Picasso and Paper

CONTENTS

First published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Picasso and Paper’ Royal Academy of Arts, London 25 January – 13 April 2020 Cleveland Museum of Art 24 May – 23 August 2020 Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris

Foreword Acknowledgements ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS

Tim Marlow

CHIEF CURATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Heather Lemonedes Brown

PRÉSIDENT, MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO-PARIS

Laurent Le Bon

EXHIBITION CURATORS

Emilia Philippot, Musée national Picasso-Paris William H. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art Ann Dumas, Royal Academy of Arts assisted by Rhiannon Hope, Royal Academy of Arts

Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts Lead Supporter

Supported by

EXHIBITION ORGANISATION

Royal Academy of Arts Idoya Beitia Stephanie Bush assisted by Rebecca Bailey Belén Lasheras-Díaz

Cleveland Museum of Art Heidi Strean Mary Suzor assisted by Emily Mears Laura Ziewitz Musée national Picasso-Paris Claire Garnier Sophie Daynes-Diallo Sarah Lagrevol PHOTOGRAPHIC AND COPYRIGHT CO-ORDINATION

Giulia Ariete, Royal Academy of Arts EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

Royal Academy Publications Florence Dassonville, Production Co-ordinator Alison Hissey, Project Editor Carola Krueger, Production Manager Peter Sawbridge, Editorial Director Nick Tite, Publisher DESIGN Kathrin Jacobsen COLOUR ORIGINATION DawkinsColour Ltd

Printed in Italy by Graphicom

Supported by Jake and Hélène Marie Shafran

The exhibition at the RA has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Royal Academy of Arts would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.

7 8

Copyright © 2020 Royal Academy of Arts, London Texts by Emilia Philippot, Johan Popelard and Violette Andres copyright © 2020 Musée national Picasso-Paris

PIC A S SO A N D PA PER: A N IN TRODUCTION

10

All works illustrated are by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) unless otherwise stated.

PIC A S SO: A DICTIONA RY OF PA PER

22

PIC A S SO A N D DR AW ING

36

PA PER , PIC A S SO’ S V ERY ACTI V E M ATERI A L

42

CH A NGE A N D TR A NSFOR M ATION: PIC A S SO THE PRIN T M A K ER

50

PIC A S SO’ S E X PERI MEN T S W ITH PHOTOGR A PH Y: SOME U N USUA L COLL A BOR ATIONS

56

1

E A RLY WORK S A N D THE BLU E PERIOD

62

2

THE ROSE PERIOD

80

3

LE S DEMOISELLE S D’AV IGNON

102

4

CU BISM

118

5

N EOCL A S SICISM , NAT U R A LISM A N D PA R A DE

146

6

SU RR E A LISM A N D M A R IE -T HÉR È SE WA LT ER

172

Dimensions of all works of art are stated in centimetres, height before width (before depth).

7

GU ER N IC A A N D T HE WA R Y E A RS

202

ILLUSTRATIONS

8

ENCOU N TERS W ITH DEL ACROI X A N D M A N ET

242

9

THE L A ST ST U DIO

268

M ATERI A LS A N D TECH N IQU E S

292

Endnotes Bibliography Photographic Acknowledgements Lenders to the Exhibition Index

314 318 321 322 323

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

The layout of the catalogue has been submitted to the Estate of Pablo Picasso’s approval and approved.

Nothing in this authorisation could be interpreted as a valuable authentication of the works reproduced.

C H R I S TO P H E R L LOY D

Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-912520-18-3 (RA paperback) ISBN 978-1-912520-17-6 (RA hardback) ISBN 978-1-912520-57-2 (Cleveland paperback) ISBN 978-1-912520-56-5 (Cleveland hardback) Distributed outside the United States and Canada

by ACC Art Books Ltd, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD Distributed in the United States and Canada

by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004 EDITORIAL NOTE

Front cover: Head of a Woman, Mougins, 4 December 1962 (cat. 279) Back cover: Violin, Paris, autumn 1912 (cat. 106) Pages 2–3: Brassaï (1899–1984), Picasso in front of ‘Femmes à leur toilette’, Paris, 1939. Gelatin silver print, 39.5 x 49.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Acquisition, 1986. MP1986-25 Page 6: Anonymous, Portrait of Pablo Picasso in front of ‘Construction of a Guitar Player’ in the studio at Boulevard Raspail, 1913. Photograph, 16.6 x 10 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of Picasso Estate, 1992. APPH2857 Page 9: Dora Maar (1907–1997), Picasso on a Stool in front of ‘Guernica’, Studio on Rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, May–June 1937. Photograph. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Acquisition, 1998. Previously Dora Maar Collection. MP1998-222

