The generally accepted
idea about Picasso still is that of a chameleonic like artist who emerges in
Paris early 1900 mostly thanks to his talent to absorb the best of what he sees
in the effervescent scene of new art (Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin) in close
contact with his colleagues and friends Matisse, Braque, Derain, etc. The often
quoted words by Félicien Fagus in La Revue Blanche and Gustave Cocquiot
in the catalogue of the Vollard’s famed first Picasso exhibition in Paris 1901
about the many influences on the young artist remain basically amply shared.
The grand exhibition (2010) of the artist, Picasso in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art of New York starts with the little portraits of the gang of
Picasso at the tavern Els Quatre Gats, Barcelona early 1900.
Nothing of Coruña, Llotja’s Barcelona, Madrid, Horta 1898... as if they were fruitless or wasted experiences by the young artist. Pierre Daix, a recognized authority with more than ten books about Picasso confirms in the revised edition of his Dictionnaire Picasso (Paris, 2011) the dismissal of the artist’s production in the classrooms of the Barcelona Academy both in the text and in his selected list of works. But there are recent signs which points in the opposite direction: In the following pages we shall try to prove that Picasso, age 19 years old, brings to Paris his own ideas molded in respect to the human representation by a rigorous academic training and contributes to the avant-garde with an input already original and illustrative of his exceptional talent. The long and belated process of including the works of the Spanish period in the anthological accounts of Picasso development starts indeed with Alfred H. Barr in 1946 but it becomes better defined since 1980 1 . In 1996 with the final exhibition of William Rubin as a director of the M.O.M.A.: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation Rubin declares: “If the Museum of Modern Art’s exhaustive 1980 retrospective of Picasso’s work succeeded it was in part by unexpectedly disclosing an artist less given to sudden changes in style than to incremental advances”. In a turnaround he emphasizes Picasso’s pictorial thought.” This kind of study was renewed in the 1984 The Young Picasso at the Bern Museum etc.”Cat.p.447).We must add that Rubin acknowledged the influence of Meyer Shapiro in his shift of position (The Unity of Picasso’s Art, Meyer Shapiro, George Braziller, New York 2000).
Nothing of Coruña, Llotja’s Barcelona, Madrid, Horta 1898... as if they were fruitless or wasted experiences by the young artist. Pierre Daix, a recognized authority with more than ten books about Picasso confirms in the revised edition of his Dictionnaire Picasso (Paris, 2011) the dismissal of the artist’s production in the classrooms of the Barcelona Academy both in the text and in his selected list of works. But there are recent signs which points in the opposite direction: In the following pages we shall try to prove that Picasso, age 19 years old, brings to Paris his own ideas molded in respect to the human representation by a rigorous academic training and contributes to the avant-garde with an input already original and illustrative of his exceptional talent. The long and belated process of including the works of the Spanish period in the anthological accounts of Picasso development starts indeed with Alfred H. Barr in 1946 but it becomes better defined since 1980 1 . In 1996 with the final exhibition of William Rubin as a director of the M.O.M.A.: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation Rubin declares: “If the Museum of Modern Art’s exhaustive 1980 retrospective of Picasso’s work succeeded it was in part by unexpectedly disclosing an artist less given to sudden changes in style than to incremental advances”. In a turnaround he emphasizes Picasso’s pictorial thought.” This kind of study was renewed in the 1984 The Young Picasso at the Bern Museum etc.”Cat.p.447).We must add that Rubin acknowledged the influence of Meyer Shapiro in his shift of position (The Unity of Picasso’s Art, Meyer Shapiro, George Braziller, New York 2000).
A valiant effort
In 1995 a young
Japanese art dealer recently established in New York who wanted to explore the
early years of great artists such as Giacometti (Yoshii Galleries 1994) decided
to take a chance with the artist he most admired, Pablo Picasso. His name was
Kazuhito Yoshii. He travelled to Spain to meet Josep Palau who had just
organized an exhibition in commemoration of the centennial of the arrival of
Picasso in Barcelona, Picasso i Catalunya, Girona 1995.Yoshii was
fascinated by the personality of the man who had dedicated 50 years to the
study and research of Picasso’s life and work. The result was a show (fig.1) Pablo
Picasso: Academic and Anti-Academic (1895-1900). And a catalogue:
Introduction by Maya Picasso-who lent several pieces from her own collection,
text by Josep Palau i Fabre and a touching “Acknowledgement” from the owner of
the Gallery Yoshii. In total 22 works. Among them were four outstanding
paintings of academic nudes and three masterful drawings from the School of
Barcelona 1895-97 (called “Llotja” en Catalan) all previously certified by
Palau. The two paintings of Horta 1898, first published in Goya magazine on
April 1991 and later on certified by Palau and Maya Picasso, (the Gypsy Boy
seated and the Naked Man from the back) came also to New York.
Yoshii planned to make coincide his picassean show with the Director William
Rubin farewell at the M.O.M.A. but failed somewhat in attracting the attention of
public and critics too busy with digesting the big blockbuster a few yards away
from his shop at West 57th Street in Manhattan. Exceptionally The Burlington
Magazine of London took notice of it .David Anfam in the issue of August
1996remarked sharply “that the Picasso student years evinced a dialectic
between academic and anti-academic urges that would have far reaching
consequences”. The Yoshii show ran from April 25 – June 15, 1996 moving then to
Okazaki, Japan, August 1996. In spite of the high prices the show was not a
fiasco. Between New York and Japan Yoshii sold four or five pictures.
