"My life is hell," wrote Picasso to Gertrude Stein just before the death of his companion, Eva Gouel, in December 1915. Picasso's preoccupation with Eva's health, the war, his friends in the army, and his status as a Spanish citizen in France accounts for his small output that year. Although Picasso's few friends remaining in Paris were fascinated by his foray into representational portraiture (see the portrait of Ambroise Vollard 47.140), they all noted the presence of large Cubist compositions in his studio on the rue Schoelcher, overlooking the Montparnasse cemetery. It was, perhaps, because of the war that the canvases remained in his studio, where Picasso continued to revise them. This composition was repainted innumerable times, passing from a drab palette of browns and grays to one of cool, vivid hues, and then, finally, to the dark colors associated with Picasso's despair over Eva's decline.
While Picasso would paint many still lifes on a mantel, this may be his first. He stresses the anthropomorphic aspects of the inanimate objects, encouraging the cheeks of the mantel to be read as legs and the musical instruments to be associated with male and female anatomy. Picasso clearly considered this an important work: not only did he photograph it in progress, he later hung the painting at his country home in Fontainebleau and kept it until 1930.

Signature: Signed and dated in black and orange paint, upper left: ¦Picasso¦ / 1915

Inscription: U.L.: ¦Picasso¦/15

The artist, Paris and elsewhere (1915–30; sold on July 31, 1930, to Rosenberg and Wildenstein); [Paul Rosenberg, Paris, in joint ownership with Georges Wildenstein, Paris 1930, until at least spring 1934]; [Galerie Pierre (Pierre Loeb), Paris, after spring 1934–1940; consigned, through Käte Perls, Paris, to Perls Galleries (Klaus G. Perls), New York, stock no. 1074; consigned by Perls on November 14, 1940, to Matisse; sold on December 21, 1940 (in full on June 30, 1941) for $3,500 to Matisse]; [Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1940–44; stock no. 1027; sold on January 17, 1944, for $8,500 to Marx]; Samuel and Florene Marx, Chicago (1944–his d. 1964); Florene May Marx, later Mrs. Wolfgang Schoenborn, New York (1964–d. 1995; on extended loan at The Museum of Modern Art, from 1971; her bequest to MMA, 1995)

Zurich, Switzerland: Kunsthaus Zurich, Picasso, Retrospective 1901-1931 , 11 September - 30 October (extended to 13 November) 1932, cat. no.92, pl. XI, illustrated.

New York: The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso. Forty Years of His Art, Nov. 15, 1939- January 7, 1940, cat. no. 125 (as "Fireplace with a Guitar").

New York: The Museum of Modern Art, The School of Paris. Paintings from the Florene May Shoenborn and Samuel A.Marx Collection, 1965-1966, cat. p. 22 discussed and illustrated (exhibition also traveled to: The Art Institute of Chicago, City Art Museum of St. Louis, San Francisco Museum of Art, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico).

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Florene M. Schoenborn Bequest:
12 Artists of the School of Paris, February 11-August 31, 1997 (brochure), no. 16, illus. in color.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Painters in Paris 1895 - 1950, March 8 -
December 31, 2000, pp.74-75, illus. in color.

Kyoto,Japan: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, September 14-November 24, 2002; Tokyo: The Bunkamura Museum of Art, December 7, 2000 - March 9, 2003, Picasso and the School of Paris, Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. plate 21, p. 67, illus. in color.

Paris, France: Musee Picasso, September 18, 2007 - January 7, 2008, "Picasso Cubiste." P. 309, color illus.

Barr, Alfred H. Jr. The School of Paris. Paintings from the Florene May Schoenborn
and Samuel A. Marx Collection. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965, p.22,
illustrated.

Daix, Pierre and Rosselet, Joan. Picasso: The Cubist Years 1907 - 1916. Boston, 1979, no. 812, illus.

Rubin, William. Picasso in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, (exhibition
catalogue). New York, 1972, p. 97.

Vrancken, Charles and Wartmann, W. Picasso Retrospective 1901-1931. Zurich, Kunsthaus, 1932, cat. no 92, pl. XI.

Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, vol 2**, no 540, p. 251, illus.