EMMANUELLE HINCELIN

STEPHEN COPPEL

VIOLETTE ANDRES

10

C L A U S T R E R A FA R T P L A N A S

ANN DUMAS

JOHAN POPEL ARD

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

ANN DUMAS

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

C L A U S T R E R A FA R T P L A N A S

CONTENTS

First published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Picasso and Paper’ Royal Academy of Arts, London 25 January – 13 April 2020 Cleveland Museum of Art 24 May – 23 August 2020 Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris

Foreword Acknowledgements ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS

Tim Marlow

CHIEF CURATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Heather Lemonedes Brown

PRÉSIDENT, MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO-PARIS

Laurent Le Bon

EXHIBITION CURATORS

Emilia Philippot, Musée national Picasso-Paris William H. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art Ann Dumas, Royal Academy of Arts assisted by Rhiannon Hope, Royal Academy of Arts

Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts Lead Supporter

Supported by

EXHIBITION ORGANISATION

Royal Academy of Arts Idoya Beitia Stephanie Bush assisted by Rebecca Bailey Belén Lasheras-Díaz

Cleveland Museum of Art Heidi Strean Mary Suzor assisted by Emily Mears Laura Ziewitz Musée national Picasso-Paris Claire Garnier Sophie Daynes-Diallo Sarah Lagrevol PHOTOGRAPHIC AND COPYRIGHT CO-ORDINATION

Giulia Ariete, Royal Academy of Arts EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

Royal Academy Publications Florence Dassonville, Production Co-ordinator Alison Hissey, Project Editor Carola Krueger, Production Manager Peter Sawbridge, Editorial Director Nick Tite, Publisher DESIGN Kathrin Jacobsen COLOUR ORIGINATION DawkinsColour Ltd

Printed in Italy by Graphicom

Supported by Jake and Hélène Marie Shafran

The exhibition at the RA has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Royal Academy of Arts would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.

7 8

Copyright © 2020 Royal Academy of Arts, London Texts by Emilia Philippot, Johan Popelard and Violette Andres copyright © 2020 Musée national Picasso-Paris

PIC A S SO A N D PA PER: A N IN TRODUCTION

10

All works illustrated are by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) unless otherwise stated.

PIC A S SO: A DICTIONA RY OF PA PER

22

PIC A S SO A N D DR AW ING

36

PA PER , PIC A S SO’ S V ERY ACTI V E M ATERI A L

42

CH A NGE A N D TR A NSFOR M ATION: PIC A S SO THE PRIN T M A K ER

50

PIC A S SO’ S E X PERI MEN T S W ITH PHOTOGR A PH Y: SOME U N USUA L COLL A BOR ATIONS

56

1

E A RLY WORK S A N D THE BLU E PERIOD

62

2

THE ROSE PERIOD

80

3

LE S DEMOISELLE S D’AV IGNON

102

4

CU BISM

118

5

N EOCL A S SICISM , NAT U R A LISM A N D PA R A DE

146

6

SU RR E A LISM A N D M A R IE -T HÉR È SE WA LT ER

172

Dimensions of all works of art are stated in centimetres, height before width (before depth).

7

GU ER N IC A A N D T HE WA R Y E A RS

202

ILLUSTRATIONS

8

ENCOU N TERS W ITH DEL ACROI X A N D M A N ET

242

9

THE L A ST ST U DIO

268

M ATERI A LS A N D TECH N IQU E S

292

Endnotes Bibliography Photographic Acknowledgements Lenders to the Exhibition Index

314 318 321 322 323

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

The layout of the catalogue has been submitted to the Estate of Pablo Picasso’s approval and approved.

Nothing in this authorisation could be interpreted as a valuable authentication of the works reproduced.

