayons on paper
44 x 31 cm - 17.3 x 12.2 in.
Price on request
24
Provenance
Sale: Christie’s, London, 30 June 1981, lot 173
Waddington Galleries, London
Michelle Rosenfeld, New York
Wolf Schulz Gallery, San Francisco
Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, 10 May 1989, lot 241
Kunsthandel Frans Jacobs, Amsterdam
Private collection, Amsterdam
Sale: Christie’s, London, 9 December 1999, lot 595
Private collection (acquired at the above sale)
Exhibited
Montreal, Landau Fine Art, Picasso and Léger, November-December 1991, No. 45
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 31 : œuvres de 1969, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 1976,
No. 54, ill. pl. 16
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 69-052 ill. p. 103
Buste d’homme et femme nus,
2 June 1969
Signed and dated ‘Picasso 2.6.69.’ (lower right)
Coloured wax crayons on paper
50.5 x 65 cm - 19.9 x 25.6 in.
Price on request
26
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
R.S. Johnson International Gallery, Chicago
Private collection (acquired from the above, fall 1971; thence by descent)
Exhibited
Chicago, R.S. Johnson International Gallery, Picasso, 20 Drawings, 1967-1971, fall 1971, p. 23,
No. 6 (ill. titled Man and Woman)
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 31 : œuvres de 1969, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 1976,
No. 227, ill. p. 70
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 69-230 (ill. with incorrect medium), p. 170
Fleurs,
3 May 1961
Signed, dated and dedicated ‘Pour Georges Picasso le 3.5.61.’ (lower right)
Coloured wax crayons on toned paper
41.9 x 27.3 cm - 16.5 x 10.7 in.
Price on request
28
Provenance
Private collection (gift from the artist)
Sale: Christie’s, London, 20 December 2006, lot 258
Private collection (acquired at the above sale)
Certificate
Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Claude Ruiz-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work
Maternité,
circa 1899
Pastel on paper
47.8 x 40 cm - 18.8 x 15.7 in.
Price on request
30
Provenance
Yul Brynner collection (1970)
Private collection
Sale: Sotheby’s, 14 May 1997, lot 200
Private collection, Monaco
Literature
Alan Wofsy Fine Arts LLC
Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawing and Sculptures, Youth in Spain II, 1897 - 1900 (titled
‘Nourrice allaitant un enfant dans un parc’)
Certificate
Pablo Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work and dedicated it to Yul Brynner
Saltimbanque et jeune fille,
1905
Signed ‘Picasso’ (lower left)
Watercolour and charcoal on paper laid on card
29 x 18.5 cm - 11.4 x 7.3 in.
Price on request
32
Provenance
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Paris, (No. 1736)
Justin K. Thannhauser, Munich, Berlin, Paris, New York and Bern (No. 40164)
Mrs. Justin K. Thannhauser, Bern
Sale: Christie’s, New York, Nov. 1998
Exhibited
Bern Kunst Museum, Sammlung Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978, No. 31, p. 110, ill. p. 70
Washington DC, the National Gallery of Art, Picasso, Saltimbanques, 1980-1981
Barcelona, Museo Picasso
Bern Kunst Museum, Picasso 1905-06, From the Rose Period to the Ochres of Gosol, 1992,
No. 213, ill. p. 350
Munich Haus des Kunst: Pierrot Melancolie and Maske, 1995, No. 59, ill. p. 136
Literature
Christian Zervos, Picasso, vol. 6 : supplément aux vol. 1 à 5, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 1954,
No. 697, ill. p. 85
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille, The Blue and Rose Periods: a Catalogue raisonné of the
paintings, 1900-1906, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1967, DXRII, 1ç, ill. p. 271
Pierre Daix, Tout l’œuvre peint de Picasso, périodes bleue et rose, Paris, 1968, No. 188, ill. p. 102
Corrida Toros,
3 March 1951
Signed and dedicated ‘Para Andrés Castel de vas amigo, Picasso’ (lower right),
inscribed and dated ‘Vallauris le 3.3.58’ (lower left)
Brush and ink on paper
21 x 27 cm - 8.2 x 10.6 in.
Price on request
34
Provenance
Andrés Castel (gift from the artist, March 1951)
Private collection (acquired from the above)
Sale: Sotheby’s, London, 25 June 2009, Lot 155
Private collection, Spain (acquired at the above sale)
Exhibited
Prague Municipal House, Tauromaquia - Face to Face with the Bull, 12/09/2011 - 04/09/2012
Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland, Picasso/Dalí/Goya - Tauromachia, The Bullfight, July
2014 - November 2014
Literature
Tauromaquia - Picasso, Dalí, Goya, Filla, Capek, Carlo Cambi Editore, 2012
Certificate
Claude-Ruiz Picasso and Maya Widmaier-Picasso have confirmed the authenticity of this work
Quatre personnages,
2 October 1968
Signed, dated and numbered ‘2.10.68. IV Picasso’ (centre left)
Pen and India ink on paper
50 x 65.5 cm - 19.7 x 25.8 in.