The personality of Palau
Josep Palau i Fabre
(1917-2008) enjoyed a privileged personal relationship with Picasso since they
met in Paris in 1947. Maya Picasso writes in the foreword of the Yoshii
catalogue: “A young Catalan poet, he had already written a book about my
father, Vidas de Picasso when he came to Paris in 1946”. After
describing the way Sabartés screened the hopeful aspiring to enter in the
studio of Picasso at 7 Rue des Grands Augustins and how Palau was let in with a
resounding “Que venga” (“let him in”)
the daughter of the great man continues “And thus was begun a mutually
appreciative relationship between two men so different in age and fame which
lasted unbroken until my father`s dying days”. And more “His research then
becomes the definite reference for Picasso’s body of work”...”His knowledge of
my father is encyclopedic” ..”His books...are the bible for the study of
Picasso’s work”. Palau himself wrote in 1997 a little book with his memoirs of
his meetings with the artist (Estimat Picasso in Catalan, Querido
Picasso in Spanish). There he describes in two parts his numerous
encounters, five or six of casual character until 1961 when Palau returns to Barcelona
and many more since the young poet decides to write a serious biography and
catalogue and asks timidly if Picasso can help him in the task. Maya says: “So
there were Zervos, Geiser and Spies. Each had an area of my father`s oeuvre:
painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture”...”Then, the one-in-a million
showed up: Josep Palau i Fabre”. What happened in “Notre Dame de Vie” the house
of Picasso and Jacqueline in Mougins on April 22, 1964 is worth to recall as
Palau tells in the book. That day, after answering several questions about
details of his life in Gósol and “the exact location of his room at the
Bateau-Lavoir” in Paris 1906-7, Picasso announced to Palau the great news for
the city of Barcelona, “Tell in Barcelona that Las Meninas” will go there”.
And that was the beginning of many sessions- at least two or three per year-
until the one in March 17 of 1972 when Palau registered down a conversation
between several guests at the villa of Picasso in which the master answers a
question posed by Madame Leiris about who is among the many authors writing of
Picasso the one he prefers, he trust more.” Palau, said quietly Picasso”.
Picasso died on April 8, 1973 and was buried in his chateau of Vauvenargues on
April 16.
The ultimate fruit of
this privilege research was in the first place the book Picasso vivent
1881-1907, Barcelona 1981 with Spanish, English and French editions which
were received with general acclaim. Then it followed (1990) the volume
about Cubism and the one dedicated to the years 1917-1926, (1999). Each
published by Polígrafa from Barcelona under the meticulous supervision
of the author. Before his death he left finished pending some details
the text of the fourth volume covering the decade leading to the Guernica.
Delayed for lack of financing it appeared on December 2011 under the title
Del Minotauro al Guernica 1927-1939. In total the bibliography on
Picasso by Palau amounts to 20 titles. He never had assistants for his
research. In Catalan poetry and theatre he achieved in the last decade of his
life the highest awards and a wide critical and popular recognition. The
president of the Generalitat of Catalunya received his corpse before the burial
in a solemn ceremony enacted at the palace of the government of this Community
of Spain.
Palau and the academic nudes of Picasso of Llotja
In the Introduction of
the aforementioned Yoshii Catalogue, Palau writes: “Fortunately the Picasso
Museum in Barcelona owns a few drawings and academic paintings which provide a
solid base for research into this stage of the artist development. The first
consideration that thrust itself upon us in view of these academic pieces is
the following: If Picasso attended classes at the Llotja for two academic
years, knowing his overwhelming capacity for work as we do, how can we explain
the relatively low number of academic pieces? Three or four paintings a year is
very little indeed for a man like Picasso”. Very wise words which the Barcelona
Museum should take note of. And then surprisingly for a writer who does not
often change his opinions Palau expresses his meditations over the value and
significance of the academic studies since the writing of Picasso: The Early
Years: “ These questions have been partially answered over the course of
the last years THANKS TO THE DISCOVERY OF SOME OF THE ACADEMIC PIECES DONE BY
PICASSO AT THE BARCELONA LLOTJA.IT IS THESE NEW DISCOVERIES AND THE NEED TO
COMPARE THEM WITH THE WORKS IN THE PICASSO MUSEUM IN BARCELONA ,THAT HAVE
FORCED US TO LOOK AT PICASSO’S ACADEMIC WORK WITH NEW EYES, AND GIVE IT THE
ATTENTION IT HAS NOT PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED. AS A CONSEQUENCE, ALL OF HIS
PRODUCTION DURING THESE TWO YEARS TAKES ON A NEW PERSPECTIVE”. I candidly
confess that I did not grasp– or perhaps I jumped over this paragraph - until
very recently the importance of the information discretely revealed by the
curator of the Yoshii show. Palau here tells us of a discovery, of a real
happening of which he had knowledge which is different of his legitimation by
certificates. All the discoveries were made after 1981. (See Appendix)
An opportunity wasted
Very close to the two
exhibitions of New York the museums of Washington D.C. and Boston put together
a project to open March 30,1997 with an ambitious and promising title for the
vindication of Picasso’s formative years in his country of origin.: Picasso
The Early Years,1892-1906.Maya Picasso cooperated with the organizers and
recommended the newly discovered painting from Horta 1898 “Naked Gypsy Boy
Seated” first published in The Journal of Art by Barbara Rose,
March 1991 and exhibited at Yoshii. A letter addressed to the happy owner in
Madrid signed by the presidents of the National Gallery of Art and the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, requested the picture as an accomplished work of art and
for his historical value. But the original idea of concentrating in the truly
first years gave way to a more commercial approach that extended the limits
till the autumn of 1906. The Blue period was very well represented and came out
reinforced over the Rose period, but from the academic production, only three
drawings were finally included. The works discovered by Palau were absent and
he was not invited to participate as a writer in the catalogue which was edited
by the Picasso British specialist Marilyn McCully.
