In 1923, Picasso was quoted in an interview explaining that the several manners he used in his art ‘must not be considered as an evolution or steps towards an unknown ideal of painting… If the subjects I have wanted to express have suggested different ways of expression, I have never hesitated to adopt them’. He returned to themes and ideas time and again, re-working them and exploring them in different ways.
Art critic Arthur Danto said Picasso’s work constitutes a ‘vast pictorial autobiography’ – a quality reinforced by the artist’s habit of dating his works, often to the day they were made. As Picasso himself once explained, ‘I want to leave to posterity a documentation that will be as complete as possible. That’s why I put a date on everything I do.’
Here, Meredith Etherington-Smith tells Picasso’s story through works – many precisely dated – representing seven of his most significant periods. All pieces are taken from the Impressionist & Modern Art and The Art of the Surreal sales at Christie’s London on 2 February, and the Impressionist & Modern Art Works on Paper sale on 3 February.
The Blue Period (1901-1904)
Pablo Picasso, circa 1904, Montmartre Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Picasso de Paris) / Jacques Faujour © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2016
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Deux sœurs, drawn in Barcelona circa 1902. Pencil on paper. 24 1/2 x 18 3/8 in. (62.2 x 46.7 cm.) Estimate: £120,000-180,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper sale on 3 February at Christie’s London
Deux sœurs (above) is one of six drawings relating to the painting L’Entrevue (Les Deux sœurs) in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, which is one of the seminal works of Picasso’s Blue Period. Of these drawings the example above is the largest, and is most similar in composition to the oil.
In a letter to his friend Max Jacob on 13 July 1902, Picasso said, ‘It’s a picture of a St. Lazare whore and a mother.’ Picasso often visited prison to search for ‘free’ models, drawing women who had been incarcerated for offences relating to prostitution.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Jeune fille accoudée, 1903-04. Blue crayon on paper. 14 1/2 × 10 1/2 in. (36.8 × 26.7 cm.) Estimate: £800,000–1,200,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
An exquisite drawing, Jeune fille accoudée (above), in blue crayon, also comes from the period in which Picasso pictured sad, reflective people in gloomy settings, and then circus and harlequin subjects. As the title of this period suggests melancholy, haunting blue is the dominant colour.
Rose Period (1904-1906)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Nu se coiffant, circa 1905-1906. Charcoal on paper. 24 1/4 x 18 3/8 in. (61.6 x 46.5 cm.) Estimate: £120,000-180,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper sale on 3 February at Christie’s London
Picasso emerged from the chill of his Blue Period into a more optimistic view of life. Spring-like sensuality had begun to resurface in his painting by 1902. Not yet 25 years old when he made this drawing, he had been living with his mistress, Fernande Olivier –who has been identified as the model for this drawing – for nearly two years.
Other works from the Rose Period are romantic and lyrical, portraying subjects such as saltimbanques (acrobats) and clowns in pale pink. However, in the winter of 1909, Picasso would start to move away from this essentially lyrical outlook and, influenced by Georges Braque, shift towards the typical geometric shapes of Cubism.
Cubism (1907-25 including Proto-Cubist, Analytical and Synthetic Periods)
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Femme nue debout, 1910–1911. Oil on canvas. 18 × 12 7/8 in. (45 7 × 32.8 cm.) Estimate: £800,000–1,200,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
Cézanne was the precursor of the Cubist movement, in which natural shapes — though still recognisable — were fragmented to give the appearance of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes. These distorted and multi-view figures were mainly painted in muted colours, as in Femme nue debout (above), and in Picasso’s case in particular there is a subtext of African tribal-art influences which would erupt in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Pablo Picasso self-portrait, 1909, Horta-de-Sant-Juan, Tarragona, Spain. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Picasso de Paris) / Droits réservés © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2016
Neoclassicism (1920-30)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Monument avec horloge à Paris, 1923. Pen and India ink and red crayon on paper. 4 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (12 x 21 cm.) Estimate: £15,000-20,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper on 3 February at Christie’s London
After the horrors of the First World War, which witnessed the decimation of a whole generation of artists, many leading survivors sought reassurance in a gentler, more mythic past, producing images of the Mediterranean littoral, scenes from classical literature, or depictions of voluptuous goddesses pursued by satyrs. Picasso, who was married to the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova by this time, was among them.
