In connection with, or soon after, his first solo exhibition at the principal meeting place of the Barcelona avant-garde, the bohemian tavern Els Quatre Gats, Picasso made a set of small caricatures of the prominent members of the informal club. Romeu (1862–1908) was nearly twenty years older than Picasso and, along with Casas, Rusiñol, and Utrillo, a cofounder of Els Quatre Gats. Although he aspired to be a painter, during a trip to Paris in 1893 he became intrigued by the shadow theater of the Montmartre café Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat), the model for Barcelona's Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats). Perhaps Picasso's use of silhouette here is a sly reference to Romeu's shadow puppets.
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Inscription: Signed in ink, upper right: - P. Ruiz Picasso -
Santiago Juliá, Barcelona (by 1955); C. Michael Paul, New York (until d. 1980); his sister, Dr. Raymonde Paul, New York (1980–82; her gift to MMA)
Barcelona. Els Quatre Gats. "Exhibitions of Drawings by Pablo Picasso," February 1900, no catalogue [possibly this picture].
Providence. Rhode Island School of Design. "Modern Catalan Painting," January 15–February 8, 1932, no. 36 (as one of 18 sketches of Catalonian artists; for sale) [probably this picture].
Brooklyn Museum. "Modern Catalan Painting," February 15–March 12, 1932, no catalogue [probably this picture].
Cincinnati Art Museum. "Modern Catalan Painting," April–May 1932, no catalogue [probably this picture].
Springfield, Mass. Springfield Art Museum. "Modern Catalan Painting," June 1–13, 1932, no. 35 (as one of 18 sketches of Catalonian artists) [probably this picture].
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Modern Catalan Painting," July 1932, no catalogue [probably this picture].
Ann Arbor. University of Michigan. "Modern Catalan Painting," August 1932, no catalogue [probably this picture].
Barcelona. Palacio de la Virreina y Museo de Arte Moderno. "III Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte: Forerunners and Masters of Contemporary Spanish Art," September 24–October 24, 1955, no. 21.
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Der Junge Picasso: Frühwerk und Blaue Periode," December 6, 1984–February 17, 1985, no. 86.
Charleroi. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "Picasso, Miró, Dalí: Évocations d'Espagne," September 24–December 22, 1985, no. 5.
Barcelona. Museu Picasso. "Picasso i els 4 Gats: La clau de la modernidad," November 1995–February 1996, no. 81.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí," October 15, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 3:17.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí," March 7–June 3, 2007, no. 3:17.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Barcelona 1900," September 21, 2007–January 20, 2008, unnumbered cat. (p. 149).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 11.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "XS," December 6, 2011–April 15, 2012, no catalogue.
Rodriguez Codolà. "Els IV Gats: Exposicion Ruiz Picazzo [sic]." La Vanguardia (February 3, 1900), (2006 ed., pp. 265–66).
Edward Alden Jewell. "A Deluge of Art Exhibitions." New York Times (February 15, 1932), p. 15 [probably this picture].
"Catalan Paintings to Be Shown." New York Herald Tribune (February 14, 1932), p. 22 [probably this picture].
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso en Cataluña. Barcelona, 1966, pp. 67, 238, fig. 33.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 21, Supplément aux anneés 1892-1902. Paris, 1969, p. 44, no. 106, ill.
Jane Fluegel inPablo Picasso: A Retrospective. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1980, p. 19, fig.b.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, pp. 190, 529, no. 431, ill.
Lisa Messinger. "Picasso Portrait Drawings: Barcelona 1899–1900." Drawing: The International Review published by the Drawing Society 8 (November 1986), p. 76, fig.8.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 1, 1881–1906. New York, 1991, p. 141, 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. 8.
Magdalena Dabrowski 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. 31, no. 11, ill. (color).
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. 31.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
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