.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Executed in 1937, Nature morte à la cruche ('Still Life with Jug') does not permit the viewer's eyes to rest easy. The linearity of the objects guides the viewer's attention, never letting it settle. The harsh angularity of the domestic utensils displayed in this still life are expressive of the strange domestic situation surrounding Picasso. The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War were becoming increasingly desperate as their defeat became more inevitable, their forces providing no match for the mechanized might of the combined Spanish and German Fascists. Only a week after Picasso painted this work, Guernica was bombed, a civilian target ravaged senselessly, its destruction the culmination of this deterioration of the Republicans' position. The period was one of extreme tension and of relentless depressing news from his native land. Added to this, the artist had a complex domestic situation, spending most of his time with Marie-Thérèse Walter and their daughter Maya, while also seeing Dora Maar on an increasingly regular basis. As a reflection of this atmosphere of increasing tension, the domestic objects in Picasso's paintings grow ever more sharp and weapon-like during this dramatic and uncertain period.
Picasso often used his still life paintings to translate feelings about life or specific women, in a deeply personal and sometimes encoded manner. At the beginning of his relationship with with Marie-Thérèse he hid her monogram in guitars in paintings, as well as creating voluptuous paintings of fruit referring opaquely to her body. It is clear that the degenerating situation in Spain and probably on his home front imbued Nature morte à la cruche with its jagged air-if one compares this still life to others executed earlier in the year, it is easy to perceive the gradual shift. The earlier works contain more curves, and more distinct objects. The fruit baskets are laden and often there are curtains or paintings in the background, lending the works a more comfortable air. In Nature morte à la cruche, however, there are few curves, and those which remain recall the scimitar's blade rather than the roundness of a homely jug. The colours too have drained-the stark white background pushes the violent reds and yellows in the jug and fruit into the fore, making the result more unsettling and aggressive. The bold lines and striking colours of this carefully constructed still-life transform Nature morte à la cruche into a jagged landscape that is powerfully evocative of this dramatic period in Picasso's life.
Picasso often used his still life paintings to translate feelings about life or specific women, in a deeply personal and sometimes encoded manner. At the beginning of his relationship with with Marie-Thérèse he hid her monogram in guitars in paintings, as well as creating voluptuous paintings of fruit referring opaquely to her body. It is clear that the degenerating situation in Spain and probably on his home front imbued Nature morte à la cruche with its jagged air-if one compares this still life to others executed earlier in the year, it is easy to perceive the gradual shift. The earlier works contain more curves, and more distinct objects. The fruit baskets are laden and often there are curtains or paintings in the background, lending the works a more comfortable air. In Nature morte à la cruche, however, there are few curves, and those which remain recall the scimitar's blade rather than the roundness of a homely jug. The colours too have drained-the stark white background pushes the violent reds and yellows in the jug and fruit into the fore, making the result more unsettling and aggressive. The bold lines and striking colours of this carefully constructed still-life transform Nature morte à la cruche into a jagged landscape that is powerfully evocative of this dramatic period in Picasso's life.