Art Humanities: Masterpieces of Western Art
Spring 2012 W1121
Instructor: Ellen Hoobler
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973)
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Picasso was born in Màlaga, Spain, the son of a painter and drawing teacher. His artistic talent was
recognized from an early age. He took lessons with his father at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in La
Coruña, where the family moved in 1891. Picasso continued his training in Barcelona and finally
in Madrid, where he briefly studied at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. He also studied the
paintings in the collection of the Prado at this time.
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In October 1900, Picasso moved to Paris. He moved back and forth between Paris and Spain for
the next few years. He finally settled in Paris in 1904, where he met the art critic André Salmon,
among others. Salmon would later give the title “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” to Picasso’s
groundbreaking painting of 1907.
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Picasso met the Stein siblings, Leo and Gertrude, in Paris in 1905. Gertrude had studied
psychology at Radcliffe and medicine at Johns Hopkins before moving to Paris with her brother in
1902. The siblings were supported by their brother, Michael, who controlled the family finances
and asked no questions. This financial freedom allowed them to pursue their interests in art and
writing; they soon became important patrons for artists such as Henri Matisse and Picasso, among
others. Their home at 27 Rue de Fleurus became a meeting place for artists, writers and critics,
who came to the Steins’ frequent “salons.” It was at one of their parties that Gertrude met Alice B.
Toklas (like Gertrude, a young Jewish American woman), who became her lifelong companion.
Gertrude also established herself as an avant-garde writer; her fractured style mirrored the faceted
planes of Picasso’s Cubist paintings.
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Picasso began a portrait of Gertrude in the winter of 1905/06. Gertrude crossed Paris to Picasso’s
studio ninety times to sit for him. At one point, Picasso painted out the face, saying to Gertrude, “I
don’t see you anymore when I look at you.” He went on a vacation to Spain, and when he returned
to Paris in the fall of 1906, he completed the portrait without seeing Gertrude. It is reported that
upon seeing the painting, friends said that it didn’t look much like Gertrude. “Don’t worry, it will,”
Picasso replied.
Cubism (Definition from Encyclopedia Britannica):
Movement in the visual arts created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and
1914. They were later joined by Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, and others. The name
derives from a review that described Braque's work as images composed of cubes. Picasso's
Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) signaled the new style, which was inspired by African sculpture and the
later paintings of Paul Cézanne. Cubist work emphasized the flat, two-dimensional, fragmented surface
of the picture plane, rejecting perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro in favour of
geometric forms. The work made in this style from 1910 to 1912 is often referred to as Analytical
Cubism. Paintings executed during this period show the breaking down, or analysis, of form. Artists
favoured right-angle and straight-line construction and colour schemes that were nearly
monochromatic. After 1912 the phase known as Synthetic Cubism began. Works from this phase
emphasize the combination, or synthesis, of forms in the picture. Colour assumes a strong role in the
work; shapes, while remaining fragmented and flat, are larger and more decorative; and collage is often
used. Many subsequent 20th-century avant-garde movements were influenced by the experimentation
of the Cubists.
Quotes from Picasso
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“When I paint a bowl, I want to show you that it is round, of course. But the general rhythm of the
picture, its composition framework, may compel me to show the round shape as a square. When
you come to think of it, I am probably a painter without style. ‘Style’ is often something that ties
the artist down and makes him look at things one particular way, the same technique, the same
formulas, year after year, sometimes for a whole lifetime. You recognize him immediately, but he
is always in the same suit, or a suit of the same cut….However, I always thrash about rather wildly.
I am a bit of a tramp. You can see me at this moment, but I have already changed. I am already
somewhere else. I can never be tied down and that is why I have no style.” (Picasso to André
Vernet in 1963)
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On the Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1970: “Where could one find naked women in 1907, if not in a
bordello.”
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On African masks: “They were magical objects…intercessors…against everything – against
unknown, threatening spirits…They were weapons – to keep people from being ruled by spirits, to
help free themselves….If we give a form to these spirits, we become free.” (Picasso to André
Malraux in the 1930s)
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“It is better to copy a drawing or painting than to try to be inspired by it, to make something
similar. In that case, one risks painting only the faults of his model. A painter’s atelier should be a
laboratory. One doesn’t do a monkey’s job here: one invents. Painting is a jeu d’esprit.” (in 1945)
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“What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of so-and-so or to actually imitate someone
else?...It’s a good idea, but you can’t….It turns out to be a botch, and it’s at that moment that
you’re yourself.”
Images
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Sketch of Parthenon Pediment Cast, 1893-94.
Drawing after Velazquez’s Las Meninas, 1897-98. Museo Picasso, Barcelona.
Copy after a Capricho by Goya, 1898. Museo del Arte, Barcelona.
Portraiture
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Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1906, (oil on canvas,100 x 81.3 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
Autoportrait à la palette (Self-portrait with palette), 1906 (oil on canvas. 92 x 73 cm.), The
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Self-Portrait, 1907 (oil on canvas, 19 x 18”) National Gallery, Prague.
Demoiselles d’Avignon
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Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 (oil on canvas, 243 x 233.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New
York
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Study, 1907, (drawing [pencil and pastel] 47.7 x 63.5 cm),
Kupferstichkabinett, Basel.
Study for Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 (drawing)
Portraiture II: Analytic Cubism
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Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910, (oil on canvas 91.5 x 59 cm), Pushkin State Museum of Fine
Arts, Moscow
 Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1915, (pencil drawing, 46.7 x 32 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
Beginnings of Synthetic Cubism
 "Ma Jolie". Paris, winter 1911-12 (oil on canvas, 100 x 64.5 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New
York
Later Art
 Guernica, 1937 (oil on canvas, 11 ft, 5.5” x 25 ft, 6”) Museo de Prado, Madrid.
Resources (on Butler Reserves except where noted)
Chave, Anna. “New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of
Cubism.” The Art Bulletin. Vol 76., No. 4, Dec. 1994. Pp. 596-611. (On Wiki)
Galassi, Susan Grace. Picasso’s Variations on the Masters. Confrontations with the Past (New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 1996) (in Avery Library)
Rubin, William, ed. Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective (New York: MoMA, 1980) – a full chronology
and images of all Picasso’s works
Steinberg, Leo. “The Philosophical Brothel,” October 44 (Spring 1988): 7-74.