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Lot Essay
In the summer of 1901 the nineteen year old Picasso left Barcelona on his second visit to Paris to pursue his artistic future in the French capital. He arrived in Paris full of confidence and eager to set to work in preparation for his first one-man exhibition which, through the help of his friend and dealer Pere Mañach, was to take place in Ambroise Vollard's prestigious gallery on the rue Lafitte.
During the weeks leading up to this important event, Picasso threw himself into a frenzy of activity painting pictures on a wide range of subjects that he hoped would establish his credentials as both an important painter of modern life and a rising young star. Among the subjects that Picasso painted were a number of racing scenes. On the back of one of these - a painting of coquettish ladies parading the latest fashions (Fig. ) - Picasso laid down his first ideas for what would be the most important and personal work in the exhibition: the self-portrait, which he would later proudly inscribe, Yo Picasso. ("I Picasso")
This outstanding preparatory work which, because of its importance and with the full consent of Maya-Widmaier Picasso, has been carefully separated from the society painting, marks the beginning of the emergence of Picasso's own powerful and innovatory personality within his work. Within six months of painting this self-portrait, the joy and confidence of his earlier virtuoso style of painting would be reduced to the stark monochrome hues and flat texture of his blue period paintings. This preparatory work Yo Picasso therefore marks the genesis of the dramatic journey of self-discovery that descended into these psychologically intense and emotively powerful paintings.
From the start, Yo Picasso was more serious in its intention and more inventive than any other work to be shown at this historic exhibition. It was clearly conceived as a presentation piece to announce Picasso's arrival on the world stage and the oil was the first work listed in the exhibition catalogue. Executed in June 1901, Yo Picasso is the first of three self-portraits that Picasso would paint in the year and shows Picasso viewing himself with pride and confidence. Headlining the exhibition it asserts the name Picasso had chosen to adopt and not the paternal name of Ruiz that he had finally abandoned the year before. "Have you ever noticed that there is a double 's' in Matisse, in Poussin, in Rousseau?" the young "Picasso" had once remarked to the dismay of his Uncle Salvador Ruiz.
The second oil self-portrait he executed in 1901 presents an altogether different image - a hallucinatory Munch-like Picasso illuminated from below, and the third, the first Blue period self-portrait, clearly illustrates the decline in Picasso's mental state during the latter half of 1901 by presenting an alienated and bearded refugee lost in an infinite sea of blue.
Prophetically, Yo Picasso is the first of Picasso's self-portraits to make dramatic use of the artist's powerful eyes. It is perhaps this that leads to the psychological depth explored in his two other self-portraits of 1901. For, whilst Picasso's original aim in Yo Picasso was to assert his mastery of paint and display his ability to absorb even the most avant-garde styles of painting, with hindsight it is easy to see how it was the innovation and invention employed in this important and highly personal painting that set him on his path towards the blue period paintings.
Following a compositional tradition established by the greatest artists from Titian, to Rubens or Poussin, Yo Picasso shows the artist seated before his easel. Dressed in the garish and slightly eccentric orange scarf he favoured at the time and a brilliant white shirt -both of which clash magnificently with the vibrant blue background
- Picasso glances out of the painting with a look of confident mastery. In this rare, full-length pastel preparatory work for the painting, the strong modelling of the head and its self-assured look are almost identical to the finished work. Picasso wears the same garish clothes and his first intimations for the colour of the background are suggested by a broad use of brilliant yellow pastel. There are hints of the blue Picasso would ultimately use in the outlining of his shirt and along the waistline near the lower edge of the painting. Indeed, in the loose working of the artist's leg and in the blurring of dark pastel in the lower half of this pastel drawing it is tempting to see Picasso already considering the half-length format he would later employ in the final oil version.
The tremendous immediacy of this work and the fact that it was originally executed on the back of a completely unrelated painting suggest that it was produced suddenly in a moment of profound inspiration. Reaching for the nearest available surface, Picasso attempted to capture the essence of the portrait with which he would announce himself at the Vollard exhibition. What is perhaps most striking about this work however, is the artist's extraordinary ability to capture, in the more immediate medium of pastels, the very same intensity of the stare and look of determined self-confidence that so distinguishes the final painting. Anticipating the aura of self-confidence that emanates from the oil, the assured execution of this work displays a bravura that rivals the arrogance of his later brushwork and establishes this exquisite sketch as one of the most important documents from the early career of the young Spanish artist who wished the world to know him by the single name: "Picasso".
