A Life of Picasso

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A Life of Picasso Page 71

by John Richardson


  26. See Read 1995, 148, for a complete list of subscribers.

  27. Letter from Picasso to Kahnweiler, April 11, 1913, Monod-Fontaine, 170.

  28. Malraux, 122.

  29. Vol. II, 64.

  30. Geneviève Laporte, Un Amour secret de Picasso: Si tard le soir (Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 1989), 66.

  31. Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant, trans. Simon Watson Taylor (Boston: Exact Change, 1994), 117.

  32. In his study of the Apollinaire monument, FitzGerald 1988, 184, quotes the same passage from Paris Peasant to make a different point.

  33. Mitchell, 101 n. 2.

  34. Ibid., 6.

  35. Gasman, 189. See Gasman for her pioneer study of the cabana’s significance in Picasso’s work, as well as writings of Breton, Vitrac, and the other surrealist writers.

  36. Vol. I, 42.

  37. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, August 5, 1927, Archives Picasso.

  38. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, September 6, 1927, Archives Picasso.

  39. Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 101–2); Marina Picasso collection (12471); and Figure, reproduced in El Picasso de los Picasso (Museo Picasso Málaga, 2004), cat. II.

  40. See Carmen Giménez, Age of Iron (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1993), nos. 14–15.

  41. Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 99), and Z.VII.67.

  42. Letter from Picasso to Stein, September 17, 1927, Beinecke Library.

  CHAPTER 28

  The Apollinaire Monument

  1. Klein, 13.

  2. Sometimes entitled Metamorphosis, Picasso’s maquette is now generally known as Bather.

  3. See Chapter 32 for a further discussion of the influence of anatomical drawings on Picasso’s work.

  4. Read 1994, 200.

  5. TTntransigeant, November 10, 1927.

  6. FitzGerald 1988, 357.

  7. André Salmon, A. Derain (Paris: Nouvelle Revue Française, 1923).

  8. See Vol. II, 199–205.

  9. André Billy, Avec Apollinaire: Souvenirs inédit (Paris: La Palatine, 1966), 142.

  10. Paul Léautaud, December 14, 1927, Journal littéraire 4 (Paris: Mercure de France, 1956–63), 164.

  11. In 1951, long after losing his battle with the surrealists, Billy continued to maintain “that Dadaism and Surrealism derived from Apolli-naire’s influence is true only to a certain point; between [Apollinaire] and the generation that followed an abyss opened up” (Te Figaro, November 9, 1951), an abyss of Billy’s making. In a desperate attempt to find a dignified niche for the poet, Billy’s preface to the Pléiades edition of Apollinaire’s (Euvres poétiques (1965) categorizes his writing as neither classical nor romantic nor symbolist; it is “baroque.” Billy applies this term to more or less anything—bizarre, primitive, newfangled, tragicomic, seductive, prophetic, operatic, barbarous, etc. Billy’s “baroquism” might also be said to apply to Picasso’s clay maquette for Apollinaire’s grave, which Billy’s committee had so disdainfully rejected.

  12. Read 1995, 169–77. See also FitzGerald’s equally well-researched doctoral thesis (FitzGerald 1988).

  13. D.-H. Kahnweiler, “Conversations avec Picasso,” February 5, 1933, in Bernadac and Michael, 91. After using the term sur-réalisme in the Parade program, Apollinaire used it (without the hyphen) in his preface to Tes Mamelles de Tirésias.

  14. André Warnod, “ ‘En peinture tout n’est que signe,’ nous dit Picasso,” Arts (Paris, June 29, 1945), in Bernadac and Michaël, 53.

  15. See Robert Picault, quoted by Cowling in “Objects into Sculpture,” Picasso Sculptor/ Painter (London: Tate Gallery, 1994), 236.

  16. Leiris 1930, 64.

  17. Leiris 1992, journal entry for May 21, 1929, 176.

  18. D.-H. Kahnweiler, “Conversations avec Picasso,” February 5, 1933, in Bernadac and Michael, 90–1.

  19. Otero, 172–3.

  20. E. Tériade, “Emancipation de la peinture,” Minotaure, nos. 3–4 (December 1933), 13.

  21. Picasso Peintures 1900-1955 (Paris: Musée des arts décoratifs, 1955); [n.p.] following no. 40.

  22. Otero, 88.

  23. Gasman, 1326.

  24. Ibid., 1325.

  25. Picasso. Anthology: 1895-1971 (Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2004), cat. 64.

  26. MP Carnets II, cat. 35 (MP 1874).

  27. Cowling 2006, 131.

  28. According to Roberta González; see Marilyn McCully, “Julio González and Pablo Picasso: A Documentary Chronology of a Working Relationship,” Picasso: Sculptor/Painter (London: Tate Gallery, 1994), 215.

