Pablo Picasso | Self-Portrait | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Self-Portrait

Pablo Picasso
(Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France )

Date: 1906

Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on honeycomb panel

Dimensions: 10 1/2 x 7 3/4in. (26.7 x 19.7cm) 19 1/2 x 17 x 1 3/4 in. (49.5 x 43.2 x 4.4 cm) (Frame)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998

Accession Number: 1999.363.59

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Picasso painted this self-portrait after spending the summer of 1906 in Gósol, a small village in the Spanish Pyrenees. The stay has become synonymous with a decisive new direction in his style, one that moved toward simplified forms with a decidedly archaic and sculptural appearance. This work, painted as the artist turned twenty-five (at about the same time he completed his portrait of Gertrude Stein), was followed immediately by his large "Self-Portrait with Palette" (Philadelphia Museum of Art), perhaps a pendant to Gertrude Stein.

Provenance

Leo and Gertrude Stein, Paris (acquired from the artist, ca. 1906–13/14); Gertrude Stein, Paris (ca. 1913/14–d. 1946; her estate, 1946–68; sold on December 14, 1968, to Meyer); André Meyer, New York (1968–80; his sale, "Highly Important Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from The André Meyer Collection," Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, October 22, 1980, no. 33, to Sandra Canning Kasper, New York, as agent for Tescher); Lynn Epstein Tescher (Mrs. Martin Tescher), New York (1980–86; sold on May 7, 1986, through the same agent, to Gelman); Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Exhibition History

Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," December 19, 1970–March 1, 1971, unnumbered cat. (p. 168).

Baltimore Museum of Art. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," April 4–June 13, 1971, unnumbered cat.

San Francisco Museum of Art. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," September 9–October 31, 1971, unnumbered cat.

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Gertrude Stein and Picasso and Juan Gris," June 25–August 15, 1971, no. 8.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 99).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.

Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 123).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso the Engraver: Selections from the Musée Picasso, Paris," September 18–December 21, 1997, not in catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895 1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 65).

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 126.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat. (pp. 250–51).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 39.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde," May 21–September 6, 2011, no. 239.

Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso... L'aventure des Stein," October 5, 2011–January 16, 2012, no. 40.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde," February 21–June 3, 2012, no. 239.

Barcelona. Museu Picasso. "Yo Picasso. Self Portraits," May 30–September 1, 2013, no. 41.
References

Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 1,Works from 1895 to 1906. Paris, 1932, p. 177, no. 371, ill.

Per Olov Zennström. Pablo Picasso. Stockholm, 1948, ill. facing p. 64, fig. 13.

Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: Étude de l'oeuvre. Paris, 1955, pp. 36, 42, 47, ill.

Denys Sutton. Picasso, Peintures: Époques bleue et rose. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1948). Paris, 1955, no. 52, ill.

Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: A Study of His Work. New York, 1956, pp. 25, 51, ill.

Lothar Günther Buchheim. Picasso: A Pictorial Biography. New York, 1959, pp. 43, 135, ill.

Anthony Blunt and Phoebe Pool. Picasso, the Formative Years: A Study of His Sources. London, 1962, p. 27.

Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900–1906. Greenwich, Conn., 1967, p. 327, no. XVI.27, ill.

William Rubin in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1988, vol. 2, pp. 496–97, fig. 8.

Richard Lombard. "The Portrait of Gertrude Stein." The Column (MMA) 4 (January–February 1990), p. 4, ill.

Carsten Peter Warncke. Pablo Picasso, 1881–1973. Vol. 1,The Works 1890–1936. Ed. Ingo F. Walther. Cologne, 1992, p. 145, ill.

Andrew Decker. "Metropolitan: Une Exceptionnelle donation." Beaux Arts, no. 170 (July 1998), ill. p. 24.

Judith H. Dobrzynski. "20th Century Art Treasures Are Left to Met." New York Times (May 6, 1998), pp. A1, B6, ill.

Roberta Smith. "In a Brash Yet Refined School, Everyone Belongs Together." New York Times (June 15, 2001), p. E37.

Anne Baldassari et al. Cubist Picasso. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 2007, p. 15 n. 26.

Gary Tinterow. "Treasured Paintings Travel from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the MFAH: Remarks Delivered at the Exhibition Opening Reception." The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Annual Report for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007. Houston, 2007, p. 45, ill.

Scholastic Art 39 (March 2009), cover ill.

Gary Tinterow in Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eds. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 116–18, ill.

Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, p. 125, colorpl. 81.

Cécile Debray in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde. Eds. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, p. 224.

Hélène Klein in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde. Eds. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pp. 247, 250 n. 30, pl. 198 (installation photo).

Robert McD. Parker in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde. Eds. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pp. 430, 464, no. 239.

Robert McD. Parker and Maxime Touillet in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant Garde. Eds. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pls. 354, 356, 383 (installation photos).

Eduard Vallès in Yo Picasso. Self Portraits. Exh. cat., Museu Picasso. Barcelona, 2013, pp. 90, 92, no. 41, ill. pp. [10], 89 (color).