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Lot Essay
In early 1966, while convalescing in his home in Mougins from surgery, Picasso reread Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Within a short time a new character entered his repertory of artist-surrogates--the musketeer, or more generally, the 17th century cavalier, the rakish nobleman skilled with the sword, daring in his romantic exploits, and in his tastes and appetites a worldly gentleman who enjoyed all that life had to offer. In the early 1960s Picasso had been fond of depicting himself in the figure of a brawny Mediterranean fisherman, either young or old, with a curly beard and a striped sailor's vest. The adventurous and virile musketeer now replaced the fisherman as the artist's primary persona. Now in his mid-80s, able to travel only locally, and with his vaunted sexual powers finally on the wane, Picasso transformed himself into the brave, adventurous and virile musketeer, with an elegant little beard and long wavy hair, and clad in doublets and ruffled collars. This was the mask he would hold up most frequently to the world in his pictures during the remaining years of his life.
Picasso was fond of his musketeers, and liked to ascribe personal qualities to them. Hélène Parmelin recalled how Picasso would play games in front of the canvases, with her and her husband, the painter Edouard Pignon. Picasso would point to one or another musketeer and sympathically remark, "With this one you'd better watch out. That one makes fun of us. That one is enormously satisfied. This one is a grave intellectual. And that one look how sad he is, the poor guy. He must be a painter" (quoted in Picasso, Tradition and Avant-garde, exh. cat., Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2006, p. 340). The musketeers embody a virtual catalogue of varied human foibles, for which they appear to compensate with the irresistible force of their idealism. Picasso must have lamented a growing absence in the contemporary world of the recklessly individual spirit, the man of purposeful idea and action, a world-transforming genius, as he had been in his youthful career. In this respect, Picasso's appropriation of the musketeer image was an effort to reclaim a heroic stance in life, to affirm his ability, through wit and skill, to remain master of his fate during this final stage of his long life.
Inspired by his reading of Dumas' The Three Musketeers, Picasso drew figures in 17th century costume in a carnet that he used in March-April 1966, including the depiction of a cavalier/painter in front of his model. Picasso then introduced the musketeer theme in two drawings executed in December 1966 (Zervos, vol. 25, nos. 257 and 258). He commenced a series of large ink wash bust-length portraits of musketeers later that month (Zervos, vol. 27, nos. 448-454). The first oil painting of this subject, done on 20 February 1967, again portrayed the cavalier as a painter, (Zervos, vol. 25, no. 280). Many musketeer heads followed, and Picasso then began to paint fuller-length seated portraits in April 1967. This theme preoccupied Picasso through the late spring, but made way for other subjects during the summer and fall.
Picasso returned to the musketeer theme in January 1968 and the present large-scale Tête de mousquetaire was used as an exhibition poster for Picasso's show Pintura-dibujo-grabado at the venerable gallery Sala Gaspar in Barcelona in March 1968. The striking image was also used for an offset lithograph in black and brown published by Sala Gaspar in an edition of 1000.
This musketeer series provided an opportunity to investigate two aspects of art-making that were foremost among Picasso's concerns during these final years: tradition and process. Regarding the former, the musketeers served a means through which Picasso could engage the great artists of the past whom he admired, allowing him to arrive at an understanding of his own position and achievement within the continuity and traditions of European painting. Having emerged from his study of Rembrandt, the musketeer theme also provided an avenue to further treating Velázquez, a longstanding love among his antecedents, as well as to the entirety of the achievement of the Siglo de Oro in Spanish painting. These sources encouraged Picasso to take stock of his Spanishness and the role of his native heritage in his work.
Moreover, the musketeer subject perfectly suited Picasso's work habits at this time. The artist was drawn to serial procedure, painting numerous variations on a theme, as an effective means of examining, assimilating and re-interpreting a subject, style or manner. Indeed, Picasso had become increasingly engaged in painting as "process", in which the act of painting or drawing, not the completed work, was a sufficient end in itself. Picasso described how he took special pleasure in the "movement of the painting, the dramatic effort from one vision to the next, even if the effort is not carried through. I have reached the stage where the movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself" (quoted in K. Gallwitz, Picasso Laureatus, Paris, 1971, p. 166).
Picasso was fond of his musketeers, and liked to ascribe personal qualities to them. Hélène Parmelin recalled how Picasso would play games in front of the canvases, with her and her husband, the painter Edouard Pignon. Picasso would point to one or another musketeer and sympathically remark, "With this one you'd better watch out. That one makes fun of us. That one is enormously satisfied. This one is a grave intellectual. And that one look how sad he is, the poor guy. He must be a painter" (quoted in Picasso, Tradition and Avant-garde, exh. cat., Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2006, p. 340). The musketeers embody a virtual catalogue of varied human foibles, for which they appear to compensate with the irresistible force of their idealism. Picasso must have lamented a growing absence in the contemporary world of the recklessly individual spirit, the man of purposeful idea and action, a world-transforming genius, as he had been in his youthful career. In this respect, Picasso's appropriation of the musketeer image was an effort to reclaim a heroic stance in life, to affirm his ability, through wit and skill, to remain master of his fate during this final stage of his long life.
Inspired by his reading of Dumas' The Three Musketeers, Picasso drew figures in 17th century costume in a carnet that he used in March-April 1966, including the depiction of a cavalier/painter in front of his model. Picasso then introduced the musketeer theme in two drawings executed in December 1966 (Zervos, vol. 25, nos. 257 and 258). He commenced a series of large ink wash bust-length portraits of musketeers later that month (Zervos, vol. 27, nos. 448-454). The first oil painting of this subject, done on 20 February 1967, again portrayed the cavalier as a painter, (Zervos, vol. 25, no. 280). Many musketeer heads followed, and Picasso then began to paint fuller-length seated portraits in April 1967. This theme preoccupied Picasso through the late spring, but made way for other subjects during the summer and fall.
Picasso returned to the musketeer theme in January 1968 and the present large-scale Tête de mousquetaire was used as an exhibition poster for Picasso's show Pintura-dibujo-grabado at the venerable gallery Sala Gaspar in Barcelona in March 1968. The striking image was also used for an offset lithograph in black and brown published by Sala Gaspar in an edition of 1000.
This musketeer series provided an opportunity to investigate two aspects of art-making that were foremost among Picasso's concerns during these final years: tradition and process. Regarding the former, the musketeers served a means through which Picasso could engage the great artists of the past whom he admired, allowing him to arrive at an understanding of his own position and achievement within the continuity and traditions of European painting. Having emerged from his study of Rembrandt, the musketeer theme also provided an avenue to further treating Velázquez, a longstanding love among his antecedents, as well as to the entirety of the achievement of the Siglo de Oro in Spanish painting. These sources encouraged Picasso to take stock of his Spanishness and the role of his native heritage in his work.
Moreover, the musketeer subject perfectly suited Picasso's work habits at this time. The artist was drawn to serial procedure, painting numerous variations on a theme, as an effective means of examining, assimilating and re-interpreting a subject, style or manner. Indeed, Picasso had become increasingly engaged in painting as "process", in which the act of painting or drawing, not the completed work, was a sufficient end in itself. Picasso described how he took special pleasure in the "movement of the painting, the dramatic effort from one vision to the next, even if the effort is not carried through. I have reached the stage where the movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself" (quoted in K. Gallwitz, Picasso Laureatus, Paris, 1971, p. 166).