The mystery of the provenance of the new certified academies
from Picasso
Neither the ensemble
of oeuvre “academic but anti-academic” shown at Yoshii in New York nor the
groundbreaking illustrated text of the catalogue by Palau had the reception and
attention they deserved. We have already expressed some of the reasons.
Competition with the show at the M.O.M.A. was not the only one. With Picasso
dead, the isolation of the aging and practically deft Palau left him
unprotected in the complex world around Picasso legacy dominated by the figure
of the president of the Picasso Administration, Claude Picasso 2 . It is to the credit of
Maya Picasso to recognize that she remained faithful and even a staunch
defender of Palau. Claude Picasso never felt at ease with the authority that
the Catalan writer exhibited with his certificates always accepted by Maya and
more importantly by the leading auction houses. Therefore is not surprising
that when asked by Palau to allow him to put the name of Picasso in the title
of his projected Foundation, Claude refused without even receiving Palau’s
envoy to Paris. The Fundació Palau found a friendly town on the coast close to
Barcelona –Caldes d’Estrac- to accommodate the collections of art – including
several Picasso’s gifts – books and documents and the last living quarters for
its president and founder.
It did not help
matters the poor personal relationship of Palau with Maria Teresa Ocaña the
very active director of the Picasso Museum of Barcelona for many years until
2007. His colleagues and peers Pierre Daix and John Richardson were respectful
toward his contribution to the first period. The Parisian writer always
recommended Palau whenever he had requests for identification of early
attributions but in his Dictionnaire Picasso (1995) criticized Palau
neglect and underestimation of the French influence in the master’s life
and oeuvre. Richardson was critical with Palau’s book on Cubism for ignoring
crucial art literature on the period. But the main reason for the indifference
or lack of official response to the discoveries certified by Palau and
shown partially in New York was most probably the absence of provenance
of the new academies other than “private collection”. Three of them
exhibited (nos. 5, 6, 7 of the Yoshii Cat.) and four reproduced and
studied in the catalogue: figs. 28, 29, 30, 31. How and when Palau had found
such a big number of Picasso academic pictures never known before? Yes, indeed
Palau had already informed the readers in the underlined paragraph of his change
of opinion because of the discoveries in recent years of new works by Picasso
from Llotja. The extraordinary no.3 originally in the Plandiura collection as
described in the catalogue came to Palau`s knowledge after 1981. Now we can
explain the real provenance of the seven mysterious works which is the best
that anyone could ask for: the very place where the young boy called Pablo Ruiz
Picasso studied. The Academy of Llotja of Barcelona. It is time to know the
truth 3.
Don Federico Marés and his assistant Salvador Moreno
Frederic or Federico
Marés (1893-1991) was a multifaceted personality, a public figure in Barcelona
but basically he was a sculptor of public monuments and a successful collector
of art and antiquities who wanted to perpetuate his name in his city by
donating his collection mostly of sculptures from the Romanesque and Gothic
art. The Museu Marés is housed in an old building close to the cathedral of
Barcelona which was given to him by the Barcelona municipality including on it
his own living and working quarters. The many sides of this big personage –some
of them judged very differently by friend or foes – deserves a biography with
many pages not yet accomplished. Marés was an active factor in anything
concerning the preservation of the archaeological remains of this ancient
Mediterranean city as well as the restoration of the damages caused in the
terrible times of the beginnings of the Civil War. Politically he was a
conservative man who sided with the Franco regime probably out of practical
convenience for him and for the good of his beloved Barcelona. Mares was the
author of the gigantic statute dedicated to the Victory of Franco placed in the
centric Paseo de Gracia which was finally removed in 2011. In 1963 he was
appointed president of the Real Academia Catalana de Bellas Artes de Sant
Jordi, the institution that occupied the already discontinued old Academia de
Artes y Oficios called the Llotja en Catalan and Lonja in Spanish 4. He remained in that
position until 1990. The historical school was in a pitiful state of abandon
and neglect with its collection of art disperse or deteriorated. Marés was the
right man to correct the situation and revive the institution. He called to
help him a recent newcomer to Barcelona, master of many arts including music,
painting and the history of art. He was Salvador Moreno (1916-1999) a Mexican
from Spanish ancestry who had been a protégé of the Mexican composer Carlos
Chávez and as a painter a friend and pupil of the exiled Spanish artist Ramon
Gaya. Moreno catalogued with efficiency the sculptures collection of Llotja and
supervised its restoration In December 15 of 1983 he was inducted as a new
academician in a solemn act presided by Marés who made a very laudatory
presentation. The title of Moreno’s dissertation was “La
Escultura en la casa Lonja de Barcelona”. (In México, Salvador Moreno had been
instrumental in the reconstruction of the Academia of San Carlos an institution
similar to the Llotja).
