The Cup of Coffee

1913

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Picasso did not fully adhere the brilliant blue paper (the silhouette of the rectangular instrument), allowing it to rise along the deckled left side. He then blanketed the resulting shadow with hand-drawn sfumatura (blending), literally blurring the real and the fake. The differences are almost indiscernible, prompting the urge “to see” by lifting the paper. Picasso’s pronounced shading under the white coffee cup also momentarily casts doubt, stimulating the false perception of high relief. The Cubists often applied such eye-tricking chiaroscuro around the edges of their cutouts. Having introduced a radical material realism into a picture, they undercut it with old-fashioned illusionism. The fragment of wallpaper imitating Islamic tiles signifies the background wall and creates its own optical game of projecting and receding planes.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: The Cup of Coffee
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1913
Medium: Cut-and-pasted printed wallpapers, laid and wove papers, charcoal, and white chalk on green laid paper
Dimensions: 23 13/16 × 13 3/4 in. (60.5 × 35 cm)
Classification: Collages
Credit Line: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985 (1985.64.105)
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art