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Lot Essay
Exécuté à l'été 1946, Le faune à moustache est l'une des oeuvres profondément gaies témoignant du bonheur que Pablo Picasso partage depuis peu avec Françoise Gilot. En juillet, le couple quitte Ménerbes pour le Cap d'Antibes, où il est accueilli par Marie Cuttoli, célèbre mécène et collectionneuse. Le mois suivant, Picasso fait la rencontre de Romuald Dor de la Souchère, conservateur du musée d'Antibes au Château Grimaldi, qui propose à l'artiste d'abriter son atelier dans l'enceinte même du lieu pour la durée de son séjour. Picasso choisit plutôt de faire du musé e entier son terrain d'exprimentation, et en deux mois de travail intensif, décore ses murs de 22 panneaux. Ces peintures murales, sur le thème de l'âge dor d'Arcadie, sont aujourd'hui connues sous le nom de suite Antipolis, le nom d'Antibes au temps de la Grèce Antique. Rapidement, le musée prend le nom de musée Picasso.
L'Arcadie et les créatures qui la peuplent (faunes, satyres et centaures) permettent à Picasso d'exprimer la joie que lui inspirent son amour pour Françoise, sa paternité imminente (Françoise attend un enfant dès le mois d'août), mais aussi la liberté retrouvée après les sombres années de guerre. Les tableaux et les oeuvres sur papier de la période combinent la tradition méditerranéenne classique et une vision nouvelle, à la fois enfantine et complexe. Depuis dix ans déjà, Picasso a introduit dans son oeuvre d' étonnantes créatures mythiques, évoluant sur l'arrière-plan intemporel de ses oeuvres dites néo-classiques. Il explore ainsi en profondeur le thème du Minotaure, puissant personnage à la tête de taureau posée sur un corps d'homme. Si le Minotaure est souvent considéré comme l'alter égo du peintre, il en va de même pour le présent faune, son regard obsidienne émergeant d'un visage velu. Toutefois, alors que le Minotaure parait souvent blessé ou aveugle, mené par une jeune femme ravivant le souvenir douloureux de son ancien amour pour Marie-Thérèse Walter, notre faune exprime une joie libre et sans mélange.
Cette élégante représentation de l'artiste métamorphosé par une délicate stylisation évoque immédiatement le célèbre portrait de Françoise exécuté au printemps de la même année, Femme-fleur, duquel il est vraisemblablement le pendant.
Executed in the summer of 1946, Le faune à moustache is one of a number of joyous works that Picasso painted over the summer that reflect the artist's newfound happiness in his relationship with Françoise Gilot. In July, Picasso and Françoise had left for Ménerbes, and a few weeks later they moved on to Cap d'Antibes where they stayed with Marie Cuttoli, a patron of the arts and collector. In early August, they travelled on to the home of Louis Fort at Golfe-Juan. It was there, in August 1946, that Picasso met Romuald Dor de la Souchère, the curator of the Antibes museum, housed in the Château Grimaldi. He offered studio space in the museum to Picasso during his stay. Instead, Picasso set out to decorate the museum itself. He worked intensively for two months and decorated the walls with 22 panels. The wall decoration, featuring Arcadian themes, became known as the Antipolis series after the ancient Greek name for Antibes. Shortly afterward, the museum was renamed the Musée Picasso.
The subject matter of Arcadia and its inhabitants (fauns, satyrs, centaurs), embodies Picasso's exhilaration and excitement about his new love, impending fatherhood (Gilot became pregnant in August) and most importantly his regained freedom after years of enclosure due to the war. Picasso's paintings and works on paper from this period thus combine the classical Mediterranean tradition with a new vision, both innocent and complex. It was a decade earlier that Picasso had begun to introduce mythical creatures into the timeless Mediterranean landscape that had featured in many of his so-called Neo-Classical works. In particular, Picasso explored the theme of the Minotaur, a flamboyant figure with an animal's head atop a man's body. The Minotaur has long been considered an alter ego for Picasso, and this theme appears to be extended in Le faune à moustache, not least in the obsidian eyes that this bearded figure has. However, where there was often an overtone of tragedy in the depiction of the Minotaur, sometimes presented as wounded or blinded and led by a girl reminiscent of his lover Marie-Thrérèse Walter, the faun in this picture appears a liberated, joyous creature.