One day Salvador
Moreno, busy in his work of cleaning the installations of the old school of
Llotja, found a roll of oil canvases that had a name hand written on the cover:
Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He took it immediately to the Director. “Look what I have
found”. Marés who was not only his superior but also a personal friend examined
the roll with the name of the famous old pupil of the Academy and told his
assistant. “You found it. It is yours”. My research in the archives of the Sant
Jordi Academy reveals that Salvador Moreno ended his tenure as academic in an unexpected
way. Having being accused by a fellow member of misusing his prerogatives in
the Museum commission of the Academy, Moreno tended his resignation in a long
letter and angrily returned his medal of academic. His reasons: “many and one
in particular”, he wanted to come back to Mexico. This was recorded in the
official proceedings of the meeting of October 9, 1985. But he only left
Barcelona twelve years later and died in Mexico in 1999. Friends to the very
popular Moreno remember seeing at his house in the Barceloneta sector near the
port the collection of Picasso academic nudes hung covering the wall behind his
bed. This event happened in the early eighties after the publication of the
first volume of Palau biography of Picasso, Picasso Early Years, 1981.
Palau, who knew Moreno and was grateful for Moreno’s research at Llotja 5 in due process
extended the corresponding certificates to the buyers thru the professional
services of the Costa Art Gallery. The collection of seven paintings was
dispersed among different persons during the decade of the eighties. The last
one was The Model (fig.16) bought by Palau himself thinking ahead of the
future museum of his Foundation. This very attractive picture is now one of the
stars of the permanent collection at Caldetes. Obviously Palau did not want to
reveal neither in the Yoshii catalogue nor in his own files the origin of the
important discovery in fear to hurt the honorability of Moreno and Marés and
question the legality of the sales.
Given the circumstances
of the discovery is doubtful if the behavior of the director and his assistant
ought to be censored as a clear case of dishonesty. Personally I believe that
Marés, an experienced wheeler and dealer of the art trade, felt pity for his
old pal broken and fallen in disgrace and decided to compensate him with this
reward. One hears similar stories concerning the liquidation and reforms of old
museums and cultural institutions go around the world of art with contrasting
interpretations and judgments. Two persons in Barcelona who knew first hand of
the eventful episode have decided to make it public for the sake of Picasso’s
art. For the good connoisseur of the early oeuvre of Picasso the works shown in
New York or illustrated on the catalogue without provenance should be accepted
as Picasso’s pictures. But the hard reality of the Picasso universe – call it
if you wish “Picasso industry” – shows a different interpretation. These
pictures don’t exist for them. Since its publication on 1996 not a single book
or magazines other than the scarce mentions already indicated covering the show
in New York, have taken them into proper account. The indifference or ignorance
includes and extends until the very museums bearing the name of the artist in
Barcelona and Paris. Now the revelation of its origin will hopefully eliminate
any doubt about who the author is. And it should enrich Picasso’s oeuvre and
legend.6
The new dimension of Picasso`s formative years at Llotja
The knowledge and
understanding of Picasso formative years at the Llotja limited up to now to the
scarce and relatively mediocre specimens of the Museum of Barcelona “takes in a
new dimension” using Palau’s words. It was logical that the academic years of
Picasso in Barcelona were given a minimum critical attention based in the
little production available. Man sitting on a stool from 1897 (fig.2) is
probably the museum’s best painting of this kind always on public view. This
picture already reveal a sign of identity of Picasso’s personality as an
artist: Whenever he feels he does not finish a painting. Now with the mystery
disclosed it is mandatory to review in a deep analysis Picasso’s “academic but
anti-academic art” from 1895 until Horta 1899. We actually have a broader base
to work with and penetrate deeper in the “torn mind” – using Palau expression –
of Picasso during his two formative school years in Barcelona. And what we see
in them is how Picasso advances in his explorations of the representation of
the human figure and of its setting, either against an unconventional
background either unfinished or with a geometrical pattern of color squares
.His odd preference for painting the back of the model is also a mark of his
independent attitude. And all this young Pablo was already undertaking before
reaching Paris as we shall try to explain in the second part of this article.
II. Picasso exploring from the Academy the coming avant-garde
The text by Palau in
the Yoshii Catalogue is really an updated revision of ideas expressed in the
first volume of his biography of Picasso published in1981. As indicated before,
Palau wished to explain his new and improved evaluation of the academic work of
the artist starting with the Coruña years, a period Picasso was so fond to
remember. Palau’s essay on the series of drawings based in a clay model of the
Venus of Milo is by itself a critical new approach to Picasso’s ambivalent
attitude towards his academic training. From the very beginning of his school
classes he was not merely copying with remarkable brilliancy the clay model he
had before his eyes but he was innovating and making the body of the goddess
palpitate with sensuality as if she was alive. Let us quote Palau’s remarks on
the academic studies new significance: “Undoubtedly the fact that
academic studies are considered to be a conventional and unavoidable activity,
the same for all artists and inevitably extremely homogenizing in their effect,
has caused in the majority of the scholars to neglect them. Picasso’s academic
studies have until now been considered a pre-stage of the painter’s
development, as if his personality was imperceptible in them, or so deeply
buried that it defied discovery. However, that is not the case. As always when
we confront him and his work, we end up realizing that he demolishes our assumptions,
especially if they are based, as they were in this case, on commonplaces”. And
a few pages down Palau affirms: “To penetrate the academic studies is to enter
into the secret chambers from whence those revolutionary torrents would
spring...”
