At the onset of World War I, Picasso went to Avignon where he encountered an old friend, the Basque artist Francisco Iturrino, with whom he had shared his first exhibition in 1901. The sheet, while presenting a cubist studies of a guitar player, shares expressive features with Iturrino, adding an element of realism in this abstracted form. The orange-hued instrument at the center of the composition could be read as a painter’s palette, owing to its curvilinear shape. Picasso may have intended this productive ambiguity as a sly reference his friend’s profession.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right, in graphite): Picasso [underlined after i and up to the second s] / Avignon 1914
[Galerie Berggruen et Cie, Paris, in 1954]; Douglas Cooper, Argilliers, France, or Monte Carlo (until d. 1984; estate no. DC 2B 270; his bequest to McCarty Cooper); his partner and adopted son, William McCarty Cooper, London (1984–86; sold in November 1986 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1986–13; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
Kunsthalle Bielefeld. "Zeichnungen und Collagen des Kubismus: Picasso, Braque, Gris," March 11–April 29, 1979, no. 117 (as "Bärtiger Mann").
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Master Drawings by Picasso," February 20–April 5,1981, no. 48.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Master Drawings by Picasso," April 30–June 14, 1981, no. 48.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Master Drawings by Picasso," July 11–August 23, 1981, no. 48.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus," November 22, 1987–January 17, 1988, no. 64.
London. Tate Gallery. "Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism," February 3–April 4, 1988, no. 64.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris: Drawings from the Douglas Cooper Collection," June 16–July 31, 1988, no catalogue.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 332).
Houston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," October 14–December 30, 1990, no. 68.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," January 31–April 21, 1991, no. 68.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "1908–1914: Cubist Drawings Collected by Douglas Cooper," June 12–October 4, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. PaceWildenstein. "Picasso and Drawing," April 28–June 2, 1995, no. 19.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Facets of Cubism," December 7, 2005–April 16, 2006, not in brochure.
New York. Frick Collection. "Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition," October 4, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 58.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 77.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 6, Supplément aux volumes 1 à 5. Paris, 1954, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 1244, pl. 149.
Wilhelm Boeck and Jaime Sabartés. Picasso. New York, 1955, p. 482, no. 254, ill., p. 491, no. 135 (German ed., p. 482, no. 254, ill., p. 490, no. 135), as "Homme masque à la palette/Masked Man with a Palette/Maskierter Mann mit Palette/Uomo mascherato con tavolozza".
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 120, no. 710, ill., as "Figura maschile".
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 120, no. 710, ill., as "Homme".
Ulrich Weisner et al. Zeichnungen und Collagen des Kubismus: Picasso, Braque, Gris. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bielefeld. Bielefeld, 1979, pp. 263, 269, pl. 117.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1979, French]. Boston, 1979, p. 333, no. 761, ill., as "Man in a Hat, Playing the Guitar" (French ed., as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitare").
Gary Tinterow. Master Drawings by Picasso. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, Mass., 1981, pp. 18, 128, no. 48, ill. p. 129.
Pierre Daix. Cubists and Cubism. Geneva, 1982, pp. 130–31, 165, ill., as "Man with a Hat Playing the Guitar" (French ed., pp. 130–31, 164, ill. [as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitar"]).
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel, 1987, pp. 151, 156, 178–79 n. 153, p. 214, no. 64, ill. p. 155.
William Rubin, ed. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 332 (French ed., 1990, ill. p. 326 [as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitare"]; German ed., 1990, fig. 426; Spanish ed., 1991, ill. p. 326 [as "Hombre con sombrero tocando la guitarra"]).
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1990, p. 63, no. 68.
Pierre Daix inPicasso, la Provence & Jacqueline. Ed. Pierre Daix with Alain Charron. Exh. cat., Espace Van Gogh. Arles, 1991, p. 29, ill. p. 28, as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitare".
Pierre Daix with Alain Charron, ed. Picasso, la Provence & Jacqueline. Exh. cat., Espace Van Gogh. Arles, 1991, p. 68, as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitare".
Bernice B. Rose. Picasso and Drawing. Exh. cat., PaceWildenstein. New York, 1995, pp. 12, 16, 116, pl. 19.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, p. 341, ill. p. 340, as "Man in a Hat, Playing a Guitar (Iturrino)".
Anne Baldassari. Le Miroir noir: Picasso, sources photographiques, 1900–1928. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1997, pp. 212–13, fig. 210, as "Homme au chapeau jouant de la guitare".
Susan Grace Galassi in Susan Grace Galassi and Marilyn McCully with Joanna Sheers Seidenstein and Katie Steiner. Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2011, pp. 20, 222, 224, no. 58, ill. pp. 21 (detail), 223.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 46, as "Bearded Man Playing a Guitar (Masked Man with a Palette) [Homme barbu jouant la guitare (L’homme masque à la palette)]".
Pepe Karmel inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 187–91, no. 77, ill. p. 190 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 299–300, fig. 77 (installation photo, Exh. Houston 1990).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
ca. 1960
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