C H R I S TO P H E R L LOY D

Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-912520-18-3 (RA paperback) ISBN 978-1-912520-17-6 (RA hardback) ISBN 978-1-912520-57-2 (Cleveland paperback) ISBN 978-1-912520-56-5 (Cleveland hardback) Distributed outside the United States and Canada

by ACC Art Books Ltd, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD Distributed in the United States and Canada

by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004 EDITORIAL NOTE

Front cover: Head of a Woman, Mougins, 4 December 1962 (cat. 279) Back cover: Violin, Paris, autumn 1912 (cat. 106) Pages 2–3: Brassaï (1899–1984), Picasso in front of ‘Femmes à leur toilette’, Paris, 1939. Gelatin silver print, 39.5 x 49.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Acquisition, 1986. MP1986-25 Page 6: Anonymous, Portrait of Pablo Picasso in front of ‘Construction of a Guitar Player’ in the studio at Boulevard Raspail, 1913. Photograph, 16.6 x 10 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of Picasso Estate, 1992. APPH2857 Page 9: Dora Maar (1907–1997), Picasso on a Stool in front of ‘Guernica’, Studio on Rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, May–June 1937. Photograph. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Acquisition, 1998. Previously Dora Maar Collection. MP1998-222

EMMANUELLE HINCELIN

STEPHEN COPPEL

VIOLETTE ANDRES

10

C L A U S T R E R A FA R T P L A N A S

ANN DUMAS

JOHAN POPEL ARD

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

ANN DUMAS

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

E M I L I A P H I L I P P OT

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON

C L A U S T R E R A FA R T P L A N A S

6

FOREWORD

‘By chance, I managed to get hold of a stock of Japanese paper. It cost me an arm and a leg! But without it, I’d never have done these drawings. The paper seduced me.’ Picasso’s comments to Brassaï in 1943 reveal how a specific paper inspired a series of drawings. This was not an isolated incident. Incredibly responsive to the physical properties of different materials, Picasso continued to draw inspiration from paper into his nineties, producing an astonishing and vast body of work.

The Royal Academy of Arts and the Cleveland Museum of Art are proud to partner with the Musée national Picasso-Paris in presenting ‘Picasso and Paper’, the first exhibition to explore Picasso’s enduring fascination with paper throughout his entire career. The exhibition started as a conversation between Laurent Le Bon and Ann Dumas, Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, which was warmly embraced at the Academy by Tim Marlow, its Artistic Director, and in Cleveland by William Griswold. It has been made possible thanks to the exceptional loan of major works from remarkable collection of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and to the collaboration between the teams across our three institutions throughout the organisation of this ambitious project. Emilia Philippot, Chief Curator and Head of Collections at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Ann Dumas, at the Royal Academy; and William H. Robinson, Senior Curator of Modern Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art; have together selected and curated the exhibition.

Rhiannon Hope of the Royal Academy provided outstanding assistance to the curators. The curators also benefited from the expert knowledge and advice of curators at the Musée national Picasso-Paris: Violette Andres, Isabelle Rouge-Ducos, Johan Popelard, JeanneYvette Sudour and Colline Zellal; as well as of Malén Gual Pascual and Claustre Rafart Planas of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona. The exhibition’s beautiful design is the work of Cécile Degos in London and of Jeffrey Strean and Andrew Gutierrez together with the design team at the Cleveland Museum of Art. All organisational matters have been expertly handled by Sophie Daynes-Diallo, Claire Garnier and Sarah Lagrevol at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Andrea Tarsia, Idoya Beitia and Stephanie Bush in London with the assistance of Rebecca Bailey and Bélen Lasheras-Díaz; and by Heidi Strean and Mary Suzor, in Cleveland with the assistance of Emily Mears, Rachel

Beamer and Laura Ziewitz. All of them have been working in constant dialogue with Sarah Lagrevol in Paris. This handsome catalogue has been produced by RA Publications, and we are grateful to our authors Violette Andres, Stephen Coppel, Ann Dumas, Emmanuelle Hincelin, Christopher Lloyd, Emilia Philippot, Johan Popelard, Claustre Rafart Planas and William H. Robinson.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all lenders, both public institutions and private collectors, who have so generously agreed to part with their works. We are deeply indebted to the Picasso heirs and their families, and would especially like to thank Claude Ruiz-Picasso, Bernard RuizPicasso and Almine Rech for their most generous support as lenders as well as for providing invaluable assistance in the researching and sourcing of crucial works and images.

We also offer our sincerest thanks to the Picasso Administration, in particular Christine Pinault, for their unwavering efforts and immeasurable support in realising this wonderful collaboration.

