Autoportrait

Details

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Autoportrait
signed 'Picasso' (upper right)
pen and ink on a buff envelope
5 7/8 x 4 3/8 in. (15 x 11 cm.)
Executed in 1915

Provenance

Gaby Depeyre, Paris, a gift from the artist.
Galerie Heinz Berggruen, Paris.
Dunkelman Gallery, Toronto (no. 155002).
Galerie Beyeler, Basel (no. 5501).
Sala Gaspar, Barcelona.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso per Picasso, Barcelona, 1970, p. 153.
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Supplément aux années 1914-1919, vol. 29, Paris, 1975, no. 163 (illustrated p. 72).
J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso, vol. II, 1907-1917, The Painter of Modern Life, London, 1996, p. 367 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein Steinernes Haus, Picasso, 150 Handzeichnungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten, May - July 1965, no. 54.
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Ausstellung Picasso - 90 Zeichnungen, November 1971 - January 1972, no. 13 (illustrated).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

The present work was a gift from Picasso to Gaby Depeyre, a woman with whom he had begun an affair in 1915. John Richardson (loc. cit.) takes up the story: 'Picasso depicts himself mockingly as a conventional, if covert suitor, cap in one hand, box of chocolates in the other. He is glancing up at the studio window, where his beloved is on the lookout, waiting for Diego Rivera (in the background) to disappear so that she can signal to Picasso that the coast is clear'.

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