Pablo Picasso *
(Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins)
Les Déjeuners (Study for Luncheon on the Grass after Manet), 1961, signed and dated 7/7/1961 (II), graphite on paper, 27 x 42 cm, framed
Provenance:
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (certificate available issued by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler)
European Private Collection
Literature:
D. Cooper, Pablo Picasso. Les déjeuners, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, pl. no. 83 with ill.
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso. Œuvres de 1961 à 1962, vol. XX, Editions “Cahiers d’Art”, Paris 1968, p. 32, no. 61 with ill.
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973, The Sixties I, 1960–1963, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, San Francisco 2002, p. 151, no. 61–126 with ill.
Between 1959 and 1962, Pablo Picasso turned his analytical gaze toward a cornerstone of modernity: Édouard Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. This intellectual encounter gave rise to a vast body of work spanning various expressive forms, from painting and ceramics to the intricate technique of linocut.
This project was far from a mere scholarly citation; it was the manifestation of an urgency that defined Picasso’s entire career: the systematic reappropriation of the Great Masters. Rather than simply paying homage to the past, the artist deconstructed it, rebuilding the work through the principles of the Cubist revolution and his own unique plastic language.
What were Picasso’s intentions in the series of Déjeuners?
“Firstly, I think that, in relation to his work as a whole, it provided him with an opportunity to recapitulate, on a grand scale, some of his recurrent themes. I have in mind, of course, those of the artist and his model, bathers on the beach, the female monster, man’s naturally peaceful inclinations and his delight in simple pleasures, the fallibility of human reason, and the deceptive nature of what passes for reality.
Secondly, Picasso saw in the Déjeuners a means to enhance the connotation of certain figures he had created by bringing them together to form the various episodes of this pictorial transformation scene.
Thirdly, and this is the most important consideration, Picasso found an outlet through the ensemble of the Déjeuners to take up not so much the individual challenge of Manet as that of the whole French School, from Poussin to today. This claim may sound disproportionate, but we must neither ignore the evidence nor overlook the boldness of Picasso’s undertaking.”
D. Cooper, Picasso. Les Déjeneurs, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 35
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(Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins)
Les Déjeuners (Study for Luncheon on the Grass after Manet), 1961, signed and dated 7/7/1961 (II), graphite on paper, 27 x 42 cm, framed
Provenance:
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (certificate available issued by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler)
European Private Collection
Literature:
D. Cooper, Pablo Picasso. Les déjeuners, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, pl. no. 83 with ill.
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso. Œuvres de 1961 à 1962, vol. XX, Editions “Cahiers d’Art”, Paris 1968, p. 32, no. 61 with ill.
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973, The Sixties I, 1960–1963, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, San Francisco 2002, p. 151, no. 61–126 with ill.
Between 1959 and 1962, Pablo Picasso turned his analytical gaze toward a cornerstone of modernity: Édouard Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. This intellectual encounter gave rise to a vast body of work spanning various expressive forms, from painting and ceramics to the intricate technique of linocut.
This project was far from a mere scholarly citation; it was the manifestation of an urgency that defined Picasso’s entire career: the systematic reappropriation of the Great Masters. Rather than simply paying homage to the past, the artist deconstructed it, rebuilding the work through the principles of the Cubist revolution and his own unique plastic language.
What were Picasso’s intentions in the series of Déjeuners?
“Firstly, I think that, in relation to his work as a whole, it provided him with an opportunity to recapitulate, on a grand scale, some of his recurrent themes. I have in mind, of course, those of the artist and his model, bathers on the beach, the female monster, man’s naturally peaceful inclinations and his delight in simple pleasures, the fallibility of human reason, and the deceptive nature of what passes for reality.
Secondly, Picasso saw in the Déjeuners a means to enhance the connotation of certain figures he had created by bringing them together to form the various episodes of this pictorial transformation scene.
Thirdly, and this is the most important consideration, Picasso found an outlet through the ensemble of the Déjeuners to take up not so much the individual challenge of Manet as that of the whole French School, from Poussin to today. This claim may sound disproportionate, but we must neither ignore the evidence nor overlook the boldness of Picasso’s undertaking.”
D. Cooper, Picasso. Les Déjeneurs, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 35
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