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Lot Essay
L'atelier is one of an important series of eleven paintings on the theme of the artist's studio that Picasso executed during a period of just over a week in October 1955. During the previous summer Picasso had purchased 'La californie,' a large, ornate villa built at the turn of the century that overlooked Cannes and the Mediterranean. It was the first home that he acquired for himself in the south. 'La Galloise,' the house in Vallauris that Picasso bought for Françoise Gilot, and where he had lived since the summer of 1948, was too small to accommodate his burgeoning output and the many works he wanted to move from his Paris studio and storage spaces. Moreover, his relationship with Françoise had ended during the summer of 1953, and legal title to 'La Galloise' remained hers, although he continued to reside there after Françoise returned to Paris. Picasso began living with Jacqueline Roque in September 1954, and finding a new home was an essential step in marking this momentous change in his domestic life. 'La californie' had the advantage being close to Picasso's potters in Vallauris. It was also adequately secluded, now an important concern for Picasso. The artist required an increasing degree of privacy as his fame attracted ever-growing numbers of admirers and favor-seekers who threatened to disrupt his rigorous daily work routine.
Picasso moved into 'La californie' during the early fall of 1955, and quickly set up his studio in the spacious high-ceiling room on the second floor above the entrance. The light-filled interior, with a southern exposure, opened out through a set of Art Nouveau French doors onto a balcony with a wrought-iron railing. There was a garden below, centered around several tall palm trees. These features became the key elements in the composition of the Atelier paintings. After having physically moved his belongings into his new home, which would become the locus of his creative activity for the next three and a half years, Picasso proceeded to claim this space as his own by painting it. Marie-Laure Bernadac has observed that "He quickly responded to the stimulus of the place in a series of what he called Paysages d'intérieur: interior landscapes. For Picasso, his studio is a self-portrait in itself. Sensitive to its ritual, its secret poetry, he marks with his presence the environment and the objects in it, and makes his territory into his own 'second skin'" (in Late Picasso, exh. cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 58).
Picasso commenced the Atelier paintings on 23 October, two days before his 74th birthday. Picasso painted two pictures that day (Zervos, vol. 16, nos. 486 [fig. 1] and 487), and one on the 24th (Z., vol. 16, no. 488). He did not paint on the 25-27 October, days given over to his birthday celebrations, and he then resumed the Atelier series with two paintings done on 28 October (Z., vol. 16, nos. 490 and 489, in order of completion). The present picture was painted on the 29th as the first of two painted that day (Z., vol. 16, nos. 492 and 491, in order of completion). Picasso concluded the series with four paintings that he began on 30 October, three of which he completed that same day (Z., vol., nos. 495. 494, 493, in order of completion). He finished the fourth, the final painting in this Atelier series, on the following day (Z., vol. 16, no. 497; fig. 2). Picasso also made several drawings during this period, the most elaborate of which is Z., vol. 16, no. 475 (fig. 3), which he executed on 29 October, probably prior to undertaking the present painting and its companion later in the day.
The October 1955 L'atelier series is also Picasso's eulogy to his old friend and rival, Henri Matisse, who died in Nice on 3 November 1954. Always afraid of news of death, Picasso refused to answer the phone when Marguerite Duthuit called repeatedly to tell him of her father's passing. Picasso did not attend Matisse's funeral. Nevertheless, Matisse's death greatly affected Picasso, and he struggled to come to terms with it. He paid his respects in the way he knew best, and on 13 December he commenced the series Femmes d'Alger, which came to fifteen canvases in all, the last of which is dated 14 February 1955 (Z., vol. 16, nos. 342-343, 345-349, 352-357, and 359-360). The subject was based on Delacroix's painting in the Louvre, which had also influenced Matisse's odalisques; Picasso's series actually served as an homage to both masters. "When Matisse died," Picasso told Roland Penrose, "he left his odalisques to me as a legacy, and this is my idea of the Orient though I have never been there" (quoted in R. Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work, Berkeley, 1981, p. 396).
The inspiration for Picasso's Atelier paintings came from the Vence interiors that Matisse executed in 1946-1948 (fig. 4), the last group of paintings he made before concentrating on his paper cut-outs. Picasso may have viewed some of these paintings in Matisse's studio while they were still in progress, and he saw thirteen from this series in a preview he was given of the exhibition of Matisse's recent works at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, organized to honor that artist's eightieth birthday, which opened on 9 June 1949. Such was Picasso's admiration and, indeed, envy of these Vence interiors that he hastily arranged an exhibition of his own recent works at the Maison de la Pensée française in Paris, which he fully intended to coincide and compete with Matisse's show. When Matisse learned of these plans he wrote to a friend, "I have been told in several quarters that he [Picasso] is organizing an offensive, and I am waiting to see it. I'll let you know how the prizefight turns out" (quoted in M. Billot, ed., The Vence Chapel: The Archive of a Creation, Milan, 1999, p. 208).
