Pablo Picasso

Spanish, 1881 - 1973

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A shiny, fern-green ceramic pitcher holds four cream-white and two ruby-red peonies on a brown tabletop, presumably wood, in this vertical, stylized still life painting. This was created with loose, visible brushstrokes so some details are difficult to make out. The four peonies clustered to our right are painted with textured strokes of cream white and pale butter yellow. The two red flowers to our left are similarly painted with long, parallel strokes. The leaves are painted with moss and sage green, with vivid royal blue for the shadows. The pitcher has a wide mouth over only slightly pinched neck, and a handle is situated to our right. Cobalt-blue, widely spaced, vertical stripes are flanked by fawn-brown zigzagging lines. The tabletop is painted as a field of brown, separated from the background with a line of navy blue. The background is made with long strokes in aqua, light blue, and celery green that curve around the flowers in the upper right corner. The artist signed the painting with dark blue paint in the lower right corner, “Piicasso,” adding an extra I.
Pablo Picasso, Peonies, 1901, oil on hardboard mounted on plywood, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman, 1981.41.1

Peonies

Pablo Picasso · 1901 · oil on hardboard mounted on plywood ·  Accession ID  1981.41.1

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, oil on canvas, Given in loving memory of her husband, Taft Schreiber, by Rita Schreiber, 1989.31.2

Harlequin Musician

Pablo Picasso · 1924 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1989.31.2

Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man stands facing us in front of a harvest-yellow background in this loosely painted vertical portrait. The man’s body faces us, and he looks out with dark, heavy-lidded eyes under low, angular brows. His skin is pink on his full cheeks and streaked with light green on his forehead. A wide brown moustache droops over a prominent, square chin. His short brown is neatly combed over his head. His collared, long-sleeved white shirt is painted with mostly vertical strokes. A short vivid red tie falls about halfway down his chest, and he wears dark pants. His right arm, to our left, is planted on that hip, and his other arm hangs by his side. The man’s features and his clothing are outlined with teal green. The name “PETRVS MANACH” is painted in forest-green letters in the upper left corner of the rich yellow background. The artist also signed the work in the lower right corner, “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Pedro Mañach, 1901, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.53

Pedro Mañach

Pablo Picasso · 1901 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.53

Abstracted objects, including a guitar, vase, papers, and playing cards, are gathered on a tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects are made up of areas of mostly flat color and many are outlined in black, creating the impression that the some shapes are two-dimensional and assembled almost like a collage. The brown table has an oval top and a curving pedestal foot. At the center of the jumble on the tabletop, a guitar lies on its side with the neck facing us and reaching to our right. Beneath the black fretboard and neck, the curving form of the guitar is painted tomato red. The upper half is represented by a squared-off brown form. The guitar seems to rest atop or in front of an array of stacked shapes, like splayed pieces of paper, in white, lavender purple, and pale blue. A curving form painted in turquoise to our left seems to be a vase holding a spray of three flowers. The vase is shown against a white square painted with horizontal black lines, like sheet music. A dark gray form at the middle of the table, beneath the guitar, could be the silhouette of a bird facing our left. Just to the right of the bird, a pair of playing cards lie on a blue area. Painted in turquoise against gray, one card has six dots and the other one club. A chair with a curved, arching top and a gray upholstered seat is pulled up to the table to our right. The front left leg is light gray with turned knobs near the foot and halfway up the leg; the right leg is painted black, as if in shadow. Panels of pale tan suggest wainscotting behind the table beneath a pale gray wall across the background. The overall impression of the painting is fragmented as even single objects seem to be broken up into planes and areas of color. The artist signed and underlined his name with red paint in the lower left corner: “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Still Life, 1918, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.195

Still Life

Pablo Picasso · 1918 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.195

Shown from the hips up, a woman and a man stand side-by-side in front of a window and curtain in this vertical painting. The people and background are painted with mostly flat areas of vivid color, with their bodies and features outlined in black. The man and woman both have paper-white skin, brown hair, straight noses, and small mouths. They stand facing us so the woman’s shoulder slightly overlaps the man’s. The man’s right arm wraps around the woman to rest on the far side of her neck. She holds his left hand with her left hand, both to our right, and her other arm is tucked into her waist. The woman’s head tilts to our right, toward the man, while her shoulders slope slightly away to our left. She looks off to our right with dark eyes under thin brows. Her white shirt is the same color as her skin. A sea green-cloth drapes over her head and one shoulder, and her skirt is buttercup yellow. The man turns his head to look at the woman. His clothing is coral red. The couple stands in front of a mauve-purple curtain on our right and a window with baby-blue panes set within an ash-gray frame on our left. The artist signed the painting in brown in the lower right, “Picasso 23.”
Pablo Picasso, The Lovers, 1923, oil on linen, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.192

