As a young artist, Picasso availed himself of every opportunity for commercial work. During his early stays in Paris, he lived and worked in Montmartre, the locus of nocturnal pleasures both innocent and guilty. The streets were plastered with posters for the big dance halls—Le Moulin Rouge, Le Moulin de la Galette—as well as smaller cafés.
Picasso executed this design for Le Jardin de Paris, a Parisian dance hall, as a speculative bid. Located near the Champs Elysées, Le Jardin de Paris was the summer outpost of Le Moulin Rouge and was likewise managed by the Catalan Josep Oller (1839–1922). Borrowing from the imagery of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso also adopted Lautrec's signature tonal shading, here achieved by flicking a brush. Given that Lautrec was gravely ill and had stopped working, Picasso may have hoped to position himself as his successor. However, Oller did not buy the design, and a short time later, Picasso reused the back of this work to sketch preliminary compositions for the The Mourners (private collection) and The Burial of Casagemas (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), dedicated to his late friend Carles Casagemas, in whose apartment he was living and whose lover, Germaine (Laure Gargallo), was now his own.
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Inscription: Signed in ink, lower right: -Picasso-; inscribed, at top: - JARDIN / PARIS -
Georges Lévy (probably Léon Georges Levy), Paris (until 1934; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 20, 1934, no. H; sold for Fr 1,900); [Galerie Käte Perls, Paris, in 1937]; [Perls Galleries (Klaus and Frank Perls), New York, 1937–39; sold on January 9, 1939, for $600, to Chrysler]; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York and Warrenton, Va. (1939–50; his sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, February 16, 1950, no. 28, sold for $950); private collection (1950–61; sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, April 26, 1961, no. 19); Colonel C. Michael Paul (by 1966–d. 1980); his sister, Dr. Raymonde Paul, New York (1980–82; her gift to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Käte Perls. "Picasso, 1900 à 1910: Exposition de tableaux, aquarelles, dessins," June 15–July 15, 1937, no. 5.
New York. Perls Galleries. "The School of Paris: Modern French Paintings "for the Young Collector"," September 12–October 22, 1938, no. 4.
Art Institute of Chicago. "The Eighteenth International Exhibition, Water Colors, Pastels, Drawings, and Monotypes," March 23–May 14, 1939, no. 135.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940, no. 14.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," February 1–March 5, 1940, no. 14.
City Art Museum of Saint Louis. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," March 16–April 14, 1940, no. 14.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," April 26–May 25, 1940, no. 14.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," January 16–March 4, 1941, no. 194.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," March 29–May 11, 1941, no. 194.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Gifts: 1982," February 16–March 27, 1983, no catalogue.
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Der Junge Picasso: Frühwerk und Blaue Periode," December 6, 1984–February 17, 1985, no. 114.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Two: Twentieth-Century Art," June 4–September 2, 1985, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "60 Drawings: Recent Acquisitions," October 23, 1990–January 15, 1991, no catalogue.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso," June 5–September 1, 1991, no. 149.
New York. IBM Gallery of Science and Art. "Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso," October 15–December 28, 1991, no. 149.
Paris. Musée Picasso. "Picasso 1901–1909: Chefs d'oeuvre du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," October 21, 1998–January 25, 1999, unnumbered cat. (fig. 6).
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre," March 20–June 12, 2005, no. 174.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre," July 16–October 10, 2005, no. 174.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 14.
Barcelona. Museu Picasso. "Eating Fire: Picasso's Discovery of Paris (1900-1907)," June 29–October 16, 2011, unnumbered cat. (pl. 35).
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. "Picasso / Lautrec," October 17, 2017–January 21, 2018, no. 41.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Young Picasso in Paris," May 12–August 6, 2023, no catalogue.
"Picasso's Le Jardin de Paris." Arts and Decoration 49 (January 1939), p. 7, ill.
Alfred M. Frankfurter. "341 Documents of Modern Art: The Chrysler Collection." Art News 39 (January 18, 1941), p. 12, ill.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York, 1946, p. 20, ill.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 6, Supplément aux volumes 1 à 5. Paris, 1954, p. 45, no. 367, ill.
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: A Study of His Work. New York, 1956, pp. 10, 13.
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900–1906. Greenwich, Conn., 1967, p. 145, no. IV.15, ill.
Douglas Cooper. Picasso Theatre. New York, 1968, p. 341, fig. 23.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, pp. 234, 534, no. 590, ill.
Lisa M. Messinger. "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1982–1983. New York, 1983, p. 70, ill. (color).
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 80–81, ill.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 1, 1881–1906. New York, 1991, p. 201.
Marilyn McCully, ed. Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 1997, p. 36, fig. 22.
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, pp. 40–41, 502, fig. 50.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 346–48, 350, 356.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 12, 37–40, no. 14, ill. (color, recto and verso).
Rachel Mustalish inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 40.
Paloma Alarcó inPicasso/Lautrec. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Madrid, 2017, pp. 55, 233, no. 41, ill. pp. 125, 233 (color).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1955, printed 1961
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