Picasso's Atelier paintings thus recall some of the most intense moments in his rivalry with Matisse, a complex and decades-long history of competition and mutual influence, which Picasso finally resolved in an act of tribute. John Golding has written, "The La californie studio paintings are amongst the most overtly Matissean works that Picasso ever produced and, like the variations on Delacroix's Women of Algiers, can justifiably be regarded as homages to his departed friend. Picasso appears to be attempting to create an environment, a spirit to which Matisse would have responded, and this gives these pictures an elegiac cast that is rare in Picasso's work. The windows, the palm trees and foliage beyond, read like Matissean quotes" (in Matisse Picasso, exh. cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 2002, p. 299).
While some of the objects that Picasso depicts in these paysages d'intérieur vary from canvas to canvas, there are several that he included in all of them--the painter's palette and brushes placed on a chair, and the plaster bust set atop a tall stool. As in Van Gogh's famous 1888 painting of his chair in Arles, on which he laid out his pipe and tobacco (Hulsker, no. 1635; Tate Gallery, London), Picasso's own presence is embodied in the tools of his craft that he left on his chair. The room is the center of his creative world, these objects are the means in his art, and the plaster bust is the end, the idealized emblem of art itself. In several of the Atelier paintings, the bust is sufficiently delineated as to resemble the one that Picasso modeled of Marie-Thérèse in 1931 (Spies, no. 128). But more significantly it suggests another presence in the room, the image of a person departed and now memorialized in the permanence of a modeled form. This is the spirit of Matisse, and the bust makes reference to his work as a sculptor, which was no less important to the course of 20th century art than his paintings. Golding wrote:
The visual tributes Picasso paid to Matisse in the work of the second half of the 1950s are in some respects a form of mourning. Yet in a curious way Picasso also resented Matisse's death and this may help to account for the fact that while his own dialogue with the past was becoming ever more overt, his own art was simultaneously becoming more internalised. During 1963 and 1964, he [again] concentrated on the theme of the studio, the artist and model, so dear to Matisse. In these works Matissean references recede and are subsumed into a sense of the totality of art which comes flooding through Picasso's vision as never before (ibid. pp. 300-301).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 23 October 1955. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. BARCODE 23662148
(fig. 2) Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 30-31 October 1955. Tate Gallery, London. BARCODE 23662131
(fig. 3) Pablo Picasso, Intérieur, 29 October 1955. Musée Picasso, Paris. BARCODE 23662124
(fig. 4) Henri Matisse, Intérieur rouge: Nature morte sur table bleue, 1947. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. BARCODE 23662117
Picasso moved into 'La californie' during the early fall of 1955, and quickly set up his studio in the spacious high-ceiling room on the second floor above the entrance. The light-filled interior, with a southern exposure, opened out through a set of Art Nouveau French doors onto a balcony with a wrought-iron railing. There was a garden below, centered around several tall palm trees. These features became the key elements in the composition of the Atelier paintings. After having physically moved his belongings into his new home, which would become the locus of his creative activity for the next three and a half years, Picasso proceeded to claim this space as his own by painting it. Marie-Laure Bernadac has observed that "He quickly responded to the stimulus of the place in a series of what he called Paysages d'intérieur: interior landscapes. For Picasso, his studio is a self-portrait in itself. Sensitive to its ritual, its secret poetry, he marks with his presence the environment and the objects in it, and makes his territory into his own 'second skin'" (in Late Picasso, exh. cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 58).
Picasso commenced the Atelier paintings on 23 October, two days before his 74th birthday. Picasso painted two pictures that day (Zervos, vol. 16, nos. 486 [fig. 1] and 487), and one on the 24th (Z., vol. 16, no. 488). He did not paint on the 25-27 October, days given over to his birthday celebrations, and he then resumed the Atelier series with two paintings done on 28 October (Z., vol. 16, nos. 490 and 489, in order of completion). The present picture was painted on the 29th as the first of two painted that day (Z., vol. 16, nos. 492 and 491, in order of completion). Picasso concluded the series with four paintings that he began on 30 October, three of which he completed that same day (Z., vol., nos. 495. 494, 493, in order of completion). He finished the fourth, the final painting in this Atelier series, on the following day (Z., vol. 16, no. 497; fig. 2). Picasso also made several drawings during this period, the most elaborate of which is Z., vol. 16, no. 475 (fig. 3), which he executed on 29 October, probably prior to undertaking the present painting and its companion later in the day.