Perhaps the most
flagrant case of the shortsightedness of the established scholarly assessment
of Picasso pre-Parisian years as a simple case of a promising and hard-working
young artist is to deny him of the paternity of the pictorial idea of “the
broken backs” as in Two women at a Bar, Barcelona 1902,(Hiroshima Museum
of Art), (fig.3.). Nobody seemed to be alert to the long development and
interest of Picasso since Coruña1893-5 for the pictorial possibilities of the
upper back of the human body. Instead the Picasso scholars generally accuse him
of appropriating somebody else`s art. In this case Gauguin with his rotund
Tahiti women. A similar case happens with the almost obsession that the late
Robert Rosenblum – followed by many others - had with the influence of Ingres
in Picasso starting with the problematic resemblance of the innovative The
Harem, Gósol 1906 (Cleveland Museum of Art) with Ingres’s Turkish Bath a
painting so different in concept and technique until what he dares to call
“recreation” of the Ingres’ portrait of the lawyer Monsieur Bertin in
Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein, famous for its arduous elaboration
in Paris 1906-7. It is a contradiction in terms to admire the genius of Picasso
while putting down his originality. Picasso sustained a lifelong continuous
dialogue with the old masters up to Delacroix and Manet- but only recognized as
a master among the modern artists, Cezanne. “He was my one and only master!”
(Brassai. Conversations. 1966, p. 79). Indeed his rapid ascension could
not have happened anywhere but Paris.
Let us summarize in
chronological order Picasso’s way of stretching a pictorial idea till its
limits. His fixation on the “deep cut on the backs” probably emanated from the
famous charcoal drawing Nude Torso from Behind Coruña 1893 (Picasso
Museum of Paris).(fig.4). Even if the infant student copied it from an
illustration of a drawing manual instead of a clay model it is clear his intent
in remarking the deep cut expanded on a black shadow of the back. Next comes
the seldom exhibited Espalda an oil from Llotja at the vaults of the
Picasso museum of Barcelona (MPB 110.048) reproduced as fig.37 in the Yoshii
catalogue,(fig.5). Here we see an oversimplification of shoulders and back of a
youth model. Four right lines with the central one thicker and longer, already
demanding its protagonism. Madrid 1898 provides another example of Picasso`s
interest with the cut in the back: Naked woman posing among students,(MPB
111.339), (fig.6).Notice that this drawing from the Circle of Fine Arts of
Madrid 1898 shows another interesting first fruit of a picassean idea: the
triangular foot. This original idea will lead straight forward till The
Demoiselles d’Avignon, Paris 1907 where the girl in the left side rests on
an oversized feet. Picasso wants to emphasize the function of the organ not its
simple appearance.
But the most definite
proof of Picasso’s originality in the pictorial interpretation of the human
body “as seen from behind” will have to be the beautiful Naked adolescent as
seen from behind, Barcelona 1895-96 fig.30 Yoshii Cat.(fig.7). This is one
of the group that left the Llotja rolled up in the hands of Salvador Moreno and
is today somewhere in Spain in a private collection. In this superb painting
from Llotja the broken back is subtle because the artist does not want to
endanger the beauty of the model he wants to capture as a whole. And we can’t
overlook another novelty present on this splendid picture: The background is
not the conventional flat single-color prescribed by the academic teachings.
Picasso was in this case a disobedient student and created a semiabstract
triple rectangles background colored in green and bluish hues that seem to
attract the invisible eyes of the boy model. After Picasso stay in Madrid,
academic course 1897-98, we know he went to Horta invited by his friend
Pallarés and in this mountain town spent more than seven months free of
teachers and far away from his father vigilance. One of the best oil canvas
present in the Yoshii Gallery exhibition - the num. 14 already mentioned Naked
Man seen from the Back (fig.8) shows clearly the progress of the artist in
his quest for creating his own “interpretation and transformation” of the human
figure centered by the strongly designed dorsal spine, in this case shown under
the double effects of the natural light coming from the left (first depictions
of the very picassean lateral windows!) and the electric light from above.
Palau certified this discovery as a work from Horta and identified the platform
as an improvised piece of furniture 7. The thinly painted window on the left is the first of
many to come: The very similar Window with curtain Barcelona 1899
M.P.B,119.218), (fig.9), the Portrait
of Josep Cardona, private collection Sao Paulo, and the big Lola by the window
formerly with the Krugier Gallery at Geneva.(fig.10) Then the window
appears too at the far left in the pivotal picture Blue Room of Paris
1901 Phillips Col. Washington D.C.(fig.11) and jumps over the blue and rose
periods to reappear in a double version in the surrealistic The Dancers of
1925 The Tate Gallery London and also in The Studio of 1927-28 of
the MOMA. And prominently in Nude in an Armchair 1929 Museum Picasso
Paris (fig.12) and on and on with Marie Thérèse as a model, etc.
