Still Life with a Bottle, Playing Cards, and a Wineglass on a Table

1914

Not on view

Returned to lender

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

In this painting, Picasso engaged with a traditional Spanish type of realist still life in which the objects are arranged in a zigzagging line along a narrow, projecting ledge. But subversion as well as homage was involved, for although he revived a time-honored form, he chose lowly tavern imagery and adapted artisanal techniques and materials. He used a decorator’s comb to grain the wood, gave the bottle literal tangibility by mixing sand into the dark gray paint, and imitated the vulgar trompe l’oeil of a printed wallpaper border when painting the carved molding of the table’s edge.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Still Life with a Bottle, Playing Cards, and a Wineglass on a Table
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1914
Geography: Country of Origin France
Medium: Oil, sand, and graphite on paperboard, mounted on cradled wood panel
Dimensions: 12 1/2 × 16 7/8 in. (31.8 × 42.9 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Philadelphia Museum of Art: A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art