Picasso plays with expectations. What might normally be printed—the label on the bottle at center—is deliberately hand-drawn, while what is traditionally handwritten—the artist’s signature—is stenciled within the outline of a dog-eared calling card at lower right. A diagonal representing a shimmering ray of light separates the “B” from the “AS” and energizes the composition. Ostensibly, “BAS” stands for the popular British import Bass ale (to which Braque and Picasso clearly refer in other Cubist works), but here the “B” is depicted as if it were the liquid itself entering the glass. Meanwhile the remaining letters—“AS”—spell the French word for “ace,” which is precisely what Picasso depicts below.
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Inscription: Signed (lower right, in black paint): PICASSO [stenciled]; signed and inscribed (verso, upper center, in black paint): Picasso [underlined] / CÉRET
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris; photo no. 344]; Earl Horter, Philadelphia (by 1929/30–36; sold on June 25, 1936 to Keim); Elizabeth Lentz Keim (later Elizabeth Lentz Horter), South Langhorne (present-day Penndel), Pennsylvania (1936–late 1960s; sold in late 1960s to Diamond); Harold Diamond, New York (late 1960s–d. 1982); his widow, Hester Diamond, New York (1982–2004; her sale, Sotheby’s, New York, November 4, 2004, no. 5, as "Dé, verre, bouteille de Bass, as de trèfle et carte de visite," sold to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 2004)
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. "Earl Horter Collection," February 17–March 14, 1934.
Arts Club of Chicago. "Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. Earl Horter of Philadelphia," April 3–26, 1934, no. 52.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. January 1936, until no later than June 25, 1936.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Philadelphia Collects 20th Century," October 30–November 17, 1963, unnumbered cat. (p. 29; as "Ceret—Still Life").
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and His Collection," March 7–May 16, 1999, unnumbered cat. (pl. 43; as "Dice, Wineglass, Bottle of Bass, Ace of Clubs, and Visiting Cards").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 74.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism and the Trompe l'Oeil Tradition," October 17, 2022–January 22, 2023, unnumbered cat. (pl. 118).
Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. Earl Horter of Philadelphia. Exh. cat., Arts Club of Chicago. Chicago, 1934, unpaginated, no. 52.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 789, pl. 345, as "Dés, verre, bouteille de Bass, carte à jouer, carte de visite".
Philadelphia Collects 20th Century. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1963, p. 29.
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: A Study of His Work. Rev. ed. New York, 1972, ill. p. 198, as "Dice, Glass, Bottle of Bass, Playing-card, Visiting-card".
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 122, no. 734, ill. p. 121, as "Dadi, bicchiere, bottiglia di Bass e biglietto da visita".
Roland Penrose and John Golding, ed. Picasso in Retrospect. New York, 1973, p. 276, ill. no. 115, as "Still Life with Bottle of Bass".
Robert Rosenblum. "Picasso and the Typography of Cubism." Picasso in Retrospect. Ed. Roland Penrose and John Golding. New York, 1973, p. 68, ill. no. 115, as "Still Life with Bottle of Bass".
Winthrop Judkins. Fluctuant Representation in Synthetic Cubism: Picasso, Braque, Gris, 1910–1920. PhD diss., Harvard University. New York, 1976, p. 332, no. Z-P 12-17, pl. 789, ill. p. 405, as "Dés, verre, bouteille de bass, carte à jouer, carte de visite".
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 122, no. 734, ill. p. 121, as "Dés, verre, bouteille de Bass, carte à jouer, carte de visite"
.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, p. 324, no. 707, ill., as "Dice, Wineglass, Bottle of Bass, Ace of Clubs, and Visiting-card" (French ed., as "Dé, verre, bouteille de Bass, as de trèfle et carte de visite").
Robert Rosenblum. "Picasso and the Typography of Cubism." Picasso in Retrospect. Ed. John Golding and Roland Penrose. New York, 1980, p. 43, as "Still Life with Bottle of Bass".
Francis Frascina. "Realism and Ideology: An Introduction to Semiotics and Cubism." Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. Ed. Charles Harrison, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry. New Haven, 1993, p. 171, pl. 149, as "Dé, verre, bouteille de Bass, as de trèfle et carte de visite".
Innis Howe Shoemaker, with Christa Clarke, and William Wierzbowski. Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and His Collection. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1999, p. 98, ill. p. 11, fig. 1 (on display in Earl Horter’s residence in Philadelphia, ca. 1929–30), pl. 43.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, p. 341, as "Dice, Wineglass, Bottle of Bass, Ace of Clubs, and Visiting Card".
Patricia Leighten inPicasso and the Allure of Language. Ed. Susan Greenberg Fisher, with Mary Ann Caws, Jennifer R. Gross, Patricia Leighten, and Irene Small. Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 2009, pp. 81–83, fig. 2, as "Dice, Wineglass, Bottle of Bass, Ace of Clubs, and Visiting-Card".
"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 "Dice, Glass, Bottle of Bass, Playing Card, and Visiting Card (Dés, verre, bouteille de Bass, carte à jouer et carte de visite)".
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, pp. 233, 236, 321(2)n.18.
Rebecca Rabinow inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 170, 173–75, 316(1)n.16, no. 74, ill. p. 174 (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. 297–98, fig. 12, p. 252 (on display in Earl Horter's residence, Philadelphia, ca. 1929–30).
Maria Grazia Messina. "The Media of In-Depth Perception: Picasso’s Work in the Interpretation of Ivan Aksenov." Vision in Motion: Streams of Sensation and Configurations of Time. Ed. Michael F. Zimmermann. Zurich and Berlin, 2016, p. 488 n. 11.
Emily Braun. "Shadows, Shading, and Shades." The Cubism Seminars. Ed. Harry Cooper. Washington, D.C., 2017, pp. 33, 35–36, fig. 18 (color).
Emily Braun in Emily Braun and Elizabeth Cowling. Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2022, pp. 28–29, 159, 221, 247, colorpl. 118.
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