Violin Hanging on a Wall
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Not on view
Picasso based this composition on classic trompe l’oeil board paintings. In painting the pine wainscot, however, he simulated the stereotypical style of painter-decorators, artisans who created the convincing imitations of wood paneling that were ubiquitous in French interiors. Some planes forming the violin have the flatness of paper cutouts, but the overlaps, passages of tonal modeling, and addition of sand to the paint lend the instrument a physical presence similar to the cardboard-and-string constructions Picasso was making at this time. By depicting only one of its sides and varying the size of the f-holes, he indicated that it is pivoting on its hook, like the violin in Gijsbrechts’s nearby painting.
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