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Lot Essay
Like most Parisian artists Picasso liked to get out of the city during the summer, and in 1909 he traveled to Horta in Spain and in 1910 to Cadaquès in Catalonia. Picasso's friends the painter Frank Haviland and the sculptor Manolo had invited him in 1910 to Céret, on the coast of the French side of the Pyrees. Living there was cheap, with few artists to bother a painter who wanted to get some work done, and the populace spoke Catalan and enjoyed bullfights. In 1911 Picasso took them up on their offer, and arrived there during the second week in July. Fernande stayed behind in Paris, with the idea that she would join him later in the summer--evidence of the widening gulf in their relationship, which was soon to end. More important to Picasso's work was that Braque would join him in Céret in August.
By this time the Cubism of Picasso and Braque had entered its most intensely analytical phase. Palau i Fabre has found in Picasso's work of spring 1911 "a marked baroque tendency," in which "his canvases appear crammed with motifs, with often unrecognizable objects, not because of their high degree of abstraction, as was previously the case, but because of their very accumulation, their proximity to each other" (op. cit., pp. 206-207). In their pictures done in Céret, both Picasso and Braque introduced a pyramidal structure into their compositions (perhaps inspired by the mountainous landscape), providing a center of gravity that lends the pictures increasing clarity and definition of form. Their compositions became somewhat less flat, and more sculptural in depth, qualities which in Picasso's case were more conducive to painting the figure.
Figures with musical instruments form a major part of the imagery in the Céret pictures. There was a local band, known as a cobla, that played music for those who performed the sardana, the regional dance. One of Picasso's acquaintances in Céret was the composer Déodat de Séverac, a colleague of Debussy and Ravel, who cultivated a folkish idiom in his music. A photograph published in Richardson (see p. 188) shows Séverac standing behind some local cobla musicians holding their clarinets and a local version of the instrument called a tenora. "Why did the unmusical Picasso paint so many musical instruments and instrumentalists? He never went to concerts, he told Séverac, for fear of failing to perceive the intrinsic quality of what was being played. The prevalence of musicians in his Céretois work may have been a response to his closeness to Séverac. For as Picasso once said, "the character, profession and language of close companions had a way of rubbing off on him" (J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917, New York, 1996, p. 189).
The present drawing is one of two studies of clarinet or tenora players; the other one contains more detail drawn with pen and ink over pencil (Zervos, vol. 28, no. 48; coll. Musée Picasso, Paris). Picasso did an oil painting on this subject while in Céret, which appears independent of the drawings, with a pyramidal composition clearly evident (Zervos , vol. 2*, no. 265; coll. Narodní Galerie, Prague). After his return to Paris Picasso continued to paint musicians holding their instruments, including Homme à la clarinette (Zervos, vol. 2*, no. 288; private collection). In these paintings he simplified the backgrounds, while concentrating on the vertical form of the figure, applying the compositional ideas seen in the drawings.
By this time the Cubism of Picasso and Braque had entered its most intensely analytical phase. Palau i Fabre has found in Picasso's work of spring 1911 "a marked baroque tendency," in which "his canvases appear crammed with motifs, with often unrecognizable objects, not because of their high degree of abstraction, as was previously the case, but because of their very accumulation, their proximity to each other" (op. cit., pp. 206-207). In their pictures done in Céret, both Picasso and Braque introduced a pyramidal structure into their compositions (perhaps inspired by the mountainous landscape), providing a center of gravity that lends the pictures increasing clarity and definition of form. Their compositions became somewhat less flat, and more sculptural in depth, qualities which in Picasso's case were more conducive to painting the figure.
Figures with musical instruments form a major part of the imagery in the Céret pictures. There was a local band, known as a cobla, that played music for those who performed the sardana, the regional dance. One of Picasso's acquaintances in Céret was the composer Déodat de Séverac, a colleague of Debussy and Ravel, who cultivated a folkish idiom in his music. A photograph published in Richardson (see p. 188) shows Séverac standing behind some local cobla musicians holding their clarinets and a local version of the instrument called a tenora. "Why did the unmusical Picasso paint so many musical instruments and instrumentalists? He never went to concerts, he told Séverac, for fear of failing to perceive the intrinsic quality of what was being played. The prevalence of musicians in his Céretois work may have been a response to his closeness to Séverac. For as Picasso once said, "the character, profession and language of close companions had a way of rubbing off on him" (J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917, New York, 1996, p. 189).
The present drawing is one of two studies of clarinet or tenora players; the other one contains more detail drawn with pen and ink over pencil (Zervos, vol. 28, no. 48; coll. Musée Picasso, Paris). Picasso did an oil painting on this subject while in Céret, which appears independent of the drawings, with a pyramidal composition clearly evident (Zervos , vol. 2*, no. 265; coll. Narodní Galerie, Prague). After his return to Paris Picasso continued to paint musicians holding their instruments, including Homme à la clarinette (Zervos, vol. 2*, no. 288; private collection). In these paintings he simplified the backgrounds, while concentrating on the vertical form of the figure, applying the compositional ideas seen in the drawings.