  29. Letter from González to Picasso, January 2, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  30. Letter from González to Picasso, May 13, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  31. S.66, 66A, 66B.

  32. Z.VII.143.

  CHAPTER 29

  The Beach at TJinard

  1. Z.VII.135.

  2. Letter from Marie Cuttoli to Picasso, January 29, 1928, Archives Picasso: “Vous avez promis de faire quelques maquettes de tapis […] peut-être parmi des gouaches et vos dessins serait-il possible d’en utiliser à cet effet.”

  3. The Cuttoli-Laugier donation (1969) of Picassos to the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, included among many other works ten papiers collés.

  4. His police dossier confirms that, despite having anarchist friends, Picasso was not one. See Daix and Armand Israël, Pablo Picasso: Dossiers de la Préfecture de Police 1901-1940 (Paris: Editions des Catalogues Raisonnés, 2003).

  5. Z.VIII.268. Another tapestry, Femme aux pigeons (La Fermière), was woven in the 1950s (not in 1935–36, as Léal 1998, 76 n. 2, claims) after a magnificent pastel of a Marie-Thérèse–like figure in a dovecote, which was a centerpiece of Madame Cuttoli’s collections. This work may or may not have been a maquette for a tapestry.

  6. Letter from Henri Matisse to Brother Rayssiguier, September 28, 1949, in Schneider 1984, 657 n. 144. Matisse’s tapestry was woven at the Gobelin factory.

  7. Catherine Prudhom, the paper specialist at Beaubourg, confirms that brown wrapping paper, white paper, and blue wallpaper were used; communication from Léal.

  8. Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 105).

  9. Carnet Paris, June 18–July 8, 1928; Marina Picasso Collection, 09273-09325.

  10. Z.IX.103.

  11. Brassaï, 45.

  12. Femmes à leur toilette would finally be woven in 1967, thanks to Malraux’s enthusiasm for the project. See Léal 1998, 75 n. 4; and Marilyn McCully, “Women at Their Toilette,” Picasso in Istanbul (Istanbul: Sabanci Museum, 2005), 216–18.

  13. Werner Spies, “Pablo Picasso: Les Chemins qui mènent à la sculpture,” Picasso à Dinard (Dinard: Palais des Arts, 1999), 55.

  14. Brassaï, 194.

  15. Marie-Thérèse Walter to Gasman.

  16. Cowling 2006, 140.

  17. See Picasso à Dinard (Dinard: Palais des Arts, 1999), 19.

  18. The Nemchinova-Dolin Ballet company toured Holland, Germany, France, and Spain (1927–29). It was disbanded early in 1929, when Dolin rejoined the Ballets Russes.

  19. Picasso quoted in Cowling 2006, 198.

  20. Daix 1995, 915.

  21. See, for example, Z.VII.213–14, Z.VII.233, and Z.VII.235.

  22. Z.VII.223.

  23. Cowling 2006, 172.

  24. See, for example, Z.VII.222.

  25. See, for example, Z.VII.226.

  26. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

  27. Z.VII.221.

  28. JSLC 96.

  29. Z.VII.217.

  30. Letter from Errazuriz to Olga Picasso, August 20, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  31. Letter from Madeline Helft to Picasso, August 16, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  32. Letter from Julio González to Picasso, September 14, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  33. Letter from Picasso to Stein, September 17, 1928, Beinecke Library.

  34. Letter from Beaumont to Picasso, December 20, 1928, Archives Picasso.

  35. See Serge Lifar, Ma Vie (London: Hutchinson, 1970),
59.

  CHAPTER 30

  The Sculptor

  1. See Noël.

  2. See a photograph of Picasso standing alongside the largest of these constructions, which was probably the one Picasso submitted to the Apol-linaire committee. Reproduced in FitzGerald 1995, 183.

  3. Noël. Read 1994, 210, n. 5, believes the drawing is Z.VII.424, dated November 11, 1928.

  4. S.68–71.

  5. Tériade, 160.

  6. See, for example, S.83.

  7. Tériade, 162.

  8. Ibid.

  9. FitzGerald 1988, 215.

  10. Ibid., 216.

  11. S.80; see drawings for a similar head in MP Carnets II, cat. 38 (MP 1875), begun February 25, 1929.

  12. Rubin 1984, 321, convincingly relates Head of a Man to a Junkan mask, but states that Picasso “could not have seen even a photograph of such a Junkan mask before making this sculpture,” but surely, as a curator of the Musée de l’Homme, Leiris might well have been familiar with just such a photograph and brought it to Picasso’s attention. Rubin interprets the projecting mandala in the Head of a Man as a mouth.