Coming back to the
development of the picassean idea of the central cut in the back we present two
extreme examples. One, where the dark cut is receding but present in a discrete
way in the imposing canvas called The Actor Paris 1904 (Metropolitan
Museum of New York) (fig.13) and the other where it almost deforms the body of
the heavy man seated in the composition of Young Acrobat in a Ball, 1905
Pushkin Museum, Moscow (fig.14) and other less important works of women with
the back divided in two parts.. I have the utmost respect and admiration for
Richardson books but in this case (Picasso A Biography Vol. I p.240) he
is mistaken. Picasso was not “under the mantle of Gauguin”. He was pursuing his
own investigation.8
There are other
pictures neglected – possibly for not knowing of it - by the scholars of
Picasso as equally important sources or seeds for future developments of the
artist in his mature and even late years. It is really strange that no. 3 of
the Yoshii Cat., Nude Torso of an adolescent, (fig.15) has not been hailed
yet as a masterpiece of Picasso at the tender age of 14 years. This picture
comes from the historical collection Plandiura of Barcelona and in the late
eighties was acquired by a Barcelona dealer very close to Palau. The second is
the already mentioned The Model, Llotja model from 1896. (Fundació
Palau), Caldes (fig.16). The picture of the boy with the shortcut hair (fig.15)
is not just one but possibly the more striking academic painting made at the
Llotja school of Barcelona by Pablo Ruiz Picasso. It is amazing as a portrait
and as a painting. Palau who assigns this work to the end of the first year at
the Llotja remarks the different treatment given by the artist to the head
,”full of human content “ and to the body which he says is ”resolved with a
magisterial simplicity, a change of language typical of Picasso” .It is
unconventional in everything. The background anticipates a formula followed by
Picasso during the Blue period perceptible in La Vie and even in the Gertrude
Stein Portrait. The eyes with the big centered black circles showing
scarcely the white around became a trade mark of the artist since Gósol
culminating in the celebrated Gertrude Stein portrait...The origin, though
disguised somewhat because of the naturalistic character of the work, comes
from this enigmatic boy. And surprise! The image or some parts of this feeble
boy reappears mysteriously in Picasso tragically last pencil auto portraits “Tete”,(
Head) Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo (fig.17) and “Tete” (Head) Cat.
Tinterov n.102, private collection, London. Everybody knows of Picasso’s patent
disregard for the classical anatomic lessons displayed very emphatically since
the 1930 decade but... Whoever suspected that it started in the very School of
Fine Arts of Barcelona? How is it that this exceptional picture is not hanging
on the halls of the Picasso museum of Barcelona? The picture called by Palau The
Model” reflects the contradictions suffered by Picasso in the school. The
young man poses uncomfortably in the platform but as Palau says the imbalance
is studied deeply to make it less conventional. This young model reminds us the
boy at the left in the 1923 famous The Pipes of Pan, the picture Picasso
never wanted to part with. The plate numbers 5, 6, 7 of the Yoshii Cat. Seated
Naked Man, Naked Man Seen from the Front and Naked Man with Long Beard (figs.
18, 19, 20)) and the very similar picture of plate 6 shown in fig. 31 of the
Yoshii catalogue, Naked Man Wielding a False Shovel (fig.21) all four of
them presented with the simple provenance of private collection (because they
come from the roll found at Llotja!) are also outstanding for his masterful
technique in the depiction of the light effects over the different parts of the
human body. Palau explains how the
new student “was possibly driven by the urge to show off his panache in front
of his peers”. Perhaps they represent – with the exception of the striking Naked
Man shivering with cold - Y.Cat.fig.29 - (fig.22) the type of pictures more
academic and perfectionist which the professors and don José demanded from the
talented pupil. However different all have been ignored until now. The group justifies
why Pablo was considered by his class companions the best among them.
The Gypsy Boy (fig.23), (Horta 1898) a possible forerunner of Harlequin,
is a case study of the rich reservoir of experiences from his adolescence which
Picasso would put to use in years to come especially in his paper works. Palau
writes in the Yoshii Catalogue: “Picasso would take this almost fluvial interpretation
of the hands to its limits in a portrait of Marie-Thérèse in 1932” (The
Dream). (fig.24). In the remote town of Horta he set up his own class
without any teacher around to correct him. His ideas and his brush flow freely.
With his health restored and stimulated by the memories of his recent visits to
the Prado (Velazquez and Greco above all!), the youngster feels full of energy
and confidence. Fulfilling the promise made to his father he painted a big
canvas for the Spanish National Exposition a work disappeared afterwards. The
two paintings of nudes made in Horta mark the end of his strict academic
training and the beginning of Picasso true independence as an artist. 9
Notes
1 Barr included in his
second Picasso show “Fifty years of his Art” Man in a Cap, Coruña,1895
and Roses, Barcelona 1898.
2 An excellent source
for the origin of the Picasso Administration and related family problems is the
book by Olivier Widmaier Picasso Picasso Portraits de famille, Paris
Editions Ramsay, 2002 (with English and Spanish editions). It is worth reading
the rather critical research of Sharon Waxman and Andrew Decker Picasso,Inc.Pain
and Profit Artnews September 1995.
3 I thank Montserrat
Costa whose gallery handled Moreno’s sales and Jaume Soler a good friend of the
Mexican in Barcelona, for their valuable testimony regarding the roll of
Llotja’ canvasses. Also to Victoria Durá chief conservator of the Museum of the
Sant Jordi Academy and Begoña Forteza librarian as well as Alicia Vacarizo in
charge of the archives of the Palau Foundation for their professional and
worthy assistance.