We also owe an immense debt of gratitude to the exhibition’s supporters. At the Royal Academy, we are extremely grateful to City of Málaga, our lead supporter.

Thanks are also due to Viking, La Fundación Bancaria Unicaja, Unicaja Banco, the Tavolozza Foundation, Estrella Damm and Jake and Hélène Marie Shafran.

The exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art has been made possible by sponsors Gertrude Kalnow Chisholm and Homer D.W. Chisholm, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Anne H. Weil, Gail and Bill Calfee, Florence Kahane Goodman, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr Conrad and Patricia Simpfendorfer and the Carol Yellig Family Fund.

Our fervent hope is that the exhibition encourages further exploration of a vital aspect of Picasso’s practice – one that constitutes such a significant contribution to the history of modern art.

Christopher Le Brun PRA President, Royal Academy of Arts William Griswold The Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler Director, The Cleveland Museum of Art Laurent Le Bon Président, Musée national Picasso-Paris

6

FOREWORD

‘By chance, I managed to get hold of a stock of Japanese paper. It cost me an arm and a leg! But without it, I’d never have done these drawings. The paper seduced me.’ Picasso’s comments to Brassaï in 1943 reveal how a specific paper inspired a series of drawings. This was not an isolated incident. Incredibly responsive to the physical properties of different materials, Picasso continued to draw inspiration from paper into his nineties, producing an astonishing and vast body of work.

The Royal Academy of Arts and the Cleveland Museum of Art are proud to partner with the Musée national Picasso-Paris in presenting ‘Picasso and Paper’, the first exhibition to explore Picasso’s enduring fascination with paper throughout his entire career. The exhibition started as a conversation between Laurent Le Bon and Ann Dumas, Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, which was warmly embraced at the Academy by Tim Marlow, its Artistic Director, and in Cleveland by William Griswold. It has been made possible thanks to the exceptional loan of major works from remarkable collection of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and to the collaboration between the teams across our three institutions throughout the organisation of this ambitious project. Emilia Philippot, Chief Curator and Head of Collections at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Ann Dumas, at the Royal Academy; and William H. Robinson, Senior Curator of Modern Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art; have together selected and curated the exhibition.

Rhiannon Hope of the Royal Academy provided outstanding assistance to the curators. The curators also benefited from the expert knowledge and advice of curators at the Musée national Picasso-Paris: Violette Andres, Isabelle Rouge-Ducos, Johan Popelard, JeanneYvette Sudour and Colline Zellal; as well as of Malén Gual Pascual and Claustre Rafart Planas of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona. The exhibition’s beautiful design is the work of Cécile Degos in London and of Jeffrey Strean and Andrew Gutierrez together with the design team at the Cleveland Museum of Art. All organisational matters have been expertly handled by Sophie Daynes-Diallo, Claire Garnier and Sarah Lagrevol at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Andrea Tarsia, Idoya Beitia and Stephanie Bush in London with the assistance of Rebecca Bailey and Bélen Lasheras-Díaz; and by Heidi Strean and Mary Suzor, in Cleveland with the assistance of Emily Mears, Rachel

Beamer and Laura Ziewitz. All of them have been working in constant dialogue with Sarah Lagrevol in Paris. This handsome catalogue has been produced by RA Publications, and we are grateful to our authors Violette Andres, Stephen Coppel, Ann Dumas, Emmanuelle Hincelin, Christopher Lloyd, Emilia Philippot, Johan Popelard, Claustre Rafart Planas and William H. Robinson.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all lenders, both public institutions and private collectors, who have so generously agreed to part with their works. We are deeply indebted to the Picasso heirs and their families, and would especially like to thank Claude Ruiz-Picasso, Bernard RuizPicasso and Almine Rech for their most generous support as lenders as well as for providing invaluable assistance in the researching and sourcing of crucial works and images.

We also offer our sincerest thanks to the Picasso Administration, in particular Christine Pinault, for their unwavering efforts and immeasurable support in realising this wonderful collaboration.

We also owe an immense debt of gratitude to the exhibition’s supporters. At the Royal Academy, we are extremely grateful to City of Málaga, our lead supporter.

Thanks are also due to Viking, La Fundación Bancaria Unicaja, Unicaja Banco, the Tavolozza Foundation, Estrella Damm and Jake and Hélène Marie Shafran.

The exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art has been made possible by sponsors Gertrude Kalnow Chisholm and Homer D.W. Chisholm, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Anne H. Weil, Gail and Bill Calfee, Florence Kahane Goodman, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr Conrad and Patricia Simpfendorfer and the Carol Yellig Family Fund.

Our fervent hope is that the exhibition encourages further exploration of a vital aspect of Picasso’s practice – one that constitutes such a significant contribution to the history of modern art.

Christopher Le Brun PRA President, Royal Academy of Arts William Griswold The Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler Director, The Cleveland Museum of Art Laurent Le Bon Président, Musée national Picasso-Paris

11

PICASSO AND PAPER: AN INTRODUCTION

After his family moved to Barcelona in the autumn of 1895, Picasso continued his training in classic academic drawing techniques at the municipal art school where his father had taken a position teaching drawing and painting. By age fourteen Picasso was already showing signs of mastery over basic drawing skills. His devotion to drawing, along with his drawing materials and techniques, are discussed by Christopher Lloyd and Emmanuelle Hincelin elsewhere in this catalogue. Lloyd offers especially revealing insights into the artist’s late works, noting that Picasso’s ‘compulsion to draw was also his answer to declining virility and a way of securing his place in posterity’.

W ILLI A M H. ROBINSON

‘To this day, I remember him lost in a mountain of papers.’

Jaume Sabartés 1

T

he Catalan poet, artist and writer Jaume Sabartés wrote this memorable comment when describing his early encounters with Picasso in Barcelona in 1899.

Sabartés was recalling how the eighteen-year-old artist, already an ‘indefatigable’ draughtsman, would amuse himself by watching corset-makers sewing eyelets, then return to his room for long periods of drawing and painting, an activity that foreshadowed a lifelong engagement with paper.

For Picasso, paper was an inexpensive, readily available material that could be used in a variety of forms and for a broad array of purposes. The paper cut-outs he made of a dove and a dog (cat. 29, fig. 1) in Málaga at about age nine offer early evidence of his willingness to think about paper as more than just a surface to draw on.

His lifelong engagement with paper grew from a deep appreciation of the physical world and a desire to manipulate diverse materials. Nowhere is Picasso’s protean spirit more evident than in his relentless exploration of working on and with paper. He drew incessantly, using many different media – including

Fig. 1 Dog, Málaga, c. 1890. Cut-out paper, 6 x 9.2 cm. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970.

MPB 110.239R. London only (cat. 1)

watercolour, pastel and gouache – on a broad range of papers. He assembled collages of cut-and-pasted papers, created sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper, explored a broad array of printmaking techniques using paper supports, and produced both documentary and experimental photographs that exploited the special properties of light-sensitive paper.

DR AUGHT SM A N Picasso’s most sustained interaction with paper came through his lifelong passion for drawing. He told his friend and biographer Roland Penrose that he ‘could draw before he could speak’, and his first words were to demand a ‘piz’ or ‘lapiz’ (pencil) so he could draw. 2 Although the story seems fanciful, it does reflect Picasso’s profound attachment to drawing and the early encouragement he received from assisting his father in the studio. Among Picasso’s earliest surviving works are pencil drawings of the classical god Hercules, pigeons and architectural elements produced at La Coruña when he was nine. He also made drawings of bullfights, plaster casts, family members and mundane genre subjects during his early years. The sensitively rendered contours and volumetric modelling of form evident in his blackpencil and charcoal drawing of a plaster cast made when he was about twelve or thirteen at La Coruña (fig. 2) attest to his rapidly advancing skills.

Fig. 2 Academic Study of a Plaster Cast after the Antique, La Coruña, 1893–94. Charcoal and chalk on Canson wove paper, 49 x 31.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP405 (cat. 2)

SK ETCHBOOK S Picasso’s sketchbooks are among his most important works on paper and span nearly every period of his life.

