Mercure. Étude

Details

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Mercure. Étude
pastel on paper
12 3/8 x 9¼ in. (31.5 x 23.5 cm.)
Executed in 1924

Provenance

Comte Etienne de Beaumont, by 1952.
Mme Aransaenz, Paris, by 1967.

Literature

C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 5, Oeuvres de 1923 à 1925, Paris, 1952, no. 204 (illustrated p. 100).
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, Neoclassicism II, 1922-1924, San Francisco, 1996, no. 24-101 (illustrated p. 226).
D. Cooper, Picasso Theatre, London, 1967, no. 322, p. 351 (illustrated n.p.).
Exh. cat., Picasso y el teatro, Parade, Pulcinella, Cuadro Flamenco, Mercure, Barcelona, 1996, no. 58 (illustrated p. 142).

Lot Essay

Between 1917 and 1924, Pablo Picasso designed sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev's Ballet russes, including some of the most important in the company's repertoire, Parade, Le Tricorne and Le Train bleu. This pastel is a study for the costume of Mercure in the eponymous 1924 ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine, with music by Erik Satie. Although Neo-Classical in subject matter, Josep Palau i Fabre has pointed out that in the separation of line from colour in the drawings related to this ballet, Picasso 'applied one of the discoveries of Cubism, namely the separation between form and what was referred to as the local tone' (J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso, From the Ballets to Drama, 1917-1926, Barcelona, 1999, p. 409).

More from Impressionist/ModernWorks on Paper

View All