  13. Catherine Clément, The Lives and Legends of Jacques Lacan, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 202.

  14. Kahnweiler 1949, [7].

  15. Z.VII.138.

  16. Z.VII.252.

  17. Guy de Maupassant, Contes et nouvelles (1883), quoted in Hommage à Claude Monet (Paris: Grand Palais, 1980), 237.

  18. Bernadac and Michaël, 33.

  19. Nelson remembered sharing the sights of Varengeville “with lots of artist friends, including Braque … and most of the celebrated painters of the day with the exception of Picasso. The mention of famous names was supposed to demonstrate … the pricelessness of this place and how precious it is in the eyes of creators.” His own studio, Nelson said, had been “rented by Claude Monet, Corot and Isabey before he bought it.” Quoted in Danchev, 184.

  20. Cowling 2006, 144.

  21. In his catalog entry Zervos confirms that the right foot depicts the road to Avallon; the left one to Clamecy The two arms follow the roads to the famous Basilica, and the stomach is the town’s Place de la Foire.

  22. Z.XVIII.323.

  23. See Rubin 1984, 340 n. 196. According to Cabanne 1977, 264, Picasso responded by dragging her around by the hair.

  24. Olga quoted in Cowling 2006, 131.

  25. Z.VII.248.

  26. The article commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of hysteria: La Révolution Surréaliste, no. 11 (1928); see Cowling 2002, 465.

  27. Z.VII.245.

  28. Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 117).

  29. Z.VII.263 and Z.VII.262. Picasso’s dates record the day on which he finished a painting. It does not necessarily follow that the Large Nude was started before the Large Bather. He worked on both of them at around the same time.

  30. See Chapter 22.

  31. Bois, 18.

  32. Bernadac and Michaël, 120.

  33. Malraux, 138.

  34. Gilot 1990, 150.

  35. The designer was Toby Jellinek, the boyfriend of Sylvette David, Picasso’s model in 1953–54.

  36. An earlier (May 5) version (Z.VII.256) has the telltale ribs of Olga, but little of the pathos of the final version.

  37. Gilot 1964, 208.

  38. Ibid., 231.

  39. Cowling 2006, 108.

  40. Z.VII.260.

  41. The rue de Liège apartment had been conveniently close to the Gare Saint-Lazare, where Marie-Thérèse caught the train back home.

  42. A very literal painting (Z.VII.266) dated May 2, 1929, of the view from Picasso and Marie-Thérèse’s new hideaway, clearly shows the steeples of Sainte-Clotilde on the right and a handsome building with a garden in the foreground. This building appears to have been incorporated into the war ministry on the rue de l’Université.

  43. The only writer to hint at the existence of this Left Bank hideaway is the unreliable Mac-Gregor-Hastie, 124. He refers to an apartment “near the Seine [and] the Gare d’Orsay” The information tallies with the author and McCully’s supposition. Confidential arrangements such as this were usually taken care of by Pellequer, hence no record in the archives. Nor is there any mention of the apartment in the accounts of Marie-Thérèse’s living arrangements by her Wid-maier grandchildren.

  44. Z.VII.259.

  45. Gilot 1964, 152.

  46. Z.VII.270.

  47. Away from his principal studio, Picasso was apt to indicate where a work had been executed. The sudden addition of “Paris” to drawings of 1929–30 implies that they were not done in the rue la Boétie studio, but elsewhere in Paris.

  48. Z.VII.279–83.

  49. Z.VII.267 and Z.VII.278.

  50. Daix 1993, 236.

  51. The publicity seeking Japanese painter Foujita was also in Dinard. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, August 9, 1929, Archives Picasso.

  52. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, September 10, 1929, Archives Picasso.

  53. Daix 1995, 910.

  54. Buñuel, 104.

  55. Besides major works by Picasso, Braque, Gris, Mondrian, Klee, Balthus, and Dalí, the Noailles’ collection included masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Delacroix, Géricault, Constable, and much more, including the famous manuscript of Marie-Laure’s ancestor, the Marquis de Sade’s Les Cent Vingt Journées de Sodome, later stolen from the Noailles’ daughter, Natalie, and sold to a Swiss collector. Attempts to repossess it have failed.

  56. Gibson 1997, 195.

  57. Harry Kessler, Berlin in Lights: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler (1918-1937), trans. and ed. Charles Kessler (New York: Grove Press, 1999; originally published 1961), 382.

