Pablo Picasso

Galerie Berggruen, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co., Paris
Acquired from the above in 1976 and thence by descent to the present owner

Bern, Kunstmuseum Bern, Der Junge Picasso. Frühwerk und Blaue Periode, 1984-85, no. 144
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Picasso at Large in Toronto Collection, 1988
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art & Boston, Museum of Fine Art, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, 1997-1998, no. 79, illustrated in the catalogue

Jaime Sabartès, Picasso: Documents iconographiques, Geneva, 1954, no. 72
Josep Palai i Fabre, Picasso Vivo, 1881-1907, Barcelona, 1980, no. 716, illustrated p. 286
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso, The Early Years, 1881-1907, Barcelona, 1985, no. 716, illustrated p. 286
John Richardson, A Life of Picasso. Volume I 1881-1906, New York, 1991, illustrated p. 245
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Blue Period - 1902-1904, San Francisco, 2011, no. 1902-50, illustrated p. 22

Executed on thick cream wove paper, not laid down, and hinged to the mount at the upper two corners. The upper and lower edges are very slightly unevenly cut. There is a pencil sketch of two men on the verso. The work is executed on a sheet that was previously folded; the fold is away from the image and not visible when framed. There is some time-staining to the sheet and some very minor foxing, most of which is away from the image itself. Otherwise, this work is in overall very good condition.
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In 1899, Pablo Picasso discovered Els Quatre Gats and was quickly inducted into the tight circle of artists and intellectuals who frequented the Bohemian tavern. It was there that he solidified his friendship with the de Soto brothers, Angel and Mateu. Picasso began spontaneously sketching his new group of friends and soon found himself with a large corpus of work. Unknown and without the means to find a venue to properly frame and mount his work, Picasso chose El Quatre Gats to exhibit his work. According to Francesco Fontbona, this informal exhibition, 'provided a watershed in the young artist's career. We do not know exactly which portraits were exhibited, as no catalogue is currently available and the only three critics that covered the event in the press did not list them but, in view of the repertoire of known or preserved works, it is easy to conjecture that they must have been the portraits of Francisco Bernareggi, Josep Cardonoa, Carlos Casegamas, Creus, Angel Fernández de Soto, Mateu Fernéndez de Soto... Jaumé Sabartés... and a few other unidentified figures' (María Teresa Ocaña, Picasso and Els 4 Cats, Barcelona, 1996, p. 14).

The present work is a design  for the cover of a menu for the famous restaurant Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona. A celebrated local haunt, this establishment was home to bohemian writers, poets and painters. Indeed the present work illustrates some of the most famous regulars, from left to right: Père Romeu, Picasso, Rocarol, Fontbona, Angel de Soto, Sabartès and, last but not least, Père Romeu's dog.

John Richardson writes of Picasso's burgeoning success and his association with Els Quatre Gats: 'Rusiñol, Casas and Utrillo, the leaders of the modernista movement, had promised him an exhibition in the main hall of their Bohemian tavern, Els Quatre Gats.  Recognition by them was recognition indeed. And how propitious that the début of Picasso's great career should coincide with the start of a new century' (John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, 1881-1906, London, 1991, vol. I, p. 127).