.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Le Pigeon is a Cubist work once owned by André Breton that was executed in 1912 around the time of Picasso's final break with Fernande Olivier, his long-term mistress and muse, and the embodiment of beauty in much of his art. Fernande had been a great influence on the voluptuous and sensual content of Picasso's art until she ran away with an Italian artist. This was in fact an emancipation for Picasso, who at the same time had fallen in love with Eva Gouel, the mistress of another artist. Ending the torment of a stagnating domestic life with Fernande resulted in an emancipatory release in his art during this period.
Pigeons were a theme of great emotional importance to Picasso. Not only do they feature in some of the earliest drawings remaining from his childhood on that theme, but doves also featured so prominently in the art of his father that Don José Ruiz Blasco acquired the nick-name the 'Pigeon-fancier'. Le Pigeon is one of three Cubist paintings that focus on pigeons that were executed by Picasso during this important period. One of those pictures is called Dead Birds; significantly, this is the same title as a work exhibited by his father at the Malaga Liceo in 1877. While taking solace in a well-trodden and nostalgic artistic path, Picasso dramatically reinterpreted and reinvented the subject-matter for which his father was known. In adopting this subject matter, Picasso can be seen to be paying tribute to his then ailing father.
This period was one of change in Picasso's art as well as his life, as his paintings and interpretation of Cubism grew more inventive and imaginative. Only a short time earlier his works had sometimes been so dominated by the matrices of geometrical forms that the subject was indistinguishable to the point of confusing even the artist himself. Picasso overcame this problem, however, by creating a method of delineating the subject in a pure and geometrical manner while not overly disrupting the image of the bird itself. In this work it is evident that Picasso has found a method of avoiding the constraints of the colour of pure Cubism. Despite the essential monochrome appearance of the work, its tones and dashes give it great texture, as does the inclusion of the feathers around the neck. Added to these breaks from the conventions of orthodox Cubism is the inclusion of character in the bird's face. Unlike other paintings from roughly the same period which verged on abstraction, the pigeon's eyes and beak prompt an emotional response from the viewer.
Pigeons were a theme of great emotional importance to Picasso. Not only do they feature in some of the earliest drawings remaining from his childhood on that theme, but doves also featured so prominently in the art of his father that Don José Ruiz Blasco acquired the nick-name the 'Pigeon-fancier'. Le Pigeon is one of three Cubist paintings that focus on pigeons that were executed by Picasso during this important period. One of those pictures is called Dead Birds; significantly, this is the same title as a work exhibited by his father at the Malaga Liceo in 1877. While taking solace in a well-trodden and nostalgic artistic path, Picasso dramatically reinterpreted and reinvented the subject-matter for which his father was known. In adopting this subject matter, Picasso can be seen to be paying tribute to his then ailing father.
This period was one of change in Picasso's art as well as his life, as his paintings and interpretation of Cubism grew more inventive and imaginative. Only a short time earlier his works had sometimes been so dominated by the matrices of geometrical forms that the subject was indistinguishable to the point of confusing even the artist himself. Picasso overcame this problem, however, by creating a method of delineating the subject in a pure and geometrical manner while not overly disrupting the image of the bird itself. In this work it is evident that Picasso has found a method of avoiding the constraints of the colour of pure Cubism. Despite the essential monochrome appearance of the work, its tones and dashes give it great texture, as does the inclusion of the feathers around the neck. Added to these breaks from the conventions of orthodox Cubism is the inclusion of character in the bird's face. Unlike other paintings from roughly the same period which verged on abstraction, the pigeon's eyes and beak prompt an emotional response from the viewer.