  CHAPTER 31

  Woman in the Garden

  1. According to Widmaier Picasso 2004, 30, Marie-Thérèse and her sisters Jeanne and Geneviève stayed at the Pension Albion, 37, rue de la Malouine, Dinard.

  2. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, September 10, 1929, Archives Picasso.

  3. The Jacobs’ shop is currently the Georges Rech boutique. Georges Rech’s daughter Almine is the wife of the artist’s only surviving legitimate grandson, Bernard Picasso.

  4. Jacob’s other sister, Myrté-Léa, who would be deported and killed by the Germans in 1944, seems to have been absent.

  5. Letter from Jacob to Level, August 28, 1929, in Seckel, 218.

  6. Guide de la Bretagne mystérieuse (Paris: Tchou, 1966), 63.

  7. See also, for example, Spies, 164, who relates some of Picasso’s Carnac-inspired drawings to plans for the Apollinaire monument.

  8. Telegram from Misia Sert to Picasso, August 21, 1929, Archives Picasso.

  9. Gold and Fizdale, 261.

  10. García-Márquez, 208.

  11. Ibid., 209.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Serge Lifar, Les Memoires d’lcare (Monaco: Edicions Sauret, 1993), 229.

  14. JSLC 99.

  15. Gottlieb is quoted in Rubin 1972, 227.

  16. See, for example, Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 117).

  17. Letter from Jacqueline Apollinaire to Olga, September 16, 1929, Archives Picasso.

  18. Withers, 135; also Read 1994, 205.

  19. S. 72.

  20. Cowling 2002, 513.

  21. Julio González, Cahiers d’Art (1936), trans. in Giménez, 286.

  22. Ovid, 3.

  23. FitzGerald 1988, 264, observes that “the woman does not merely sit among the vegetation, she metamorphoses—Daphne-like.”

  24. Cooper, 31.

  25. Ovid, 23.

  26. Ibid., 24.

  27. Vol. II, 400.

  28. According to Alex Gregory, to the author.

  29. Z.I.308 and Z.I.264.

  30. Interview with Skira, Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1931.

  31. Gilot 1964, 191.

  32. Chapon 1987, 145–6.

  33. Ibid., 146. Picasso had in fact signed a contract letter with Kahnweiler in 1912. See Vol. II, 268�
�9.

  34. FitzGerald 1995, 188.

  35. Z.VII.136.

  36. Kahnweiler 1971, 103.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Letter from Kahnweiler to Hermann Rupf, October 29, 1931, Kunstmuseum Bern.

  39. See Kosinski, 519–32.

  40. Cooper told the author that he acquired Picasso’s early masterpiece, the 1907 Nudes in the Forest (Z.II.53, now in the Musée Picasso, Paris), from Reber for ten thousand Swiss francs paid to the Municipal pawn shop in Geneva.

  41. Widmaier Picasso 2002, 55, says the car was bought in 1927; the current owner, Bernard Picasso, has confirmed that it is a 1930 model.

  42. Brassaï, 17. Traditionally, the owner’s chauffeur and manservant sat outside on the open front seat of the car, which is where Picasso liked to sit.

  43. Kahnweiler 1971, 91.

  44. Zervos’s account is given in Otero, 186–7.

  CHAPTER 32

  The Bones of Vesalius

  1. Z.VII.288.

  2. La Fenêtre ouverte (The Open Window) is said to have been prompted by Bataille’s article “Le Gros Orteil” (The Big Toe). Fingers as well as toes play a space-enhancing role in many of Picasso’s figure paintings. Picasso would have been amused to discover that foot fetishism was evidently a Spanish phenomenon; see Georges Bataille, “Le Gros Orteil,” Documents 1, no. 6 (November 1929), 289–302.

  3. Gasman, 1043. In 1951 Picasso would replicate this as a sculpture of Françoise Gilot (S. 411).

  4. MP Carnets II, cat. 38 (MP 1875).

  5. Ibid.

  6. The vertical Swimmer (not in Zervos) is reproduced in the catalog of Picasso’s 1985 show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. The horizontal Swimmer is Z.VII.419.

  7. This page turns out to derive in turn from an even earlier manuscript, the ninth-century Pentateuque de Tours (according to Georges Bataille, “Apocalypse de Saint-Sever,” Documents 2 [May 1929] 79, citing Philippe Lauer). Among others Kaufmann, 80, points out that the Deluge page is similar to the eighth-century Spanish Beatus Liebana.

  8. The scale, style, and simplification of these Swimmers harks back to Picasso’s Minotaur tapestry maquettes of the previous year. They look as if they may have been conceived as tapestries.

  9. See, for example, Ted Coe, Sacred Circles (London: Arts Council, 1976), no. 669, 226.

 

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