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Lot Essay
In mid-January 1915 Picasso's mistress Eva Gouel, with whom the artist had been living since 1912, underwent her first operation for cancer, and her condition deteriorated as the year wore on. Picasso was already looking around for a new liaison, and his friend the poet André Salmon claims to have encouraged Picasso to see the singer Gaby Depeyre at a local cabaret in Montparnasse. They began a furtive relationship (Gaby had a lover as well) and even managed to slip away for a vacation in Saint-Tropez in the late summer or fall of 1915.
It was probably after his return to Paris that Picasso commenced work on Arlequin (see fig. 1; coll. The Museum of Modern Art, New York). In a letter to Gertrude Stein dated 9 December 1915 Picasso described this painting as "the best I have done" (quoted in J. Palau i Fabre, op. cit., p. 455). Arlequin is a self-portrait, as well as mournful farewell to Eva, but was nonetheless derived from a pair of watercolors depicting a dancing couple, which probably refer to the artist's clandestine trysts with Gaby (see Zervos, vol. 2**, nos. 558 and 559).
Eva spent her final months in a nursing home and died in December 1915. Picasso later proposed to Gaby, but she turned him down. The society and gaiety of the music hall must have provided Picasso with some welcome relief during Eva's long illness and in the aftermath of her passing. In 1916 the theatre and stage assume an increasingly central role in the Picasso's compositions, a tendency that was also influenced by his growing friendship with Jean Cocteau, to whom the artist had been introduced in mid-1915.
The present drawing depicts a pianist standing in front of his upright instrument with sheet music in hand, in a cabaret or salon setting. A related drawing, also done in 1916, shows burlesque performers on stage (see Zervos, vol. 29 no. 203). The shape of the figures in these works recalls that seen in Arlequin, which is very much like a long rectangular table seen on its forelegs. Indeed, the artist's conception of the figure stems directly from his treatment of planar elements in his still-life paintings; the figure is a fully integrated extension of these flattened forms. Picasso treated the figure very differently in his concurrent neo-classical drawings (in which harlequins are often featured): in these the figure is clearly set off from its background, which is generally composed with great simplicity and economy.
The superimposition and piling up of planes in Pianiste contributes significantly to the artist's sense of fun in depicting his subject. Small details complete the picture: the buttons on the pianist's formal white shirt, his fashionably Bohemian long and wavy hair, his pleasant grin and the pair of candleholders humanize the geometry of the composition. In 1917, the following year, Picasso commenced his active association with the theatre when Cocteau persuaded him to design costumes and sets for Diaghilev's production of Erik Satie's ballet Parade.
It was probably after his return to Paris that Picasso commenced work on Arlequin (see fig. 1; coll. The Museum of Modern Art, New York). In a letter to Gertrude Stein dated 9 December 1915 Picasso described this painting as "the best I have done" (quoted in J. Palau i Fabre, op. cit., p. 455). Arlequin is a self-portrait, as well as mournful farewell to Eva, but was nonetheless derived from a pair of watercolors depicting a dancing couple, which probably refer to the artist's clandestine trysts with Gaby (see Zervos, vol. 2**, nos. 558 and 559).
Eva spent her final months in a nursing home and died in December 1915. Picasso later proposed to Gaby, but she turned him down. The society and gaiety of the music hall must have provided Picasso with some welcome relief during Eva's long illness and in the aftermath of her passing. In 1916 the theatre and stage assume an increasingly central role in the Picasso's compositions, a tendency that was also influenced by his growing friendship with Jean Cocteau, to whom the artist had been introduced in mid-1915.
The present drawing depicts a pianist standing in front of his upright instrument with sheet music in hand, in a cabaret or salon setting. A related drawing, also done in 1916, shows burlesque performers on stage (see Zervos, vol. 29 no. 203). The shape of the figures in these works recalls that seen in Arlequin, which is very much like a long rectangular table seen on its forelegs. Indeed, the artist's conception of the figure stems directly from his treatment of planar elements in his still-life paintings; the figure is a fully integrated extension of these flattened forms. Picasso treated the figure very differently in his concurrent neo-classical drawings (in which harlequins are often featured): in these the figure is clearly set off from its background, which is generally composed with great simplicity and economy.
The superimposition and piling up of planes in Pianiste contributes significantly to the artist's sense of fun in depicting his subject. Small details complete the picture: the buttons on the pianist's formal white shirt, his fashionably Bohemian long and wavy hair, his pleasant grin and the pair of candleholders humanize the geometry of the composition. In 1917, the following year, Picasso commenced his active association with the theatre when Cocteau persuaded him to design costumes and sets for Diaghilev's production of Erik Satie's ballet Parade.