4 Marés, old pupil and
since 1914 professor was appointed director of the Llotja school in 1946 .For a
history of the institution see La Escuela de la Lonja en la vida artística
barcelonesa published by the school in 1951 and written by its secretary
Cesar Martinelli a devout admirer of his director who graces the book with a
condescending introduction typical of the postwar times in Spain. In its 144
pages many names and some illustrations of the most distinguished artists and
professors from Viladomat in the XVIII Century until Casas and Rusiñol in the
XX. Conspicuous for its clamorous absence one name, Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Mares
wrote a book of memoirs under the title El mundo fascinante del
coleccionismo y las antigüedades (Memorias de un coleccionista), Barcelona
1977, full of anecdotes about Parisian dealers and art adventures in South
America.
5 Moreno had found in Llotja several documents
related to Picasso which were very useful to Palau’s research: a letter of
Picasso’s father which clarifies the exact date of Picasso’s arrival to
Barcelona and the record of a meeting of the professors five days after
presided by the director Caba. Palau published it and credited the source in Picasso
Early Years p.511.and p. 82.
6 Palau in a letter to
E.G-H. March 25, 2000 says,” I truly believe that the majority of the paintings
of the first époque of Picasso which appear in the book published by Yoshii are
very superior to those at Montcada Street”.(The Museu Picasso is located at
Montcada street in Barcelona).Translated from the Spanish original. E.G-H
possesses 34 letters received from Palau.
7 “Since hardly any of
Pablo’s Horta work has survived, it is not surprising that this period has been
overlooked, despite the artist’s insistence on its significance” John
Richardson , A Life of Picasso vol.1 with the collaboration of M.McCully p.103.
8 Elizabeth Cowlins in
Picasso Style and Meaning Phaidon, 2002 p.40, says that “Picasso’s inconsistency of style has much
to do with his practice of stealing ideas...“and calls him “an opportunistic predator”. Years later in the
catalogue of the exhibition of The National Gallery, London 2009, Picasso challenging
the past, Cowllins mollified
somewhat her stern position on the creative powers of Picasso M.McCully curator
of the Feasting in Paris 1900-1907 (Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam and
Picasso Museu of Barcelona 2011) rejects the accusation of imitator but calls
Picasso at his arrival to Paris in 1900 a youngster with a provincial formation
who in 1907-08 became the leader of the avant-garde. Perhaps is Natasha Staller
in Picasso: A sum of destructions Yale Uni. Press 2001 who has delved
more in Picasso’s Spanish roots. Rafael Inglada is indeed the specialist in
Pablo’s ancestry.
9 Enrique
García-Herraiz:” Picasso en Horta (1898-1899): Misterios de Arcadia”. Archivo Español de
Arte, Madrid n.277, 1997 pags.37-55 .Under the light of the new discoveries the
author revises the different interpretations of Picasso’s saying “Everything I
know I learnt in Horta” and identifies Pablo’s gypsy friend whose name was
Paco.
Enrique
García-Herraiz, Madrid July 2010, revised on September .2012 and February 2014
Appendix I
Excerpts of the
original text written in Catalan by Palau of Picasso Academic i Antiacademic
(Barcelona 1996) taken from the manuscript kept at the Fundació Palau.
Pag 1: Existeix un capitol de la vida de
Picasso al cual no s’ha prestat mai atenció, que jo mateix he passat gairebé
per alt, donant-lo per sabut o per sobrentés, com si es tractés dún lloc comú
que no calgués esbrinar, i potser també per les ganes, o les presses, per
entrar en altres etapes de la seva vidai obra que em semblaven més seductores.
En refereixo a la seva producció académica durant els anys escolares 1895-1896
i 1896-1897. Aquesta etapa es tota barcenonina .
Pag.2 Una primera consideració s’ imposa a
la vista de aquestes académies. Si Picasso va asistir durant dos anys escolars
a les clases de Llotja , coneixen com coneixem la seva desbordant capacitat de
traball, ¿com és que no existiesem més acedémies?Tres o quatre pintures a l`any
és molt poc, poquíssim per a un home com Picasso.
Pag.2. Aquestes interrogants, que dansaven
al nostre davant des del temps de la redacció de Picasso a Catalunya i de
Picasso Vivent, s’han anat dilucidant, en par, en el transcurs d ‘aquests
derrers anys, amb l ‘aparició d ‘algunas acadérmirs executadas per Picasso a la
Llotja barcelonina. Són aquestes, i la necessitat de confrontar-les amb les del
Museu Picasso de Barcelona, les que ens han feta donar sobre les qualitats
d’unes i altres i ens han obligat a mirar-les amb ulls nous i a prestar-hi una
atenció que fins ara no els havíem concedit. De retruc, tota la seva producción
d ‘aquestes dos anys se’ns presents amb una perspectiva diferent.
Pag.18: Entre les acadèmies completes, no
en conec cap de més picassiana que la que designo, precisament, El Model.
Appendix II
Marés in his book of
memories (see note 4) recounts a casual meeting with Picasso in Paris around
1910- 1914). When Pablo Ruiz Picasso learnt I was a Catalan sculptor from
the School of Llotja where his father had been a professor he asked me about
several of them among which Serra Ponsons (sic Porson) the most academic of
them all and a furious enemy of informalism in the art. Serra Ponsons (sic
Porson) – he told me – taught me many things I have not forgotten, although
perhaps does not seems that way.(Ibid p.47). This is, I believe, a rare
testimony about the value Picasso himself attributed to his years of
apprenticeship in Barcelona’s school in accord with the thesis maintained in
this study. Josep Serra Porson (1824-1910) was a painter and professor in the
Lonja School and also had his own private school where he had some pupils of
distinction such as the Masrieras.
