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Lot Essay
Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The present work dates to a time when Picasso was revising his pre-war Cubist experiments. With the sobriety of the war years behind him, the artist began to combine pure color with powerful linear black shading to express volume and space. Discussing this phase of Picasso's Cubism, John Richardson notes that these still lifes “are astonishingly varied in their dazzling colors, elaborate patterning, rich textures and complex compositions. No longer did Picasso feel obliged to investigate the intricate formal and spatial problems that had preoccupied him ten years before. Instead he felt free to relax and exploit his cubist discoveries in a decorative manner that delights the eye” (Picasso: An American Tribute, New York, 1962, p. 52).
The first owner of Verre et paquet de tabac, Mikhail Larionov, was a Russian modern artist. Larionov initiated two highly influential movements: Rayism and Neo-Primitivism. He and his longtime companion, Natalia Goncharova, left Russia in 1915 for Lausanne and Paris, touring with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Larionov created designs for the productions Soleil de nuit in Switzerland in 1915 and Contes russes in Paris in 1917. By 1919, he had settled in Paris, where he often collaborated with Cubist and Dada painters and poets. Throughout the 1920s, he continued to work for Diaghilev as a set designer and artistic advisor. It is likely through Diaghilev that Larionov met Picasso.
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The present work dates to a time when Picasso was revising his pre-war Cubist experiments. With the sobriety of the war years behind him, the artist began to combine pure color with powerful linear black shading to express volume and space. Discussing this phase of Picasso's Cubism, John Richardson notes that these still lifes “are astonishingly varied in their dazzling colors, elaborate patterning, rich textures and complex compositions. No longer did Picasso feel obliged to investigate the intricate formal and spatial problems that had preoccupied him ten years before. Instead he felt free to relax and exploit his cubist discoveries in a decorative manner that delights the eye” (Picasso: An American Tribute, New York, 1962, p. 52).
The first owner of Verre et paquet de tabac, Mikhail Larionov, was a Russian modern artist. Larionov initiated two highly influential movements: Rayism and Neo-Primitivism. He and his longtime companion, Natalia Goncharova, left Russia in 1915 for Lausanne and Paris, touring with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Larionov created designs for the productions Soleil de nuit in Switzerland in 1915 and Contes russes in Paris in 1917. By 1919, he had settled in Paris, where he often collaborated with Cubist and Dada painters and poets. Throughout the 1920s, he continued to work for Diaghilev as a set designer and artistic advisor. It is likely through Diaghilev that Larionov met Picasso.