Pablo Picasso

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the centre of the upper edge. The lower and left edges are slightly irregular which is inherent to the artistic process. This work is in very good original condition.
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signed 'Picasso' and dated 'Paris, 13 octobre - 17 novembre XXXII' (lower left), ink and wash on paper. Executed in 1932.

 

Ce portrait de l'artiste en joueur de clarinette berçant Marie-Thérèse nue et endormie est l'une des réalisations les plus accomplies de la série des Joueurs de clarinette ou de flûte. Apparu dans l'œuvre de Picasso à partir de 1932, le personnage du joueur de clarinette est une variation faunesque, chantre de la volupté, qui annonce et précède de quelques mois l'apparition du Minotaure en alter ego de l'artiste. L'onirisme enchanteur formé par le couple amoureux contraste avec l'atmosphère capiteuse, mouillée de vapeurs noires sur lesquelles les personnages ont l'air de flotter. Cette dualité reflète les deux pôles de la vie privée de Picasso à l'automne 1932 : d'un côté l'amour secret, les arts et les plaisirs avec Marie-Thérèse Walter, de l'autre la jalousie orageuse d'Olga Picasso et la stérilité d'une situation sentimentale sans retour.

D'un point de vue stylistique, Picasso emprunte sa composition à Ingres et à l'œuvre qui l'obsède à cette époque - l'extraordinaire Odalisque à l'esclave  (fig 1). Mais la contorsion auquel il soumet le corps de la femme endormie ainsi que la manière dont il détache ses figures blanches du fond noir appartiennent à Matisse, dont la grande rétrospective en juillet 1931 à la galerie Georges Petit permit de rappeler qu'il s'imposait comme le seul rival de Picasso. L'élan créateur que l'amour de Marie-Thérèse insuffle à toute l'œuvre de Picasso l'encourage ainsi à proposer une nouvelle poétique totalement fusionnelle, convoquant maîtres anciens, artistes contemporains et personnages réels : "Picasso eut cinquante ans. La jeunesse et l'âge, l'innovation et la tradition constituent des motifs surdéterminés pour Picasso, convoquant dans son art et depuis le début un idéal néo-classique, à renouveler dans une version sexuellement chargée, susceptible de symboliser sa propre fécondité artistique" (John Elderfield, Matisse Picasso, musée national d'art moderne, 2002-03, catalogue d'exposition, p. 236).

 

This portrait of the artist playing the clarinet and cradling a naked, sleeping Marie-Thérèse is one of the most accomplished works of the entire clarinet or flute player series.  First appearing in Picasso's work in 1932, the clarinet player is a faun-like figure, a master of sensuality, who foreshadows and predates by several months the arrival of the Minotaur as the artist's alter-ego. The idyllic reverie evoked by the two lovers contrasts with the heady atmosphere, shrouded in damp, black smoke, in which the two figures appear to float.  This juxtaposition reflects the two sides of Picasso's private life in the autumn of 1932: on the one hand, a profusion of pleasure and art in his clandestine love affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, and on the other the stormy jealousy of Olga Picasso and the hopelessness of being trapped in a loveless relationship.

From a stylistic point of view, Picasso takes inspiration for his composition from Ingres and from the extraordinary Odalisque à l'esclave (fig 1), a work which obsessed him at this time.  However the way in which the sleeping nude is distorted and the figures are detached from the background comes from Matisse, who, as the retrospective in July 1931 at the Galerie Georges Petit had demonstrated, was emerging as Picasso's only artistic rival. The renewed creative life that Marie-Thérèse's love breathed into all of Picasso's work here encourages him to suggest a new, totally unifying poetic, evoking the great masters of painting, as well contemporary artists and real-life characters: 'Picasso was 50 years old.  Youth and age, innovation and tradition, all amount to pre-destined motifs for Picasso, instilling from the very beginning a neo-classical ideal, to be renewed in a sexually charged version, which symbolises his own artistic fertility' (John Elderfield, Matisse Picasso, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 2002-3, exhibition catalogue).