Surrealism (1926 onwards)
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Arlequin, Painted in Juan-les-Pins in 1926. Oil on canvas. 18 1/8 × 15 in. (46 × 38 cm.) Estimate: £1,500,000–2,500,000. This work is offered in the Art of the Surreal Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
André Breton, the ‘Pope of Surrealism’, adopted Picasso early as a member of his group, despite the fact Picasso had submitted Cubist works in the first Surrealist group show in 1925. Arlequin (above), a compelling oil on canvas from 1926, shows that Picasso had become captivated by this new art movement, as other works, such as Drawing for Guernica, made 10 years later in 1937, attest.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Nature morte, Painted on 25 April 1937. Oil on canvas. 15 × 24 1/8 in. (38 × 61.1 cm.) Estimate: £4,000,000–6,000,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
Nature Morte (above), represents a return to a modified Cubism in the late 1930s, in which Picasso combines elements of the fragmented approach of Cubism with Surrealism.
Expressionist elements (1938 onwards)
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Buste de femme, Painted on 5 June 1941. Oil on canvas. 21 7/8 × 13 1/8 in. (55.5 × 33.3 cm.) Estimate: £1,300,000–1,800,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
These are subjects that anticipate Picasso’s terror at the approach of war and reflect his conflicted state of mind. His relationship with the artist Dora Maar is also revealed in Buste de Femme (above), painted in 1941 during the occupation of Paris, when Picasso was virtually confined to his studio in rue des Grands Augustins. Dora Maar took the photograph of Picasso that appears at the top of this article.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Compotier et verres, Painted on 14 June 1943. Oil on canvas. 28 3/4 × 21 1/2 in. (73 × 54.5 cm.) Estimate: £1,000,000–1,700,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
Later, Compotier et verres, painted in Paris in 1943, refers back to what has been termed ‘The Crystal Period’ (1915-1917). During this much earlier phase Picasso had begun a series of paintings of highly geometric and minimalist objects heavily outlined in black. In the photograph below, a section of the work can be seen directly below the skylight of Picasso’s Grands Augustins studio.
Pablo Picasso in his Grands Augustins studio, July 1944. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Picasso de Paris) / Frank Raux © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2016
Post-war influences
After the war, Picasso settled into a happy family life with Francoise Gilot in Vallauris, on the Côte d’Azur. In the South of France, besides discovering a renewed fascination with the faunes and minotaurs of antiquity and the matadors of the corrida, the artist developed a passion for working in ceramic and so began a 20-year relationship with the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris; a quiet sanctuary he could escape to each day; leaving behind his celebrity and becoming one of the local artisans.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Grand vase aux femmes nues. Conceived in 1950 and executed in a numbered edition of 25. Painted and engraved terracotta vase. eight: 26 1/4 in. (66.5 cm.) Estimate: £250,000-450,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale on 3 February at Christie’s London
Right up until the day he died Picasso produced a stream of works, many of which returned to themes that had been abandoned years before. Picador et Personnage (below) harks back to the matadors of an early phase and is a pen and brush work with Indian ink and wash on paper, executed in 1960.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Picador et personnage, Executed 4–6 June 1960. Pen and brush with India ink and wash on paper. 19 5/8 × 12 3/4 in. (50.2 × 32.4 cm.) Estimate: £300,000–500,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
During this period, Picasso also embarked on many works which referenced the art of the past, paying homage to the works of his heroes. These include Les femmes d’Alger by Eugène Delacroix and Las Meniñas by Velázquez. Les Déjeuners (below), dating from 1961, is one of a series of radical reinterpretations of Edouard Manet’s landmark Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe of 1863, which hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Les déjeuners, Executed on 26 July 1961. Coloured crayons on paper. 10 5/8 x 16 5/8 in. (27 x 42 cm.) Estimate: £450,000-650,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper sale on 3 February at Christie’s London
Finally, in 1961, comes a unique work from his studio. This painted sheet metal piece (below) owes something to Picasso’s Crystal Period, but also to the double images of his Expressionist work.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Tête, Executed in 1961. Painted sheet metal. 10 3/4 × 9 1/4 × 3 1/8 in. (27.3 × 23.5 × 8 cm.) Estimate: £400,000–600,000. This work is offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 February at Christie’s London
Just as he experimented in the medium of ceramics, Picasso was always willing to try new materials and new approaches.
Main image at top: Picasso in the strong room at the BNCI bank, photographed by Dora Maar in 1939. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Picasso de Paris) / Franck Raux. © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2016
For more sale information, features and videos, visit 20th Century at Christie's