Collectively, they form a remarkable record of evolving ideas and formal experimentation. Because some sketchbooks were disbound and the sheets sold separately, the precise number of albums may never be known, but at least 175 surviving examples dating from 1894 to 1967 have been identified. 3 Featuring a vast range of subjects, from studies for his paintings to intimate scenes of his personal life, Picasso’s sketchbooks offer invaluable insights into one of the most fertile minds in the history of art. Claude Picasso described his father’s sketchbooks as ‘stepping stones to trampolines for somersaults’, and Françoise Gilot observed that ‘[a] sketchbook is a companion, a mirror of dreams, utterly sincere since it is utterly private and personal’.4 Curator Brigitte Léal referred to Picasso’s sketchbooks as ‘laboratories of art’, noting that unlike independent drawings, the images in a sketchbook unfold in a sequence like the pages of a flipbook.5 The sixteen sketchbooks (fig. 3) containing preparatory studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (autumn 1906–summer 1907) are especially valuable for understanding the genesis and development of one of the most revolutionary paintings in the history of art.6

The first sketchbook for Les Demoiselles (autumn 1906) opens with a series of drawings of a standing nude woman, her face defined by radical distortions and simplifications of form evidently influenced by ancient Iberian sculpture. The first drawing in which multiple figures are combined and set in a brothel appears in the second sketchbook (winter 1906–07; MP1850 32r). This drawing features a medical student holding a book on the left and facing five prostitutes positioned around a seated sailor in the centre. The sailor is more defined in the third sketchbook (March–July 1907)7, and several sketches portray the medical student holding a human skull. Other important developments occur in this album: (1) Picasso began organising the composition into a series of intersecting wedge shapes squeezed into tightly compressed, flattened space; (2) a threatening triangular form emerges in the lower centre; (3) various ideas are explored for placing a still-life in the foreground, including a vase or a pitcher with flowers, a bowl of fruit, a porrón for drinking wine straight from the spout, and three melon slices on a plate, their upwardpointing tips implying phallic connotations. The influence of African sculpture emerges in the fifth sketchbook (May–June 1907) 8 and becomes increasingly evident in the rendering of bodies as abstract, geometric shapes and masklike faces with scarification patterns in the ninth sketchbook (May–July 1907).9

Fig. 3 Sketchbook study for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, Paris, March– July 1907. Pencil on Ingres paper, 19.5 x 24.3 x 1.4 cm (closed). Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1861 (6r) (cat. 3). London only

11

PICASSO AND PAPER: AN INTRODUCTION

After his family moved to Barcelona in the autumn of 1895, Picasso continued his training in classic academic drawing techniques at the municipal art school where his father had taken a position teaching drawing and painting. By age fourteen Picasso was already showing signs of mastery over basic drawing skills. His devotion to drawing, along with his drawing materials and techniques, are discussed by Christopher Lloyd and Emmanuelle Hincelin elsewhere in this catalogue. Lloyd offers especially revealing insights into the artist’s late works, noting that Picasso’s ‘compulsion to draw was also his answer to declining virility and a way of securing his place in posterity’.

W ILLI A M H. ROBINSON

‘To this day, I remember him lost in a mountain of papers.’

Jaume Sabartés 1

T

he Catalan poet, artist and writer Jaume Sabartés wrote this memorable comment when describing his early encounters with Picasso in Barcelona in 1899.

Sabartés was recalling how the eighteen-year-old artist, already an ‘indefatigable’ draughtsman, would amuse himself by watching corset-makers sewing eyelets, then return to his room for long periods of drawing and painting, an activity that foreshadowed a lifelong engagement with paper.

For Picasso, paper was an inexpensive, readily available material that could be used in a variety of forms and for a broad array of purposes. The paper cut-outs he made of a dove and a dog (cat. 29, fig. 1) in Málaga at about age nine offer early evidence of his willingness to think about paper as more than just a surface to draw on.

His lifelong engagement with paper grew from a deep appreciation of the physical world and a desire to manipulate diverse materials. Nowhere is Picasso’s protean spirit more evident than in his relentless exploration of working on and with paper. He drew incessantly, using many different media – including

Fig. 1 Dog, Málaga, c. 1890. Cut-out paper, 6 x 9.2 cm. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970.

MPB 110.239R. London only (cat. 1)

watercolour, pastel and gouache – on a broad range of papers. He assembled collages of cut-and-pasted papers, created sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper, explored a broad array of printmaking techniques using paper supports, and produced both documentary and experimental photographs that exploited the special properties of light-sensitive paper.