Price on request
36
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Herman C. Goldsmith, New York
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Evelyn Aimis Fine Art, Miami (acquired from the above)
Private collection (acquired from the above, 1989)
Sale: Christie’s, London, 10 Feb. 2005, lot 687
Private collection
Exhibited
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Picasso, The Late Drawings, Jan. - Feb. 1988, No. 21, ill.
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 27 : œuvres de 1967 et 1968, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1973, No. 318, ill. p. 122
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculptures: The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 68-158, ill. p. 47
Musicienne et nu assis,
30 January 1968
Signed, dated and numbered ‘Picasso 30.1.68 V’ (lower right)
Pencil on paper
30 x 48 cm - 11.8 x 18.9 in.
Price on request
38
Provenance
Sale: Christie’s, New York, 16 May 1985, lot 213
Private collection (aquired at the above sale)
Sale: Christie’s, London, 7 Feb. 2002, lot 413
Private collection, UK (aquired at the above sale)
Literature
René Char & Charles Feld, Picasso, Les Dessins du 27.3.66 au 15.3.68, Paris, 1969, No. 356,
ill. n.pag. (listed with incorrect dimensions)
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 27 : œuvres de 1967 et 1968, éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1973, No. 225, ill. p. 88
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 68-039, ill. p. 11
Le Bain,
27 January 1968
Signed, dated and numbered ‘Picasso 27.1.68.VI’ (lower right)
Pencil on paper
24 x 29.5 cm - 9.4 x 11.6 in.
Price on request
40
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Saidenberg Gallery, New York
Mena W. Rosenthal, New York
Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, 17 May 1990, lot 213
Saidenberg Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Bali Miller, New York
Peter B. Lewis collection (aquired from the above, 19 March 1998)
Literature
Charles Feld, Picasso, His Recent Drawings, 1966-1968, New York, 1969, No. 346, ill. n.p.
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 27 : œuvres de 1967 et 1968, éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1973, No. 201, ill. p. 77
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 68-029, ill. p. 9
Deux personnages et tête,
26 February 1969
Signed and dated ‘Picasso 26.2.69.’ (upper right)
Blue felt-tip pen on toned paper
31 x 44 cm - 12.2 x 17.3 in.
Price on request
42
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
The Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd.), London
Private collection (circa 1975)
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 31 : œuvres de 1969, éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 1976,
No. 79, ill. p. 26
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties III,
1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, No. 69-079 ill. p. 113
Certificate
Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd. (The Lefevre Gallery) have confirmed the authenticity of this work
Nu debout et homme tenant un verre,
6 August 1972
Signed, numbered and dated ‘Dimanche 6 août 1972.I Picasso’ (lower left)
Ink on paper
35.5 x 42 cm - 14 x 16.5 in.
Price on request
44
Provenance
Galerie Taménaga, Paris
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, 172 Dessins en noir et en couleurs, 1972, No. 155
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 33 : œuvres de 1971-1972, Éditions Cahiers d’Art, Paris,
1978, No. 492, ill. p. 168
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Final Years
1970-1973, San Francisco, 2004, No. 72-232, ill. p. 340
Le Peintre et sa toile,
5 July 1964
Signed Picasso (lower right) and dated ‘5.7.64’ (upper right)
Gouache and brush and ink over rincé linoleum cut print on paper
62.3 x 75 cm - 24.5 x 29.5 in.
Price on request
46
Provenance
Private collection, Tokyo
Private collection (acquired from the above, 2013)
Literature
Brigitte Baer, Picasso peintre-graveur, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre gravé et des
monotypes, 1959-1965, Bern, 1986, No. 1355, another version ill. p. 533
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture,
The Complete Linoleum Cuts 1939-1968, San Francisco, 2012, No. L-181, ill. of other
versions pp. 236-37
Centaure et bacchante avec un faune,
2 Febuary 1947
Signed ‘Picasso’ in blue pencil, dated and numbered ‘2.2.47. 28/50’ (lower right)
Lithograph on Arches, edition of 50 + 5 AP
49 x 64 cm - 19.3 x 25.2 in.
