Pablo Picasso

A Spanish painter, sculptor, illustrator and ceramist of remarkable creative longevity, Pablo Picasso arrived in Paris in 1901.
The artist’s works conserved in the Orangerie’s collection bear witness to his various periods, from the early 1900s to the 1920s. L’Étreinte (The Embrace) employs the cold colors the artist used during his Blue Period (1901-1904). In 1906, in the middle of his Pink Period (1904-1906), Picasso travelled to Gósol in Spain. His painting evolved and he showed a growing interest in robust, stylized figures. He painted Les Adolescents (The Teenagers) and Femme au peigne (Woman with a Comb) the same year. Nu sur fond rouge (Nude on Red Background) is the first of a series of works leading up to Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon (1907, MOMA, New York). In the 1920s, Picasso painted large figures in classical poses. The Orangerie conserves several major works from this period, including Grand nu à la draperie (Large Nude with Drapery). Finally, two works in the Musée de l’Orangerie’s collection, Grande nature morte (Large Still Life) and Femme au tambourin (Woman with a Tambourine) are examples of late cubism.
The present state of the collection might lead one to suppose that the collector and art dealer Paul Guillaume had no interest in Picasso’s cubist period, but only in what preceded and followed it. However, it should be borne in mind that his wife Domenica parted with the period’s most audacious works after his death. Although Paul Guillaume was not Picasso’s official dealer, their common interest in primitive art, so-called “Negro Art” in particular, brought them together. Paul Guillaume was also the first art dealer to devote an exhibition confronting the two great masters of painting Matisse and Picasso, held in his gallery in 1918.

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