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The Absinthe Glass

Wax original: Paris, spring 1914; Bronze cast: Foundry Florentin Godard, Paris, made to order for Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler by April 16, 1914
Not on view
In an age when sculpture usually meant allegorical figures and portrait busts, Picasso’s life-size rendering of a glass of alcohol was shocking for its banality. Cast in bronze in an edition of six, and then hand-painted, none of the finished works is colored green, so it was clearly not absinthe’s distinctive color that inspired Picasso. Nor does he seem to have been moved by the national debate about whether to ban the potent liquor. Instead, absinthe presented Picasso with the opportunity to incorporate an actual piece of cutlery, a trowel-shaped, slotted spoon designed to hold a sugar cube over the rim of a glass when preparing the drink. When asked about the sculpture years later, Picasso remembered that he had been particularly intrigued by “the relationship between the real spoon and the modeled glass. In the way they clashed with each other.”

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Absinthe Glass
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: Wax original: Paris, spring 1914; Bronze cast: Foundry Florentin Godard, Paris, made to order for Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler by April 16, 1914
  • Medium: Painted bronze and perforated tin absinthe spoon
  • Dimensions: 8 3/4 × 3 × 6 1/4 in., 3.4 lb. (22.2 × 7.6 × 15.9 cm, 1.5 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2025
  • Object Number: 2025.616.3
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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