Price on request
48
Literature
Georges Bloch, Picasso : Catalogue de l’œuvre gravé et lithographié, 1904-1967, Tome 1, Editions
Kornfeld et Klipstein, Berne, 1968, No. 417, ill. p. 116
50
‘It takes a long time to become young’
David Mach, Portrait of Picasso, 2010
Courtesy of the artist
Biography
1881
October 25th: Birth of Pablo Picasso in Malaga, Spain.
His father, Don José Ruiz Blasco, is an art teacher.
1884
December 20th: Birth of Pablo’s first sister, Dolores, called Lola.
1885October 30th: Birth of Pablo’s second sister, Conchita.
52
1891
The family moves to Corona.
1894
The artist’s very first oil portraits of his family, signed ‘P. Ruiz’.
1895
Discovers Madrid and Barcelona.
1896
Moves to Barcelona. Studies at the School of Fine Arts.
The death of his sister Conchita will mark Pablo for the rest of his life.
1898
Spends the summer at Horta de Ebro with his friend Pallares.
1899
Returns to Barcelona where he meets painters who will remain his friends for the rest of his
life. He is adopted by the intellectual circle of the Café ‘Els Quatre Gats’.
1900 Moves to the old sector of Barcelona.
October - December: His first trip to Paris with his friend Casagemas.
Christmas in Malaga.
1901
End January: Picasso travels to Madrid.
Casagemas commits suicide; Picasso paints La Mort de Casagemas.
April: He exhibits his work in Barcelona but does not attend the opening ceremony, preferring
to travel to Paris to prepare for his first show at Gallery Vollard.
Meets Max Jacob.
September 9th: Death of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Picasso is very affected, feeling likethe
heir to the famous deceased painter.
He definitively adopts the name Picasso.
Beginning of his Blue Period.
1902
Early: Returns to Barcelona where he continues to paint.
Returns to Paris in the winter to reunite with Max Jacob.
1903
Returns to Barcelona.
Picasso starts one of his most famous pieces from the Blue Period: La Vie.
1904
Spring: Establishes permanent residence in Paris.
June: Moves into the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre.
First encounters with Fernande Olivier, who becomes his model and companion for seven years.
Fall: Meets Guillaume Apollinaire and André Salmon.
1905
Beginning of his Pink Period.
Les Saltimbanques exhibition.
Paints Gertrude Stein’s portrait.
1906
His Parisian broker, Ambroise Vollard, buys his entire studio for 2,000 French francs.
Meets Matisse at the Manet-Redon exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery.
October: First attempts at Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
1907 Summer: D.H. Kahnweiler visits Picasso’s studio at the Bateau-Lavoir.
Vollard again buys his entire studio for 2,500 French francs (not including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon).
Apollinaire introduces Georges Braque to Picasso.
1907
With Braque, the artist produces paintings that will be called ‘cubistic’.
1908
January 24th: André Level buys La Famille des saltimbanques for 1,000 French francs.
1909
Fall: Leaves the Bateau-Lavoir for a new studio located at 11, boulevard de Clichy.
First fragmented sculpture: Tête de Fernande.
1910
Summer at Cadaques.
Fall: Returns to Paris. Finishes portraits of Vollard and Kahnweiler, the latter becomes his main broker.
1911
Summer: Picasso leaves alone for Céret.
His first works of Analytic Cubism.
Begins a love-affair with Eva Gouel. Paints Ma Jolie.
1912
Mid-January: Starts up a new studio at the Bateau-Lavoir.
Mai 18th: He leaves secretly with Eva for Céret, then on to Avignon and Sorgues where he
paints his first ‘Arlésienne’ (Woman from Arles) cubism portrait.
September 23rd: Moves in with Eva, at 242 boulevard Raspail near Montparnasse.
1913
Paints a portrait of Apollinaire for publication in his collection of poems: Alcools.
1914
Braque and Derain are drafted in the War.
Picasso, being Spanish (a neutral country) is not called. He accompanies them to the
Avignon train station.
1915
Braque is seriously wounded and has to undergo trepanation.
December 14th: Death of Eva Gouel, Picasso is beyond depression.
The musician Edgard Varèse introduces him to Jean Cocteau.
1916 February 17th: Picasso travels to Rome with Cocteau.
March 17th: Apollinaire suffers a wound to the head.
May: Cocteau introduces Picasso to Diaghilev, a producer of the Russian Ballets. Together they
produce the Parade Ballet; Picasso designs the set and costumes.
July: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon shown at the Salon d’Antin.
Meets Stravinsky and Olga Khokhlova, a star ballerina, the artist falls in love.
End November: Returns to Paris. Moves into the Hôtel Lutetia with Olga.
1918
July 12th: Marries Olga at the Russian Church in Paris.
November 9th: Death of Apollinaire.
End November: Picasso moves with Olga to 23, bis rue de la Boétie.
