The college student, identifiable by his beret, reads a newspaper and clutches the dotted form of a bottle in the crook of his arm. The face—a dark triangle with white oval eyes, arched eyebrows, a curved mustache, and a toothy grin—was inspired by a Wobe mask from West Africa. Picasso reveled in the work’s multiple textures. The grit of the sand mixed into some of the paint catches the light, an effect repeated by the colorful dots that animate the surface. Students showed up en masse for the annual Carnival celebrations, which involved copious amounts of paper confetti. The spray of red dots on this student’s face hints at his inebriation, an interpretation supported by the inclusion of a bottle of alcohol and by the shortening of the newspaper masthead to “UR[I]NAL.”
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Inscription: Signed (verso, in black paint over gray paint): PICASSO [underlined]
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, 1914; photo no. 363; sequestered Kahnweiler stock, December 12, 1914–21; second Kahnweiler sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 17–18, 1921, no. 204, as "Nature morte," sold for Fr 1,250, to Amédée Ozenfant, probably for La Roche]; Raoul La Roche, Paris (probably by 1921–62; gift in 1962 to Speiser); his nephew, Andreas Leonard Speiser, Basel and Melide, Switzerland (1962–d. 1999); his heirs, Switzerland (1999–2002; sold in June 2002 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 2002)
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Kunsthalle Basel. "Juan Gris, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso," February 26–March 24, 1948, no. 100 (as winter 1913).
Musée de Lyon. "Picasso," June 1953, no. 34 (as "L’étudiant," 1914).
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Kunstmuseum Basel. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," February 25–June 4, 1990, unnumbered cat. (fig. 369).
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Ein Haus für den Kubismus: Die Sammlung Raoul La Roche; Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris—Le Corbusier und Ozenfant," July 8–October 11, 1998, no. 92.
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Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, unpaginated, (list of plates; erroneously as pl. 207), no. 443, pl. 208, as winter 1913.
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Malcolm Gee. Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930. PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art. New York, 1981, appendix F, p. 44, no. 101, as "Nature morte".
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Pierre Daix. Cubists and Cubism. Geneva, 1982, p. 107.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 292, no. 141, ill. p. 293.
Pierre Daix. Picasso créateur: La Vie intime et l'oeuvre. Paris, 1987, p. 143.
William Rubin, ed. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 302 (German ed., 1990, fig. 369; French ed., 1990, and Spanish ed., 1991, ill. p. 296).
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, pp. 354, 514, no. 1019, ill. p. 355.
Kirk Varnedoe in Kirk Varnedoe and Adam Gopnik. High and Low: Modern Art, Popular Culture. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1990, p. 37, fig. 31.
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Pierre Daix. Picasso: Life and Art. New York, 1993, p. 135.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, ill. p. 291, as 1913.
Katharina Schmidt and Hartwig Fischer, ed. Ein Haus für den Kubismus: Die Sammlung Raoul La Roche; Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris—Le Corbusier und Ozenfant. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, p. 303, no. 32, p. 313, no. 152, ill. p. 18, ill. no. 19, ill. p. 36 (color, on display in the residence of Raoul La Roche, Paris, by 1926).
Pierre Daix inEin Haus für den Kubismus: Die Sammlung Raoul La Roche; Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris–Le Corbusier und Ozenfant. Ed. Katharina Schmidt and Hartwig Fischer. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, p. 30.
Franz Meyer inEin Haus für den Kubismus–Die Sammlung Raoul La Roche: Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris–Le Corbusier und Ozenfant. Ed. Katharina Schmidt and Hartwig Fischer. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, pp. 49–51.
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, pp. 162, 172, 510, fig. 363.
Bernice B. Rose, ed. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. Exh. cat., PaceWildenstein. New York, 2007, pp. 128, 187, ill. p. 130.
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Vicenzo Tiziano Aglieri Rinella. "From Cubism to Purism: Art and Dwelling in Le Corbusier’s La Roche House-Gallery." Do.co.mo.mo_Mexico City 2010 11th International Docomomo Conference: Living in the Urban Modernity: Mexico City, August 24-27, 2010. 2010, ill. no. 2 (on display in the residence of Raoul La Roche, Paris, by 1926).
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies. (video recording). Produced by Martin Scorsese and Robert Greenhut, Produced and directed by Arne Glimcher. New York: Arthouse Films, 2010, ill. (color).
T. J. Clark. Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica. Princeton, 2013, fig. 2.36 (on display in the residence of Raoul La Roche, Paris, by 1926).
"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. 47, as "Student Reading a Newspaper".
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Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 233.
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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. 296–97, fig. 73 (on display in the residence of Raoul La Roche, Paris, by 1926).
"The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection: A Conversation with Emily Braun and Pepe Karmel." IFAR Journal 16, no. 3 (2015), p. 48, figs. 2 (color, on display in the living room of the Lauder residence, New York, 2014), 26A (color), and 26B (on display in the residence of Raoul La Roche, Paris, by 1926).
Patricia Leighten inPicasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 2016, p. 142.
Lilly Casillas and Diana Magaloni inPicasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 2016, pp. 140–41, ill. (color).
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Brigitte Leal inThe Cubist Cosmos: From Picasso to Léger. Ed. Brigitte Leal, Christian Briend, and Ariane Coulondre. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Munich, 2019, p. 148 [German ed., Munich, 2019].
Annie Cohen-Solal. Un Étranger nommé Picasso: Dossier de police, no. 74.664. Paris, 2021, p. 256, as "L’Étudiant au journal" in a transcription of a letter from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to Sergei Shchukin.
"1913: A Watershed Year in the History of Modernism." 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale: Franz Marc, The Foxes, 1913. March 1, 2022, ill. p. 97 (color).
Leonard A. Lauder discusses his appreciation of the Cubist works of art he has collected. Leonard A. Lauder answers the question: "Which is your favorite picture?"
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