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Geometric and wavy shapes in areas of flat color come together as a person holding a small guitar, sitting on a green chair, in this vertical, abstracted painting. Some of the forms are outlined in black. Two dots and a curving line read as a modern smiley face on the person’s head, but a circle to our left and a tall, long oval to our right could be the eyes. The tall oval has short, cilia-like rays at the top and bottom, perhaps eyelashes. Pointed triangles along the bottom of the head area could be a beard or mustache. A shallow, upside-down, black U over the head is filled in with slate blue, and is presumably a hat. Areas on the torso have black grids creating diamond patterns against tomato red or bright yellow. Another area has vertical red and yellow dashes against a black background. Together they read as a diamond-patterned costume. The guitar is held vertically on the lap. It has an oversized neck vertically striped with black and white, an orange body with slivers of white to our left and black to our right. One hand holds the guitar near the tuning pegs and the other, represented with three wavy lines for fingers, touches the strings below. The chair behind the musician is grass green, and has curving sides and scrolling arms. The background behind the chair has vertical petal-pink and ocean-blue rectangles, against a wall that is off white above and rust brown below. The two zones of the wall are separated by a band with a Greek key pattern in charcoal gray and black. The artist signed and dated the top left corner, “Picasso 24.”

Pablo Picasso

Harlequin Musician, 1924

East Building, Mezzanine — Terrace

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 130 x 97.2 cm (51 3/16 x 38 1/4 in.)

framed: 150.8 x 117.8 x 5.7 cm (59 3/8 x 46 3/8 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Given in loving memory of her husband, Taft Schreiber, by Rita Schreiber

Accession Number

1989.31.2

Artists / Makers

Pablo Picasso (artist) Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

upper left: Picasso / 24

Provenance

The artist; sold 21 January 1925 to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris);[1] probably sold by Rosenberg & Co. to Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber [1880-1959], Lausanne, by 1930 until at least 1953.[2] Leigh B. [1905-1987] and Mary Lasker [1904-1981] Block, Chicago, by 1962;[3] purchased 10 April 1968 by Taft B. [d. 1976] and Rita [d. 1989] Schreiber, Beverly Hills;[4] bequest 1989 of Rita Schreiber to NGA.

[1] Alexandre Rosenberg to Mr. and Mrs. Schreiber, letter, 26 April 1973, in NGA curatorial files.

[2] An important collector of Picasso's work, Dr. Reber is listed as owner of the painting in the credit to its reproduction in Documents 2e Année, 3 (1930): repro., and he lent the painting to a Picasso exhibition held in Sao Paulo, Brazil from December 1953 to February 1954. He purchased many of his paintings from Rosenberg & Co.

[3] The Blocks owned the painting by the time it was included in a 1962 exhibition in New York.

[4] According to Schreiber collection records, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Block, Leigh B. and Mary Lasker
Reber, Gottlieb Friedrich, Dr.
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.
Schreiber, Rita Bloch

Exhibition History

1932: Exposition Picasso, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June-July 1932, no. 152.

1932: Picasso, Kunsthaus Zurich, September -October 1932, no. 147.

1953: Exposiçao Picasso (2nd Biennal), Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1953-1954, no. 15, repro.

1962: Picasso, an American Tribute, Paul Rosenberg and Co., New York, 1962, no. 41, repro. (exhibition held simultaneously at 9 New York galleries; "The Twenties" was held at Rosenberg and Co.).

1967: One Hundred European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967, no. 39, repro.

1968: One Hundred European Paintings & Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1968, no. 40, repro.

1996: Picasso, Braque, Léger and the Cubist Spirit 1919-1939, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 1996, no. 57, repro.

1996: Picasso y el teatro: Parade, Pulcinella, Cuadro Flamenco, Mercure, Museu Picasso, Barcelona, 1996-1997, no. 184, repro.

1998: Picasso e il viaggio in Italia 1917-1924, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1998, no. 224, repro.

2000: L'École de Paris 1904-1929, la part de l'Autre, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2000-2001, no. 163, repro.

2003: Picasso, de la caricatura a las metamorfosis de estilo, Museu Picasso, Barcelona, 2003, no. 124, repro.

2006: Picasso and the Circus, Museu Picasso, Barcelona; Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, 2006-2007, no. 189 (Spanish and French cats.), repros.

2008: Picasso Harlequin 1917-1937, Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2008-2009, no. 17, repro.

2010: Picasso. His First Museum Exhibition 1932, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2010-2011, no. 48, repro.

2014: Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

2016: Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, 2016, no. 63, repro.

2017: Picasso: Tra Cubismo e Classicismo 1915-1925 [Picasso: Between Cubism and Classicism 1915-1925], Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2017-2018, no. 189, repro.

2018: Picasso – Donner à voir, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 2018, no. 45, repro.

Bibliography

1932: Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. 33 vols. Paris, 1032-1978: 5(1952): no. 328.