The October 1955 L'atelier series is also Picasso's eulogy to his old friend and rival, Henri Matisse, who died in Nice on 3 November 1954. Always afraid of news of death, Picasso refused to answer the phone when Marguerite Duthuit called repeatedly to tell him of her father's passing. Picasso did not attend Matisse's funeral. Nevertheless, Matisse's death greatly affected Picasso, and he struggled to come to terms with it. He paid his respects in the way he knew best, and on 13 December he commenced the series Femmes d'Alger, which came to fifteen canvases in all, the last of which is dated 14 February 1955 (Z., vol. 16, nos. 342-343, 345-349, 352-357, and 359-360). The subject was based on Delacroix's painting in the Louvre, which had also influenced Matisse's odalisques; Picasso's series actually served as an homage to both masters. "When Matisse died," Picasso told Roland Penrose, "he left his odalisques to me as a legacy, and this is my idea of the Orient though I have never been there" (quoted in R. Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work, Berkeley, 1981, p. 396).
The inspiration for Picasso's Atelier paintings came from the Vence interiors that Matisse executed in 1946-1948 (fig. 4), the last group of paintings he made before concentrating on his paper cut-outs. Picasso may have viewed some of these paintings in Matisse's studio while they were still in progress, and he saw thirteen from this series in a preview he was given of the exhibition of Matisse's recent works at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, organized to honor that artist's eightieth birthday, which opened on 9 June 1949. Such was Picasso's admiration and, indeed, envy of these Vence interiors that he hastily arranged an exhibition of his own recent works at the Maison de la Pensée française in Paris, which he fully intended to coincide and compete with Matisse's show. When Matisse learned of these plans he wrote to a friend, "I have been told in several quarters that he [Picasso] is organizing an offensive, and I am waiting to see it. I'll let you know how the prizefight turns out" (quoted in M. Billot, ed., The Vence Chapel: The Archive of a Creation, Milan, 1999, p. 208).
Picasso's Atelier paintings thus recall some of the most intense moments in his rivalry with Matisse, a complex and decades-long history of competition and mutual influence, which Picasso finally resolved in an act of tribute. John Golding has written, "The La californie studio paintings are amongst the most overtly Matissean works that Picasso ever produced and, like the variations on Delacroix's Women of Algiers, can justifiably be regarded as homages to his departed friend. Picasso appears to be attempting to create an environment, a spirit to which Matisse would have responded, and this gives these pictures an elegiac cast that is rare in Picasso's work. The windows, the palm trees and foliage beyond, read like Matissean quotes" (in Matisse Picasso, exh. cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 2002, p. 299).
While some of the objects that Picasso depicts in these paysages d'intérieur vary from canvas to canvas, there are several that he included in all of them--the painter's palette and brushes placed on a chair, and the plaster bust set atop a tall stool. As in Van Gogh's famous 1888 painting of his chair in Arles, on which he laid out his pipe and tobacco (Hulsker, no. 1635; Tate Gallery, London), Picasso's own presence is embodied in the tools of his craft that he left on his chair. The room is the center of his creative world, these objects are the means in his art, and the plaster bust is the end, the idealized emblem of art itself. In several of the Atelier paintings, the bust is sufficiently delineated as to resemble the one that Picasso modeled of Marie-Thérèse in 1931 (Spies, no. 128). But more significantly it suggests another presence in the room, the image of a person departed and now memorialized in the permanence of a modeled form. This is the spirit of Matisse, and the bust makes reference to his work as a sculptor, which was no less important to the course of 20th century art than his paintings. Golding wrote:
The visual tributes Picasso paid to Matisse in the work of the second half of the 1950s are in some respects a form of mourning. Yet in a curious way Picasso also resented Matisse's death and this may help to account for the fact that while his own dialogue with the past was becoming ever more overt, his own art was simultaneously becoming more internalised. During 1963 and 1964, he [again] concentrated on the theme of the studio, the artist and model, so dear to Matisse. In these works Matissean references recede and are subsumed into a sense of the totality of art which comes flooding through Picasso's vision as never before (ibid. pp. 300-301).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 23 October 1955. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. BARCODE 23662148
(fig. 2) Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 30-31 October 1955. Tate Gallery, London. BARCODE 23662131
(fig. 3) Pablo Picasso, Intérieur, 29 October 1955. Musée Picasso, Paris. BARCODE 23662124
(fig. 4) Henri Matisse, Intérieur rouge: Nature morte sur table bleue, 1947. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. BARCODE 23662117