Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) - Lot 30

Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) Cup and glass, 1943 Oil on canvas. Dated on the back June 26 (19)43. 27.5 x 41.5 cm Picasso estate 2025 Certificate from Monsieur Michel BOHBOT dated November 5, 1993. Artloss Register certificate Ref: S00256602, April 15, 2025. Bibliography : Reproduced in the Catalogue Raisonné of Christian Zervos, volume 13, under no. 46 (reproduced in black and white on p47). Provenance: -Acquired from Espace Beauvau, November 22, 1993 (copy of invoice) 1943 was an important year for Picasso, both creatively and personally. In the rue des Grands-Augustins in Paris, where Picasso had his apartment-studio, there was a restaurant, Le Catalan, which the artist frequented because of its proximity; but also because of its name and the fact that the owner spoke the Catalan language. Picasso regularly dined there with Dora Maar, and it was there, one evening in late May 1943, that he met Françoise Gilot, who was soon to replace Dora in his life. At the same time, he led a harmonious married life with Marie-Thérèse Walter and their daughter Maya, whose apartment he visited several times a week. During the war years, Picasso's repertoire was relatively limited, concentrating on portraits (tragic Dora, happy Marie-Thérèse and Maya), a few nudes, few landscapes and mostly still lifes. Picasso's lifelong penchant for still life can be attributed to a number of factors. At the time of Cubism, Picasso was following in the tradition of modern painting, which since Cézanne had made this genre, long considered minor, the preferred mode of pictorial expression. He is also heir to the Spanish tradition of bodegones, those humble, mystical still lifes made from a few ordinary objects. Lastly, still life enables him to express a number of recurring themes essential to his art: food, the presence of the sacred in everyday objects, or the cycle of life and death, hence the numerous skulls and vanities that punctuate his work. (cf. Marie-Laure Bernadac, Picasso et les choses, RMN 1992) In 1943, still lifes dominated his work, ranging from the simple to the austere, with arrangements of two objects on a plane, to the more complex, with a multiplication of utensils. The latter belong to the kitchen (pitcher, coffee pot, bowl, dish, knife, glass). The painter appreciates everyday objects, especially those in Marie-Thérèse's kitchen. Sometimes, he replicates his painting, brightening up a darker version. The banality of these objects testifies to the austerity of the Occupation period, when life was confined to the private sphere and the imagination was reduced to the space of the everyday, the home and the intimate. The chronology of Picasso's works is well known thanks to the Zervos catalog. On March 10, 1943, Picasso produced three gouaches and watercolors (ZXII, 275-276-278) with a few variations: on the plane of a table, a cylindrical glass placed on the left and a small coffee cup with rounded, graceful forms confront each other. This composition can be seen more synthetically in the various versions. He returned to the same theme in October 1943, (ZXII,43-049). Our painting, done at the end of June, appears to be the culmination of these studies, even if the cup and saucer have been angled and cubed in the final oil. During the same months of May and June 1943, another type of still life was painted, in which three symmetrical glasses and a saucer were placed side by side. three glasses symmetrically against a compote filled with cherries, a motif probably observed in the restaurant "Le Catalan". On August 15, 1943, he placed a skull and a luminous yellow ceramic jug face to face on the same table, their rounded shapes colored with blue edgings, a metaphor for death in the face of the fullness of life. In Buffet et cerises, the playful little red touches of the cherries contrast with the angular shapes of the glasses. of the glasses. This dialectic of composition and objects is echoed in our painting. We can't help with a little boldness, and particularly in view of the more explicit initial watercolours the metaphorical opposition of masculine and feminine principles. Our painting impresses with the clarity and simplicity of its composition. The simple geometrical of the objects is reminiscent of the primitive cubism of 1908 (Green bowl and black bottle, Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 1908). Such retrospective returns are not uncommon in the artist's work. artist's work. The pronounced contrast of a