During the weeks leading up to this important event, Picasso threw himself into a frenzy of activity painting pictures on a wide range of subjects that he hoped would establish his credentials as both an important painter of modern life and a rising young star. Among the subjects that Picasso painted were a number of racing scenes. On the back of one of these - a painting of coquettish ladies parading the latest fashions (Fig. ) - Picasso laid down his first ideas for what would be the most important and personal work in the exhibition: the self-portrait, which he would later proudly inscribe, Yo Picasso. ("I Picasso")
This outstanding preparatory work which, because of its importance and with the full consent of Maya-Widmaier Picasso, has been carefully separated from the society painting, marks the beginning of the emergence of Picasso's own powerful and innovatory personality within his work. Within six months of painting this self-portrait, the joy and confidence of his earlier virtuoso style of painting would be reduced to the stark monochrome hues and flat texture of his blue period paintings. This preparatory work Yo Picasso therefore marks the genesis of the dramatic journey of self-discovery that descended into these psychologically intense and emotively powerful paintings.
From the start, Yo Picasso was more serious in its intention and more inventive than any other work to be shown at this historic exhibition. It was clearly conceived as a presentation piece to announce Picasso's arrival on the world stage and the oil was the first work listed in the exhibition catalogue. Executed in June 1901, Yo Picasso is the first of three self-portraits that Picasso would paint in the year and shows Picasso viewing himself with pride and confidence. Headlining the exhibition it asserts the name Picasso had chosen to adopt and not the paternal name of Ruiz that he had finally abandoned the year before. "Have you ever noticed that there is a double 's' in Matisse, in Poussin, in Rousseau?" the young "Picasso" had once remarked to the dismay of his Uncle Salvador Ruiz.
The second oil self-portrait he executed in 1901 presents an altogether different image - a hallucinatory Munch-like Picasso illuminated from below, and the third, the first Blue period self-portrait, clearly illustrates the decline in Picasso's mental state during the latter half of 1901 by presenting an alienated and bearded refugee lost in an infinite sea of blue.
Prophetically, Yo Picasso is the first of Picasso's self-portraits to make dramatic use of the artist's powerful eyes. It is perhaps this that leads to the psychological depth explored in his two other self-portraits of 1901. For, whilst Picasso's original aim in Yo Picasso was to assert his mastery of paint and display his ability to absorb even the most avant-garde styles of painting, with hindsight it is easy to see how it was the innovation and invention employed in this important and highly personal painting that set him on his path towards the blue period paintings.
Following a compositional tradition established by the greatest artists from Titian, to Rubens or Poussin, Yo Picasso shows the artist seated before his easel. Dressed in the garish and slightly eccentric orange scarf he favoured at the time and a brilliant white shirt -both of which clash magnificently with the vibrant blue background
- Picasso glances out of the painting with a look of confident mastery. In this rare, full-length pastel preparatory work for the painting, the strong modelling of the head and its self-assured look are almost identical to the finished work. Picasso wears the same garish clothes and his first intimations for the colour of the background are suggested by a broad use of brilliant yellow pastel. There are hints of the blue Picasso would ultimately use in the outlining of his shirt and along the waistline near the lower edge of the painting. Indeed, in the loose working of the artist's leg and in the blurring of dark pastel in the lower half of this pastel drawing it is tempting to see Picasso already considering the half-length format he would later employ in the final oil version.
The tremendous immediacy of this work and the fact that it was originally executed on the back of a completely unrelated painting suggest that it was produced suddenly in a moment of profound inspiration. Reaching for the nearest available surface, Picasso attempted to capture the essence of the portrait with which he would announce himself at the Vollard exhibition. What is perhaps most striking about this work however, is the artist's extraordinary ability to capture, in the more immediate medium of pastels, the very same intensity of the stare and look of determined self-confidence that so distinguishes the final painting. Anticipating the aura of self-confidence that emanates from the oil, the assured execution of this work displays a bravura that rivals the arrogance of his later brushwork and establishes this exquisite sketch as one of the most important documents from the early career of the young Spanish artist who wished the world to know him by the single name: "Picasso".