In Picasso's universe, the musketeer could be a painter, musician, smoker, or voyeur, but never a fighter. Picasso's dashing soldiers of fortune are ultimately absurd, cartoonish figures whose amorous exploits are more comically libidinous than the sexually predatory behaviors of some of the artist's previous male incarnations.
In this composition the expansive figure of the musketeer takes center stage, while the nude at his side seems incidental. Nearly all the musketeers Picasso painted in the two months leading up to this work are single, centralized figures, similarly attired, usually cross-legged, and smoking long clay pipes.
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Inscription: Signed upper right: Picasso; dated on verso in orange paint, upper left 30.11.68
[Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris, until 1969; sold in August 1969 to Loria]; [Jeffrey Loria & Co., New York, 1969–70; sold in January 1970 to Levine]; A. L. and Blanche Levine, Verona, New Jersey and Palm Beach, Florida (1970–81; their gift to MMA)
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Picasso: The Last Decade," March 2–May 13, 1984, no. 52.
Mexico City. Museo Rufino Tamayo. "Picasso: Su última década," June–July 1984, no. 17.
Paris. Centre Pompidou. "Le Dernier Picasso, 1953–1973," February 17–May 16, 1988, no. 54.
Humlebaek. Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst. "Picasso: 1960–1973," October 8, 1988–January 15, 1989, no. 31.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld. "Picasso, letzte Bilder: Werke1966–1972," October 17, 1993–January 31, 1994, no. 12.
Lisbon. Museo do Chiado. "Picasso e o Mosqueteiro: 1967–1972," October 28, 1997–February 1, 1998, no. 10.
Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Pikaso ten: Kaikan 10-shunen kinen/Pablo Picasso: 10th Anniversary," July 4–September 6, 1998, no. 134.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Pikaso ten: Kaikan 10-shunen kinen/Pablo Picasso: 10th Anniversary," September 12–November 29, 1998, no. 134.
Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Picasso: The Last Decades," November 9, 2002–February 16, 2003, no. 35 (as "Seated Musketeer and Standing Nude").
Vienna. Graphische Sammlung Albertina. "Picasso: Malen gegen die Zeit," September 21, 2006–January 14, 2007, no. 72.
Düsseldorf. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. "Picasso: Malen gegen die Zeit," February 2–May 8, 2007, no. 72.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 94.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 27, Oeuvres de 1967 à 1968. Paris, 1973, p. 165, no. 384, ill.
Lisa M. Messinger. "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1981–1982. New York, [1982], p. 60, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945-1985. New York, 1986, pp. 42–43, ill. (color, overall and detail), calls it "Seated Musketeer and Standing Nude".
Eric Pace. "Alexander L. Levine, Developer and Philanthropist, Dies at 82." New York Times (September 6, 1994), p. B6.
Mariel Jardines. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings, and Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973. Ed. Herschel Chipp and Alan Wofsy. Vol. 14, The Sixties III, 1968–1969. San Francisco, 2003, p. 76, no. 68-226, ill.
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale. Sotheby's, London. June 25, 2008, p. 130, ill.
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, p. 11.
Marla Prather 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. 256–58, no. 94, ill. (color).
Shawn Digney-Peer 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. 258.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
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