1919May: Leaves for London to work on Diaghilev’s ballet.
Beginning of his ‘return to order’.
1921
February 4th: Birth of Paulo. Picasso turns 40 in October.
1922
Summer in Dinard. Paints Deux femmes courant sur la plage.
Designs the set for Cocteau’s Antigone.
1924
Designs the set and costumes for the ballet Mercure.
1925 Aggressive compositions.
à 1926 Summer in Juan-les-Pins.
First publication in Cahiers d’Art by Christian Zervos.
1927
January: Meets Marie-Thérèse Walter who is seventeen years old. Falls head over eals in love
with her. Sexually aggressive themes.
1928
Prepares sculptures using wire.
53
54
1929
Summers at Dinard.
1948
Moves with Françoise Gilot to Vallauris.
1930
June: Buys the Château de Boisgeloup.
Fall: Secretly moves Marie-Thérèse into a flat at 44, rue de La Boétie.
1931
May: Moves permanently to Boisgeloup.
1949
April 19th: Birth of Paloma Picasso.
New season of sculptures.
Picasso paints La Colombe de la paix.
1932
Produces large sculpted heads of Marie-Thérèse.
First use of the Minotaur in his works.
1934
Summer: Travels to Spain. Paints a series of Bull Fights.
1935
Marie-Thérèse is pregnant with Maya.
Separation from Olga.
Stops painting until 1937.
1936
Picasso retrospective in Barcelona.
July: War breaks out in Spain.
Picasso appointed Director of the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Meets the Yugoslav photographer Dora Maar.
1937 April 26th: The city of Guernica is bombed.
Dora Maar finds the studio at Grands-Augustins so that Picasso can paint Guernica.
Mid-June: Guernica showed at the Spanish Pavilion at the World Fair in Paris.
Summer in Mougins with the Eluard couple.
He paints Lee Miller in Arlesian style on several occasions.
October-December: Paints La Femme qui pleure.
1938
Paints women’s faces that are more and more distorted.
1939
Moves to Royan after the beginning of World War II.
1940
April 3rd: Picasso files for French citizenship.
Mid-May: Beginning of France’s problems with Germany.
June 14th: Paris falls to the Germans.
August 25th: Returns to his Grands-Augustins studio with Dora Maar.
Marie-Thérèse and Maya remain in Royan.
1941 January: Picasso writes a surrealistic piece, Le Désir attrapé par la queue.
à 1942
1943
Sculpture of L’Homme au mouton in bronze.
May: Meets Françoise Gilot.
1944 Max Jacob dies in the Drancy concentration camp.
August: Paris is liberated.
Picasso participates for the first time in the Salon d’Automne with 74 paintings and six
sculptures.
1945Composes Le Charnier.
Buys a house in Ménerbes that he gives to Dora Maar.
1946
Picasso and Françoise Gilot spend the summer in Antibes.
Picasso paints La Joie de vivre.
1947 May 15th: Birth of Claude Picasso.
Starts producing ceramic objects in Vallauris.
1949 Produces the panels for War and Peace.
à 1951 Major Picasso retrospective in Japan marking his 70th birthday.
1952
Death of Paul Eluard.
1953
Françoise Gilot leaves for Paris with the children.
1954
Portraits of Sylvette David.
Meets Jacqueline Roque who works at Madoura’s.
Beginning of the season of variations on Femmes d’Alger by Delacroix.
1955
February 1st: Death of Olga.
Picasso buys the Villa La Californie in Cannes.
Moves in with Jacqueline.
Starts his work on Les Ménines by Velázquez.
1958
September: Buys the Château de Vauvenargues at the foot of Mount Saint-Victoire,
so dear to Cézanne.
Paints several ‘Arlesian’ portraits of Jacqueline.
1959
First trips to Vauvenargues.
1960
Retrospectives at the Tate Gallery in London.
1961
Picasso marries Jacqueline Roque in Vallauris and moves to Mougins.
1963
Opening of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.
October 11th: Death of Jean Cocteau.
1964
January 11th: Retrospective in Toronto, then Tokyo.
1965
November: The artist undergoes surgery for a stomach ulcer at the American Hospital in
Neuilly, near Paris.
1966
Tribute to Picasso at the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, Paris.
Picasso is evicted from his Grands-Augustins studio.
1967
Picasso refuses the Legion of Honour.
1968
February 13th: Death of Sabartés, his secretary and friend.
1970 May 1st: 167 paintings are exposed at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, by Christian and
Yvonne Zervos.
1968 Very prolific period.
à 1972
1973
April 8th: Picasso dies in Mougins.
April 10th: He is buried at the Château de Vauvenargues.
55
Supported by
operagallery.com