ART SOURCES FOR PICASSO'S WORK by John Warren Oakes

Monday, August 17, 2015

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time, pierrots and harlequins were popular in literature, especially in works dating from La Forgue to Apollinaire (Jung 352-354).

The crippled and deformed figures in the earlier works of Picasso contrast with the agile grace of the bodies of the circus people. A preference for representing single figures in their solitude will give way to related figure compositions. Picasso began to establish a harmony, a peace, which seemed possible due to an improvement in his economic and social situation and a more amicable environment.

In 1905, Picasso painted over twenty-five versions of harlequins including one that is definitely a self-portrait dressed in harlequin costume. Four of these paintings are closely related to each other and to the previously mentioned "Portrait of a Dominican" (15A) and the "Portrait of an Unknown Lady" (9A) by El Greco.

"The Frugal Repast" 1904 (16)

Picasso searched "Napoleon Visiting the Pest House at Jaffa" (16A) by Antoine Jean Gros and Titian's "Ecce Homo" (16B) to find faces for his "The Frugal Repast" (16). Interested in portraying misery and suffering, Picasso preferred to study misfortune at some distance now through the eyes of other artists.

Hamilton relates this work to the production of Picasso's friend Nonell: “The simplified contours and modeling may owe something to his friend and compatriot Isidro Nonell y Monturiol (1872-1911), whom Picasso knew in Barcelona and whose studio in Paris he shared for a time. Nonell had treated the theme of the physically and mentally handicapped in his drawings of the "Cretins" of Bohi in 1896, with similarly encompassing outlines and broadly modelled forms. In his work around 1900 there is the same atmosphere of physical and moral fatigue that we find in Picasso's. He also used monochromatic schemes, usually a dark blue-green” (Hamilton 142).

"Salome" 1905 (17)

"Salome," a drypoint (17) is another example of the impact of Ingres.

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Compare this print with the "Dream of Ossian" (10G) by Ingres. Herod is seated holding his face in the Ingres work. Next to him are the soldier and the female whose close relationship is applied to Herod's wife in the Picasso print. The staff of an obscure figure in front of the soldier and female provided the compositional thrust for the left leg of Salome whose features were derived from Ingres' profiles.

Daix reported that Picasso saw the Ingres retrospective exhibition in Paris in 1905 and was "especially struck by the "Turkish Bath." (17A). Picasso studied the elongations and anatomical displacements employed by Ingres to heighten the sensual effect in his work while enhancing the compositional design (Daix 20). In the summer of 1905, Picasso took a trip to Holland and he saw a difference in the anatomy of the people of that country which contributed to an investigation of material weight and substance.

"Portrait of Alice Derain" 1905 (18)

The cross-hatching in "Portrait of Alice Derain" (18) comes from a Rembrandt etching "Woman at the Bath with a Hat Beside Her" by Rembrandt (18A). I have reversed the detail shown in (18B).

Study of a Woman for Family of Saltimbanques" 1905 (19)

The terra-cotta statuettes from Tanagra, which date around 300 B.C., are representations of the people of that period. Most of these are of women standing or sitting in quiet repose wearing a tunic and mantle and often a broad-brimmed hat. Sometimes they are shown holding a child, a fan or some fruit. I believe these statuettes were studied by Picasso and used as models for his study of a woman (19) for the large "Family of Saltimbanques" of 1905 (21). Helen Gardner suggested that the predominantly terra-cotta coloring of Picasso's 1905 pictures indicated a study of Tanagra figurines. In an earlier study for the "Saltimbanques" Picasso had a horse race in the background and the woman is not present. In the final version, the race is painted out and the woman appears isolated and "pasted" into the lower right corner. Indeed, the mood of the whole picture is one of detached repose. The attitude expressed is one of restraint (Gardner 702).

