From 1917 Picasso painted in both naturalistic and synthetic cubist styles. Far from passing through clearly defined "periods", he worked simultaneously in a variety of styles thoughout his life. Thus, in the still-lifes from the early twenties he adhered to a strictly cubist discipline, making a virtue out of flatness, whilst in his figure studies he generally experimented with a highly-modelled classical technique.

In Guitare sur une Table the flat, elegant planes of synthetic cubism dominate. Picasso distills the ingredients of his composition in such a way that its component elements interlock as if they were cut-outs, one part over-laying the other like a painted collage or construction. He occasionally used this method for figurative compositions such as the accomplished Trois Musiciens (Zervos IV, 331) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which was painted in the same year. In Guitare sur une Table Picasso's drastic reduction of elements is matched by the reduction of his palette: his tonal range is dominated by browns and blacks. All the still-lifes from these years reveal the same crisp harmonic geometry.

This work was once part of the prestigious collection of Lydia and Harry Winston, which included museum quality works by Léger, Boccioni, Balla, Pollock, de Staël and others (see fig. 1).