The Lovers

Pablo Picasso · 1923 · oil on linen ·  Accession ID  1963.10.192

Overlapping, geometric shapes painted in tones of tan, oatmeal, and coffee brown and outlined in black cluster along the center of this tall, vertical, abstract painting. Except for the outlines, the paint is put on in long, horizontal strokes to create patches of color. The unpainted canvas shows through in some areas, especially in the lower corners and up along the right edge. A few shapes could recall body parts, like curved shapes for breasts near the top and an angled line for an elbow. The artist signed the work with black paint at the lower center: “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Nude Woman, 1910, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.46.1

Nude Woman

Pablo Picasso · 1910 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.46.1

A nude woman shown from the chest up is painted entirely in tones of gray and black in this vertical portrait. Her face is turned slightly to our left, and she looks off in that direction under thin, dark brows. She has large, almond-shaped eyes, a long, straight nose, and her full lips are closed. A cloud of dark hair frames her oval face and brushes her shoulders. Her shoulders, upper arms, breasts, and nipples are simply outlined and lightly shaded, and the background is mottled with gray. The artist signed the top left corner, “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Dora Maar, 1941, oil on linen, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.193

Dora Maar

Pablo Picasso · 1941 · oil on linen ·  Accession ID  1963.10.193

Painted almost entirely in shades of cool blues, a little girl stands at a table holding a bowl and spoon in this vertical painting. The table comes into the scene from our left, and she faces it in profile facing our left. The table is covered with a cloth and comes up to her chest. She looks down into the bowl, which she tips toward her with the hand closer to us, and she holds a spoon inside, as if stirring, with the other. She has a high forehead, a snub nose, and a rounded chin. The vivid pink of her lips and cheeks and the tawny brown of her shoulder-length hair contrast with the icy blues of the rest of the picture. She wears a knee-length dress with a wide cloth wound around her neck with the ends trailing down her chest and back. Marine-blue socks come halfway up her otherwise bare calves, and she wears dark shoes. There are two more objects on the table: a mug, painted with a coral-orange and blue design, and a flax-yellow object that could be a piece of food. The girl's dress, the cloth around her neck, and the tablecloth are painted in shades of turquoise, sky, and cobalt blue. A brown wooden leg emerges from under the tablecloth. The floor around the girl is pale blue with a darker blue area indicating the shadow cast by the table. The shadow is streaked with a few lines of orange and light brown. Blue fields on the back wall behind the girl could be blue curtains next to a patch of brown wall, in the upper left corner. All of the objects and the girl’s features are outlined in royal blue. The artist signed the upper left corner, “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Le gourmet, 1901, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.52

Le gourmet

Pablo Picasso · 1901 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.52

Shown from the chest up, a young woman with peach-colored skin standing angled to our left takes up right two-thirds of this vertical portrait painting. Her blond hair is accentuated with strokes of tawny brown and gathered at the back of her head. A long tendril cascades down her back. She is lit from the upper left, which casts the back of her head in shadow. Her eyes are downcast, and her long nose and small mouth are set in a round face. She wears an almost sheer white, sleeveless dress with a low scooped neckline. A background painted with long streaks of fawn brown and tan fills the space behind her. The artist signed and dated in the upper right, “Picasso 22.”
Pablo Picasso, Classical Head, 1922, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.189

Classical Head

Pablo Picasso · 1922 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.189

A group of three men, two children, and one woman gather in an empty, dusky rose-pink landscape under a blue, cloudy sky in this nearly square painting. Most of the people have muted, peachy skin, and the woman and the youngest boy have cream-white skin. The woman sits on the ground to our right, apart from the rest of the men and children. She wears a coral-red skirt, a beige shawl, and straw hat, and she looks into the distance to our right. The others stand in a loose semi-circle on the left half of the composition. A man wearing a multicolored, diamond-patterned costume stands with his back to us to the left. He looks to our right in profile and holds the hand of a little girl who also stands with her back to us. She wears a pink dress and white stockings, and her right hand rests on the tall handle of a white basket. A portly man wearing a scarlet-red jester’s costume and pointed hat stands opposite this pair, facing us to our right. Next to him to our right a young man wears a tan-colored leotard with a black bottom. He holds a barrel over his right shoulder and looks over to our right. The sixth person is the youngest boy, who wears a baggy blue and red outfit, and he looks toward the woman. The eyes of all the figures are deeply shadowed.
Pablo Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.190

Family of Saltimbanques

Pablo Picasso · 1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.190