DR AUGHT SM A N Picasso’s most sustained interaction with paper came through his lifelong passion for drawing. He told his friend and biographer Roland Penrose that he ‘could draw before he could speak’, and his first words were to demand a ‘piz’ or ‘lapiz’ (pencil) so he could draw. 2 Although the story seems fanciful, it does reflect Picasso’s profound attachment to drawing and the early encouragement he received from assisting his father in the studio. Among Picasso’s earliest surviving works are pencil drawings of the classical god Hercules, pigeons and architectural elements produced at La Coruña when he was nine. He also made drawings of bullfights, plaster casts, family members and mundane genre subjects during his early years. The sensitively rendered contours and volumetric modelling of form evident in his blackpencil and charcoal drawing of a plaster cast made when he was about twelve or thirteen at La Coruña (fig. 2) attest to his rapidly advancing skills.

Fig. 2 Academic Study of a Plaster Cast after the Antique, La Coruña, 1893–94. Charcoal and chalk on Canson wove paper, 49 x 31.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP405 (cat. 2)

SK ETCHBOOK S Picasso’s sketchbooks are among his most important works on paper and span nearly every period of his life.

Collectively, they form a remarkable record of evolving ideas and formal experimentation. Because some sketchbooks were disbound and the sheets sold separately, the precise number of albums may never be known, but at least 175 surviving examples dating from 1894 to 1967 have been identified. 3 Featuring a vast range of subjects, from studies for his paintings to intimate scenes of his personal life, Picasso’s sketchbooks offer invaluable insights into one of the most fertile minds in the history of art. Claude Picasso described his father’s sketchbooks as ‘stepping stones to trampolines for somersaults’, and Françoise Gilot observed that ‘[a] sketchbook is a companion, a mirror of dreams, utterly sincere since it is utterly private and personal’.4 Curator Brigitte Léal referred to Picasso’s sketchbooks as ‘laboratories of art’, noting that unlike independent drawings, the images in a sketchbook unfold in a sequence like the pages of a flipbook.5 The sixteen sketchbooks (fig. 3) containing preparatory studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (autumn 1906–summer 1907) are especially valuable for understanding the genesis and development of one of the most revolutionary paintings in the history of art.6

The first sketchbook for Les Demoiselles (autumn 1906) opens with a series of drawings of a standing nude woman, her face defined by radical distortions and simplifications of form evidently influenced by ancient Iberian sculpture. The first drawing in which multiple figures are combined and set in a brothel appears in the second sketchbook (winter 1906–07; MP1850 32r). This drawing features a medical student holding a book on the left and facing five prostitutes positioned around a seated sailor in the centre. The sailor is more defined in the third sketchbook (March–July 1907)7, and several sketches portray the medical student holding a human skull. Other important developments occur in this album: (1) Picasso began organising the composition into a series of intersecting wedge shapes squeezed into tightly compressed, flattened space; (2) a threatening triangular form emerges in the lower centre; (3) various ideas are explored for placing a still-life in the foreground, including a vase or a pitcher with flowers, a bowl of fruit, a porrón for drinking wine straight from the spout, and three melon slices on a plate, their upwardpointing tips implying phallic connotations. The influence of African sculpture emerges in the fifth sketchbook (May–June 1907) 8 and becomes increasingly evident in the rendering of bodies as abstract, geometric shapes and masklike faces with scarification patterns in the ninth sketchbook (May–July 1907).9

Fig. 3 Sketchbook study for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, Paris, March– July 1907. Pencil on Ingres paper, 19.5 x 24.3 x 1.4 cm (closed). Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1861 (6r) (cat. 3). London only

26

Fig. 22 In the Studio, Nice, summer 1955. Felt-tip inks on blank newsprint, 54.7 x 73.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of the Picasso Heirs, 1983. MP1983-12 (cat. 16) Fig. 23 Reclining Nude Woman, Nice, summer 1955.

Wallpaper, wove paper, pins and thumbtacks on canvas, with oil and charcoal, 80 x 190 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Jacqueline Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1990.

MP1990-27 (cat. 17) Fig. 21 Edward Quinn (1920–1997). Picasso working on ‘Visage: Head of a Faun’ (1955) during the fiming of ‘Le Mystère Picasso’, Nice, Studios de la Victorine, 1955.

Photograph

Fig. 24 Visage: Head of a Faun, Nice, summer 1955. Felttip inks on blank newsprint, 56.3 x 75 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of the Picasso Heirs, 1983. MP1983-42 (cat. 18)

26

Fig. 22 In the Studio, Nice, summer 1955. Felt-tip inks on blank newsprint, 54.7 x 73.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of the Picasso Heirs, 1983. MP1983-12 (cat. 16) Fig. 23 Reclining Nude Woman, Nice, summer 1955.

