Hertha Koenig

German, 1884 - 1976

Explore Selected Works

Pablo Picasso, Woman Sitting in a Garden [verso], 1901, oil on cardboard, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1996.129.1.b

Woman Sitting in a Garden [verso]

Pablo Picasso · 1901 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1996.129.1.b

A young man and boy look at a man laid out on a bed in this horizontal composition. All three people have white-colored skin and are loosely painted, as is the incomplete setting. The man lies with his eyes closed on the bed with his head to our left and feet to our right. He is on a baby-blue field, perhaps a blanket, and his head is propped up on a thick white pillow. He has black hair and delicate features, and his hands are together in prayer over his belly. The white ruffled collar and a diamond made up of smaller red, blue, yellow, and black diamonds are painted on his shoulder. The rest of his body is blocked in loosely with lapis blue except the cuff we can see, which is bright white. The young man and boy look on from near the man’s shins on the far side of the bed. Both have close-cropped hair. The young man cranes his neck forward, and his head and shoulders are surrounded by a white field against the brown cardboard on which this is painted. His garment is white over the shoulders and red on the torso. Only the head and neck of the boy are visible beyond the prone man. The artist signed the work in black in the lower right corner, “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, The Death of Harlequin [recto], 1905, gouache over charcoal on cardboard, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1996.129.1.a

The Death of Harlequin [recto]

Pablo Picasso · 1905 · gouache over charcoal on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1996.129.1.a

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