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Lot Essay
This work is sold with two photo-certificates, one from Maya Widmaier Picasso and one from Claude Picasso.
Executed circa 1906, Le cheval dates from Picasso's so-called Rose Period and is redolent with the poetry that suffused so many of his works from that time. This work, which shows a horse moving towards the viewer, appears to be a study for one of Picasso's masterpieces of this period, Meneur de cheval nu, now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York (fig. 1). However, this absorbing work on paper focuses on the horse alone, providing an insight into Picasso's fascination for equestrian subjects and his virtuoso ability to render them.
During this period, Picasso had become increasingly intrigued by the circus, by the clowns and acrobats and their various antics. It was initially in this context that equestrian images began to creep into his work, often being ridden by performers. The initial energy of these circus pictures soon mellowed as Picasso began to create the works of the Rose Period, which are often marked by an introspective atmosphere of hazy contemplation. Even in Le cheval, the sideward glance of the horse and the mellow colour in which it has been captured combine to lend it a stillness as well as a timelessness that recalls ancient frescoes and decorations. Executed during an age in which the machine was increasingly coming to replace the ancient bond between man and horse, where riding was becoming more and more of a hobby or an entertainment rather than an everyday activity, Le cheval, like the work for which it is a study, appears to celebrate the role of the horse and to mourn its passing. As a Spaniard, Picasso felt this acutely, and there is a distinctly Spanish angle to this insightful and personality-filled, poignant image.
While Picasso spent a great amount of time around the circus and its denizens, it was not from life alone that he took his visual cues, but instead from memory and even from other artists. In seeking a visual solution for Meneur de cheval nu, John Richardson has pointed out that Picasso looked to the example of El Greco's painting of St. Martin and the beggar, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. Even in Le cheval, the pose of the horse can be seen to recall that older painting by one of Picasso's great, worshipped predecessors.
The earliest owner of Le cheval was Picasso's great friend, the writer, collector and dealer Wilhelm Uhde, who owned several of Picasso's greatest works from this period and later, and who was one of his early advocates and supporters. It was Uhde who introduced the German poet Rilke to Picasso, a factor all the more pertinent during the years of the painter's Rendez-vous des poètes, the name scrawled on the door of his studio in the Bateau Lavoir. Uhde supported some of Picasso's early exhibitions, and also write several monographs on the artist. Indeed, Richardson says that the publication of Uhde's 1938 book Von Bismarck bis Picasso prompted Hitler to have the author stripped of his German nationality. Le cheval was subsequently given by Uhde to the Aachen art historian, patron and collector Edwin Suermondt.
Pablo Picasso, Meneur de cheval nu, 1905-06. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The William S. Paley Collection.
Executed circa 1906, Le cheval dates from Picasso's so-called Rose Period and is redolent with the poetry that suffused so many of his works from that time. This work, which shows a horse moving towards the viewer, appears to be a study for one of Picasso's masterpieces of this period, Meneur de cheval nu, now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York (fig. 1). However, this absorbing work on paper focuses on the horse alone, providing an insight into Picasso's fascination for equestrian subjects and his virtuoso ability to render them.
During this period, Picasso had become increasingly intrigued by the circus, by the clowns and acrobats and their various antics. It was initially in this context that equestrian images began to creep into his work, often being ridden by performers. The initial energy of these circus pictures soon mellowed as Picasso began to create the works of the Rose Period, which are often marked by an introspective atmosphere of hazy contemplation. Even in Le cheval, the sideward glance of the horse and the mellow colour in which it has been captured combine to lend it a stillness as well as a timelessness that recalls ancient frescoes and decorations. Executed during an age in which the machine was increasingly coming to replace the ancient bond between man and horse, where riding was becoming more and more of a hobby or an entertainment rather than an everyday activity, Le cheval, like the work for which it is a study, appears to celebrate the role of the horse and to mourn its passing. As a Spaniard, Picasso felt this acutely, and there is a distinctly Spanish angle to this insightful and personality-filled, poignant image.
While Picasso spent a great amount of time around the circus and its denizens, it was not from life alone that he took his visual cues, but instead from memory and even from other artists. In seeking a visual solution for Meneur de cheval nu, John Richardson has pointed out that Picasso looked to the example of El Greco's painting of St. Martin and the beggar, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. Even in Le cheval, the pose of the horse can be seen to recall that older painting by one of Picasso's great, worshipped predecessors.
The earliest owner of Le cheval was Picasso's great friend, the writer, collector and dealer Wilhelm Uhde, who owned several of Picasso's greatest works from this period and later, and who was one of his early advocates and supporters. It was Uhde who introduced the German poet Rilke to Picasso, a factor all the more pertinent during the years of the painter's Rendez-vous des poètes, the name scrawled on the door of his studio in the Bateau Lavoir. Uhde supported some of Picasso's early exhibitions, and also write several monographs on the artist. Indeed, Richardson says that the publication of Uhde's 1938 book Von Bismarck bis Picasso prompted Hitler to have the author stripped of his German nationality. Le cheval was subsequently given by Uhde to the Aachen art historian, patron and collector Edwin Suermondt.
Pablo Picasso, Meneur de cheval nu, 1905-06. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The William S. Paley Collection.