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Lot Essay
Picasso painted a series of still-lifes with wounded or dead pigeons in the summer and autumn of 1912 (Zervos, vol. 2*, nos. 338, 339 and 346), when he and his new mistress Eva Gouel were in flight from Picasso's previous girlfriend, Fernande Olivier, who had just broken off with her lover. The artist returned to this subject again in 1919 (Zervos, vol. 3, nos. 283-285 and 288; see sale, Christie's New York, 9 November 2000, lot 245), the first year of peace following the murderous debacle of the First World War, suggesting to Jean Sutherland Boggs "a ritual of death and expectation and hope" (in Picasso & Things, exh. cat., The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 178).
In this latter series the pigeon is usually seen head down, with wings splayed. Picasso adapted this image once again, transforming the pigeon into a cock, in the painting Chien et coq, done in Paris, 1921 (Zervos, vol. 4, no 335; coll. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). In this work a large black dog lurking beneath the table sniffs at the bird; Boggs notes that Picasso was perhaps referring to Chardin's The Buffet, 1728, which he would have seen in the Louvre (ibid., p. 194). Whereas the pigeons in earlier pictures are pathetic, sacrificial victims, the cock in the 1921 painting is a more vigorous symbol that may stand for the artist's masculinity. The eggs seen to the right of the cock may symbolize regeneration. "Picasso produced this confrontation of life and death in the same year that he painted the two versions of The Three Musicians" (ibid.).
The present gouache is related to Chien et coq. Although the black dog is not present, the placement of the cock with its red comb is similar. In the present work a plate containing four white eggs has been arranged above the bird rather than to the side, where an exploded form of a guitar, another personal emblem for the artist, now sits. The painting shows two table legs whereas the gouache presents three, and in both compositions the tabletop is tilted abruptly toward the viewer in a strongly vertical format. Both paintings share a similar tonality of pale ochre, azure blue, brown and black.
In this latter series the pigeon is usually seen head down, with wings splayed. Picasso adapted this image once again, transforming the pigeon into a cock, in the painting Chien et coq, done in Paris, 1921 (Zervos, vol. 4, no 335; coll. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). In this work a large black dog lurking beneath the table sniffs at the bird; Boggs notes that Picasso was perhaps referring to Chardin's The Buffet, 1728, which he would have seen in the Louvre (ibid., p. 194). Whereas the pigeons in earlier pictures are pathetic, sacrificial victims, the cock in the 1921 painting is a more vigorous symbol that may stand for the artist's masculinity. The eggs seen to the right of the cock may symbolize regeneration. "Picasso produced this confrontation of life and death in the same year that he painted the two versions of The Three Musicians" (ibid.).
The present gouache is related to Chien et coq. Although the black dog is not present, the placement of the cock with its red comb is similar. In the present work a plate containing four white eggs has been arranged above the bird rather than to the side, where an exploded form of a guitar, another personal emblem for the artist, now sits. The painting shows two table legs whereas the gouache presents three, and in both compositions the tabletop is tilted abruptly toward the viewer in a strongly vertical format. Both paintings share a similar tonality of pale ochre, azure blue, brown and black.