Of all these works on this theme, the present work relates most closely to La femme-fleur that Picasso had painted in the spring of 1946. In its refined stylization and in its elegant depiction of the artist metamorphosed into a fictitious alter-ego, it can in many ways be considered a companion piece to that famous portrait of Franoise.
L'Arcadie et les créatures qui la peuplent (faunes, satyres et centaures) permettent à Picasso d'exprimer la joie que lui inspirent son amour pour Françoise, sa paternité imminente (Françoise attend un enfant dès le mois d'août), mais aussi la liberté retrouvée après les sombres années de guerre. Les tableaux et les oeuvres sur papier de la période combinent la tradition méditerranéenne classique et une vision nouvelle, à la fois enfantine et complexe. Depuis dix ans déjà, Picasso a introduit dans son oeuvre d' étonnantes créatures mythiques, évoluant sur l'arrière-plan intemporel de ses oeuvres dites néo-classiques. Il explore ainsi en profondeur le thème du Minotaure, puissant personnage à la tête de taureau posée sur un corps d'homme. Si le Minotaure est souvent considéré comme l'alter égo du peintre, il en va de même pour le présent faune, son regard obsidienne émergeant d'un visage velu. Toutefois, alors que le Minotaure parait souvent blessé ou aveugle, mené par une jeune femme ravivant le souvenir douloureux de son ancien amour pour Marie-Thérèse Walter, notre faune exprime une joie libre et sans mélange.
Cette élégante représentation de l'artiste métamorphosé par une délicate stylisation évoque immédiatement le célèbre portrait de Françoise exécuté au printemps de la même année, Femme-fleur, duquel il est vraisemblablement le pendant.
Executed in the summer of 1946, Le faune à moustache is one of a number of joyous works that Picasso painted over the summer that reflect the artist's newfound happiness in his relationship with Françoise Gilot. In July, Picasso and Françoise had left for Ménerbes, and a few weeks later they moved on to Cap d'Antibes where they stayed with Marie Cuttoli, a patron of the arts and collector. In early August, they travelled on to the home of Louis Fort at Golfe-Juan. It was there, in August 1946, that Picasso met Romuald Dor de la Souchère, the curator of the Antibes museum, housed in the Château Grimaldi. He offered studio space in the museum to Picasso during his stay. Instead, Picasso set out to decorate the museum itself. He worked intensively for two months and decorated the walls with 22 panels. The wall decoration, featuring Arcadian themes, became known as the Antipolis series after the ancient Greek name for Antibes. Shortly afterward, the museum was renamed the Musée Picasso.
The subject matter of Arcadia and its inhabitants (fauns, satyrs, centaurs), embodies Picasso's exhilaration and excitement about his new love, impending fatherhood (Gilot became pregnant in August) and most importantly his regained freedom after years of enclosure due to the war. Picasso's paintings and works on paper from this period thus combine the classical Mediterranean tradition with a new vision, both innocent and complex. It was a decade earlier that Picasso had begun to introduce mythical creatures into the timeless Mediterranean landscape that had featured in many of his so-called Neo-Classical works. In particular, Picasso explored the theme of the Minotaur, a flamboyant figure with an animal's head atop a man's body. The Minotaur has long been considered an alter ego for Picasso, and this theme appears to be extended in Le faune à moustache, not least in the obsidian eyes that this bearded figure has. However, where there was often an overtone of tragedy in the depiction of the Minotaur, sometimes presented as wounded or blinded and led by a girl reminiscent of his lover Marie-Thrérèse Walter, the faun in this picture appears a liberated, joyous creature.
Of all these works on this theme, the present work relates most closely to La femme-fleur that Picasso had painted in the spring of 1946. In its refined stylization and in its elegant depiction of the artist metamorphosed into a fictitious alter-ego, it can in many ways be considered a companion piece to that famous portrait of Franoise.