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"Study for Family of Saltimbanques" 1905 (20)

“Family of Saltimbanques" 1905 (21)

Poussin's "Finding of Moses" (20G) presents major sources for the figure placement and the separation of the group from the woman. A sheep (?) wrapped in cloth may have been a wolf in disguise or at least a dog in Picasso's early version. The landscape, the racing horse and several heads in the "Study for Family of Saltimbanques" (20) I believe came directly from Poussin's "The Finding of Moses,"(20G). As Picasso's compositions became increasingly more complex with the relating of many figures, he sought help from past masters of group compositions. Picasso became a visual juggler manipulating numerous masterpieces to balance his "Family of Saltimbanques" (21).

The right half of Watteau's "Embarkation for Cythera" (20A) helped in the early stages of composing. The ground plane on which the people stand is like Picasso's study (20). The entourage appears to be leaving the figure of the woman who occupies the extreme right of both groups. This grouping is also like the compact placement of men in El Greco's "Martyrdom of St. Maurice" (20B). Note especially the position of the feet on the ground plane. The most prominent source is Gustave Courbet's "Burial at Ornans" 1849, (20C, 20D, and 20E). Beginning in the upper left area, Picasso created a shorthand version of the rock walls and buildings as seen in (20C). He raised his group of figures to fill in the gap of the valley in (20C). The high horizon compressing the sky area is paralleled by Picasso. See (20E). Another Courbet painting: "Bonjour M. Courbet!" (20F) reinforces this relationship. The placement of the figures on a road which curves to reveal the distant landscape, their erect postures, the angle of the feet touching the plane of the road as they point to the other figures, the dog, and the suggestion of a meeting relating to a journey-- all strongly imply that Courbet played a significant part in the origin of "Family of Saltimbanques" (21).

Picasso's final painting of this subject presents a more closely knit relationship of the entourage, who form the shape of a capital letter "D," while the isolated woman on the right corresponds to Watteau's woman and some of

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Rembrandt's subjects. The German poet Rilke saw the huge letter "D" as the great initial letter of "thereness." Courbet's "The Burial at Ornans" (20C) conforms to this same configuration.

There are other examples of this shape which has played a role in figure composition by the masters. In Rembrandt's "The Mocking of Christ" (21A), the letter "D" is apparent. The Christ is the isolated, seated figure. The "D" is present but is less obvious in Rembrandt's "Christ Preaching" (21B). The fat clown of Picasso's creation has his counterpart in the center of Rembrandt's composition. A kneeling man in the lower right is the isolated figure. Two other Rembrandt drawings may have a bearing on this work. Consider "The Departure of Benjamin for Egypt" (21C) and the "Dismissal of Hagar" (21E). Goya's "Family of Charles V" (21D) line up in the same pose.

Roland Penrose claims that Picasso "was intrigued by Egyptian and Phoenician art styles which in those days were generally considered barbaric." The rhythms developed through the positions of the arms and the bas-relief modeling of "Woman with a Fan" seem to support such a claim. This painting is more objective and deliberate in the relationship of its parts and the color is more simplified compared with the work Picasso produced before 1905 (Penrose 76).

Picasso was cognizant of the abandonment of Impressionism for more solid form. His research of the masters helped him develop this trend in art. The metaphors of his rose colored works of this period would be given classical form in the production that followed.

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Works cited:

Buckheim, Lothar Gunther Picasso, A Pictorial Biography 32 Print.Hunter, Sam Modern French Painting New York, 1956 188. Print.

Jung, Carl G."Picasso (psychoanalyzed)" Neue Zurcher Zeitung (November 13, 1932). Translated by Christian Zervos. Cahiers d'Art 7 8-10, 1932 352-4. Print.

Hamilton, George Heard. Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940. New York: Penguin, 142. Print.

Daix, Pierrre Cubists and Cubism New York: Skira-Rizzoli, 1982 20. Print.

Gardner, Helen Art Through the Ages Boston: Wadsworth 1959 702. Print.

Penrose, Sir Roland. Picasso: His Life and Work, 2nd ed. New York: Schocken, 1962 76. Print.