Appendix III
Articles and
activities about Picasso by E.G-H.:
GOYA Magazine of Art. Madrid n.221, 1991
“Picasso pre-azul: Tres inéditos del trienio 1897-1899”. n.241, 1994 “La
espontaneidad de Picasso y la razón vital de Ortega” n. 305, 2005 “La Dama Azul
de Picasso”.
Archivo Español de Arte., Madrid no.277, 1997:
“Picasso en Horta 1898-99” “Arlequines de Picasso: Desde Horta 1898 hasta Cap
d’Antibes 1923” (in press).
Script and historical
advisor of the TV series “El Joven Picasso” directed by J.A. Bardem 1998
Long synopsis of the
script for “The Painting. The story of Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon” 2008, main
subject of a lecture at the Ateneo of Madrid, October 2008
Several reviews of
Picasso books in GOYA magazine; the last of which are J. Richardson’s The
Triumphant Years. no. 339, 2012 and J.Palau’s Del Minotauro al Guernica no.343
,2013
Director of the Summer
Course “Primera época de Picasso” at Escorial 1997.Universdad Complutense of
Madrid with the participation of Barbara Rose, Pierre Daix, Tomas Llorens, F.
Fontbona., Rafael Inglada, Robert Boardingham., R.M.Subirana and J.Herrera.
Copy only for
distribution among scholars of Picasso. Illustrations require proper
authorizations for publication .All the paintings of the roll taken out of the
Llotja except the one at the Fundació Palau are in whereabouts unknown.
Special illustration:
Josep Palau and
Enrique García-Herraiz at the Fundació Palau, March 2005
LIST OF CAPTIONS
Fig.1 Pablo
Picasso: Academic and Anti-Academic (Yoshii Gallery: Installation view, New
York)
Fig. 2 Man sitting
on a stool, Barcelona 1897. Oil on canvas. 68.3 x 51.2 cm. (Museu Picasso
Barcelona, hereinafter. “MPB”)
Fig.3 Two women at
a Bar, Barcelona 1902. O/c. 80 x 91.5 cm. (Hiroshima Museum of Fine Arts,
Japan).
Fig .4 Nude torso
from behind, Corunna, 1895. Charcoal on paper.49 x 31 cm. (Musée Picasso, Paris, hereinafter, “MPP”)
Fig. 5 Espalda (Back), Barcelona 1896. O/c.
38.5 x 28 cm. (MPB).
Fig. 6 Naked woman
posing among students, Madrid 1898. Pencil on paper. 13.5 x 9 cm.(MPB).
Fig. 7 Naked
adolescent from the back, Barcelona 1897, O/c. 130 x 195 cm. (Private
collection)
Fig .8 Naked man
from the back, Horta 1898. O/c.69.5 x 40 cm. (Private collection Barcelona)
Fig. 9 Window with
a curtain, Barcelona 1899. Oil on wood. 21.8 x 13.7 cm. (MPB)
Fig.10 Lola by the
Window, Barcelona 1899 O/c. 150 x 100 cm (formerly in the Krugier Gal.)
Fig. 11 The Blue
Room, Paris 1901. O/c. 50.4 x 61.5 cm. (The Phillips Collection, Washington
D.C).
Fig. 12 Nude in an
Armchair, Paris 1929. O/c. 195 x 129 cm. (MPP).
Fig. 13 The Actor,
Paris 1904. O/c.194 x 112 cm. (The Metropolitan Museum of New York.).
Fig. 14 Young
Acrobat on a ball, Paris 1905. O/c. 147 x 95 cm. (Pushkin State Museum, Moscow.)
Fig. 15 Nude Torso of an Adolescent,
Barcelona 1895-96. O/c.45.7 x 37.5 cm. (M.Costa collection)
Fig. 16 The Model, Barcelona 1896. O/c.
89,2 x 46,5 cm. (Fundació Palau, Caldes de Estrac).
Fig .17 Tête
(Head), Mougins 1972. Pencil colors on paper.65.7 x 50.5 cm. (Fuji Television,
Tokyo).
Fig. 18 Seated
naked man, Barcelona 1895-96. O/c. 44.2 x 32.1 cm. (whereabouts unknown,
hereinafter, “WU”).
Fig. 19 Naked man,
seen from the front, Barcelona 1895-96. O/c.62 x 44.2 cm. (WU).
Fig. 20 Naked man
with long beard, Barcelona 1895-96. O/c.58.5 x 32 cm. (WU).
Fig. 21 Naked man
wielding a false shovel, Barcelona 1896 O/c.62 x 44.2 cm. (WU)
Fig. 22 Naked man
shivering with cold, Barcelona 1896. O/c.62 x 44.2 cm.
Fig. 23 Gypsy Boy
Seated, Horta 1898. O/c. 49,7 x 32 cm. and detail (J.P.R. Castejón, Madrid).
Fig.24 The Dream,
Paris 1932, O/c.130 x 98 cm. (Private collection)
Note. All the works
listed are by Picasso. Most of the titles, dimensions and dates were assigned
to them by Palau for the Catalogue of the Yoshii Gallery of New York.
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