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Lot Essay
Towards the end of 1966, Pablo Picasso began to concentrate on a subject that would come to define his late career, that of the musketeer. The figure, at once historical and imaginary, would dominate his output, filling his canvases with colorful depictions of lavishly-costumed characters, who often served as stand-ins for the artist himself. While he returned frequently to the subject throughout the next five years, the paintings created between 1967 and 1968 are marked by their inventiveness and exuberance. Executed on 24 March 1967, Mousquetaire, tête is a key example from this initial burst of creativity, executed in a riot of energetic brushwork and bright, striking color. Set against a muted ground, the bust portrait depicts a musketeer with a mane of curly hair. Baroque in attitude and dress, he stares confidently out at the viewer, a wry smile playing on his lips.
The idea for the musketeers first emerged during a period of convalescence for the artist in late 1965 and early 1966. Picasso passed his days rereading many classic works of literature, including plays and novels by William Shakespeare and Honoré de Balzac as well as Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, the tales of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis’ adventures clearly taking root in his psyche. When he was finally able to begin painting again, a new character entered his work, the musketeer, or the Spanish version of the seventeenth-century cavalier, the hidalgo, a confident nobleman, skilled with the sword, bold in love, and outfitted in elaborate costumes. The first oil painting of this series was completed in February 1967, and many musketeer heads and full-length seated portraits soon followed, as Picasso worked with his typical fervent energy. His prolific output soon overwhelmed his atelier—so much so that he added two more studios to store the many canvases he had finished.
Picasso felt strong affection for his musketeers and often gave them individual personalities. The writer Hélène Parmelin recalled how he would joke around with his canvases, pointing to one figure or another and announcing, “With this one you’d better watch out. That one makes fun of us. That one is enormously satisfied. This one is a grave intellectual. And that one look how sad he is, the poor guy. He must be a painter” (quoted in Picasso: Tradition and Avant Garde, exh. cat., Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2006, p. 340). As any portraitist would ascribe to their subjects individual personalities, so too did Picasso differentiate between his musketeers, depicting one with a pipe and another with a paintbrush. Accordingly, his troop of musketeers—who for centuries had stood for virility, masculinity, and strength—became vessels for the artist’s vision of himself, as he wished the world to see him. Just as he had done throughout his career with figures such as the harlequin, minotaur, and Mediterranean sailor, he used the musketeer to affirm his potency, heroic nature, and charm. The musketeer, celebrated for his bravado, daring, and amorous liaisons, was the perfect foil for an artist in the last years of a long and spirited life.
The musketeer as a visual archetype provided Picasso a means to further his quest for artistic supremacy, and he borrowed motifs from a variety of periods, including the Dutch and Spanish Golden Ages, French Modernism, and particularly the work of Diego Velázquez, Eugène Delacroix, and Rembrandt. For several years, Picasso had been reinterpreting masterpieces by these artists. His interest in the motif seems to have been the logical next step after having spent the previous years in dialogue with—and waging battle against—history’s great artists. During the last decades of his career, he cast his eye back to the painters he would have encountered as a young artist. It was Rembrandt, more than anyone, however, whose influence can be felt in the musketeers, and Picasso’s engagement with the Dutch Master was ongoing during the 1960s. He was inspired by the artist’s works on paper and frequently referenced Otto Benesch’s six-volume catalogue of Rembrandt’s drawings. Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s wife, confirmed to André Malraux that the musketeer series emerged “when Picasso started to study Rembrandt” (quoted in M.-L. Bernadac, “Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model” in Late Picasso, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1988, p. 81).
By citing different artists’ images and styles, Picasso demonstrated his virtuosity: he could, and did, go toe-to-toe with the great masters of western art. Widely acknowledged as a triumph of the artist’s later years, the musketeers fully capture Picasso’s artistic range; they represent a lifetime’s worth of innovation that was far from its end. Mischievous, playful, and large in scale, the musketeers possess all the energy of an artist in the thrall of a new and fascinating idea.
The idea for the musketeers first emerged during a period of convalescence for the artist in late 1965 and early 1966. Picasso passed his days rereading many classic works of literature, including plays and novels by William Shakespeare and Honoré de Balzac as well as Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, the tales of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis’ adventures clearly taking root in his psyche. When he was finally able to begin painting again, a new character entered his work, the musketeer, or the Spanish version of the seventeenth-century cavalier, the hidalgo, a confident nobleman, skilled with the sword, bold in love, and outfitted in elaborate costumes. The first oil painting of this series was completed in February 1967, and many musketeer heads and full-length seated portraits soon followed, as Picasso worked with his typical fervent energy. His prolific output soon overwhelmed his atelier—so much so that he added two more studios to store the many canvases he had finished.
Picasso felt strong affection for his musketeers and often gave them individual personalities. The writer Hélène Parmelin recalled how he would joke around with his canvases, pointing to one figure or another and announcing, “With this one you’d better watch out. That one makes fun of us. That one is enormously satisfied. This one is a grave intellectual. And that one look how sad he is, the poor guy. He must be a painter” (quoted in Picasso: Tradition and Avant Garde, exh. cat., Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2006, p. 340). As any portraitist would ascribe to their subjects individual personalities, so too did Picasso differentiate between his musketeers, depicting one with a pipe and another with a paintbrush. Accordingly, his troop of musketeers—who for centuries had stood for virility, masculinity, and strength—became vessels for the artist’s vision of himself, as he wished the world to see him. Just as he had done throughout his career with figures such as the harlequin, minotaur, and Mediterranean sailor, he used the musketeer to affirm his potency, heroic nature, and charm. The musketeer, celebrated for his bravado, daring, and amorous liaisons, was the perfect foil for an artist in the last years of a long and spirited life.
The musketeer as a visual archetype provided Picasso a means to further his quest for artistic supremacy, and he borrowed motifs from a variety of periods, including the Dutch and Spanish Golden Ages, French Modernism, and particularly the work of Diego Velázquez, Eugène Delacroix, and Rembrandt. For several years, Picasso had been reinterpreting masterpieces by these artists. His interest in the motif seems to have been the logical next step after having spent the previous years in dialogue with—and waging battle against—history’s great artists. During the last decades of his career, he cast his eye back to the painters he would have encountered as a young artist. It was Rembrandt, more than anyone, however, whose influence can be felt in the musketeers, and Picasso’s engagement with the Dutch Master was ongoing during the 1960s. He was inspired by the artist’s works on paper and frequently referenced Otto Benesch’s six-volume catalogue of Rembrandt’s drawings. Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s wife, confirmed to André Malraux that the musketeer series emerged “when Picasso started to study Rembrandt” (quoted in M.-L. Bernadac, “Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model” in Late Picasso, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1988, p. 81).
By citing different artists’ images and styles, Picasso demonstrated his virtuosity: he could, and did, go toe-to-toe with the great masters of western art. Widely acknowledged as a triumph of the artist’s later years, the musketeers fully capture Picasso’s artistic range; they represent a lifetime’s worth of innovation that was far from its end. Mischievous, playful, and large in scale, the musketeers possess all the energy of an artist in the thrall of a new and fascinating idea.