Wallpaper, wove paper, pins and thumbtacks on canvas, with oil and charcoal, 80 x 190 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Jacqueline Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1990.

MP1990-27 (cat. 17) Fig. 21 Edward Quinn (1920–1997). Picasso working on ‘Visage: Head of a Faun’ (1955) during the fiming of ‘Le Mystère Picasso’, Nice, Studios de la Victorine, 1955.

Photograph

Fig. 24 Visage: Head of a Faun, Nice, summer 1955. Felttip inks on blank newsprint, 56.3 x 75 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Gift of the Picasso Heirs, 1983. MP1983-42 (cat. 18)

93

64

Composition, Peasants, 1906. Gouache on paper, 70 x 50 cm. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume. Cleveland only

65

Landscape, [Gósol], c. 1906. Gouache and pencil on laid paper, 47.5 x 61.5 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP489

93

64

Composition, Peasants, 1906. Gouache on paper, 70 x 50 cm. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume. Cleveland only

65

Landscape, [Gósol], c. 1906. Gouache and pencil on laid paper, 47.5 x 61.5 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP489

112

85

Bust of Woman, Paris, spring 1907.

Gouache, charcoal, chalk and oil on laid paper, 63.5 x 48 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP542 (r)

86

Woman (Study for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’), 1907. Oil on canvas, 119 x 93.5 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/ Basel, Beyeler Collection. Cleveland only

112

85

Bust of Woman, Paris, spring 1907.

Gouache, charcoal, chalk and oil on laid paper, 63.5 x 48 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP542 (r)

86

Woman (Study for ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’), 1907. Oil on canvas, 119 x 93.5 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/ Basel, Beyeler Collection. Cleveland only

130

131

106

Violin, Paris, autumn 1912. Laid paper, wallpaper, newspaper, wove wrapping paper and glazed black wove paper, cut and pasted onto cardboard, with pencil and charcoal, 65 x 50 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP367

107

Guitar, Paris, December 1912. Cut-out cardboard, pasted paper, canvas, string, oil and pencil, 33 x 17 x 7 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP244

108

Violin, Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut paper, pasted inside a folded sheet of antique laid paper with the watermark ‘L’Ecolier C.F’, with pencil, 31.5 x 24 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP370

130

131

106

Violin, Paris, autumn 1912. Laid paper, wallpaper, newspaper, wove wrapping paper and glazed black wove paper, cut and pasted onto cardboard, with pencil and charcoal, 65 x 50 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP367

107

Guitar, Paris, December 1912. Cut-out cardboard, pasted paper, canvas, string, oil and pencil, 33 x 17 x 7 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP244

108

Violin, Paris, autumn–winter 1912. Cut paper, pasted inside a folded sheet of antique laid paper with the watermark ‘L’Ecolier C.F’, with pencil, 31.5 x 24 cm.

Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP370

214

209

Femmes à leur toilette, Paris, winter 1937–38. Collage of cut-out wallpapers with gouache on paper pasted onto canvas, 299 x 448 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP176

215

214

209

Femmes à leur toilette, Paris, winter 1937–38. Collage of cut-out wallpapers with gouache on paper pasted onto canvas, 299 x 448 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP176

215

280

284

Couple and Man with a Pipe, Mougins, 6 July 1966. Leaf from spiral-bound sketchbook: pastel and pencil on wove paper, 50 x 61 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1538

281

280

284

Couple and Man with a Pipe, Mougins, 6 July 1966. Leaf from spiral-bound sketchbook: pastel and pencil on wove paper, 50 x 61 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1538

281

290

297

Head and Musketeer Holding a Guitar, Mougins, 4 November 1972. Pencil on Bristol paper, 32.5 x 50.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1545

298

Self-portrait, 1972. Black and white crayon on paper, 66 x 49.8 cm.

Private collection. London only

291

290

297

Head and Musketeer Holding a Guitar, Mougins, 4 November 1972. Pencil on Bristol paper, 32.5 x 50.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1545

298

Self-portrait, 1972. Black and white crayon on paper, 66 x 49.8 cm.

Private collection. London only

291

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