Pablo Picasso

Galerie Berggruen, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co., Paris
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1976)
Thence by descent

Bern, Kunstmuseum Bern, Der Junge Picasso. Frühwerk und Blaue Periode, 1984-85, no. 144
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Picasso at Large in Toronto Collections, 1988
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art & Boston, Museum of Fine Art, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, 1997-98, no. 79, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, supplément aux volume 1 à 5, vol. VI, Paris, 1954, no. 190, illustrated pl. 24
Jaime Sabartès, Picasso: Documents iconographiques, Geneva, 1954, no. 72
Josep Palau 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
Picasso and els 4 Gats (exhibition catalogue), Picasso Museum of Barcelona, Barcelona, 1995-96, illustrated p. 188
The Picasso Project, ed., 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 hinged to a 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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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. In his seminal work Picasso: The Early Years, Josep Palau i Fabre discusses the present work, “There is a drawing, now famous, which would seem to have been done at just this time [Picasso’s return to Barcelona from Paris in 1902]. In it we see Picasso sitting at a table and surrounded by his friends, and above it there is a caption that reads: ‘Food and drink served at all hours.’ His emaciated face, his rather grubby-looking beard and his heavy double forelock are exactly the same as in his Large Blue Self-Portrait, which he had painted just before leaving Paris…In this drawing Picasso portrays himself with the friends who were to be his most usual cronies that year: Pere Romeu, the ‘inn-keeper,’ Racarol, Picasso’s studio companion, Fontbona, with whom he had already spent a lot of time in Paris, Angel P. de Soto (nicknamed Patas), who had let Picasso have part of the studio to work in, and Sabartés” (Josep Palau i Fabre, op. cit., p. 286).

Picasso held his first solo exhibition at Els Quatre Gats in 1900, the same year as his first trip to Paris. Over the next several years Picasso would travel from Barcelona to Paris and back again several times, finally settling in Paris in 1904. The importance of both the location and the idea of Els Quatre Gats are explored by John Richardson when he writes, “For almost as long as Picasso remained in Barcelona, the Quatre Gats tavern was the focal point of his life. This is where he learned about the latest developments in literature, philosophy, music and politics: about Verlaine, Nietzsche, Wilde, Wagner and Kropotkin, the principal heroes of the young, would-be intellectual habitués… The work of Picasso’s Quatre Gats period begins by reflecting the preoccupations and aspirations of his Catalan cronies; in the end he would repudiate almost everything they stood for” (John Richardson, op. cit., p. 129).

When Els Quatre Gats opened in 1897, a leaflet was distributed advertising the opening: “It is a hostel for the weary, a seat filled with warmth for those who long for the hearth; it is a museum for those seeking food for the soul; it is a tavern and vine arbour for those who love the shade of vine leaves and pressed grape essence; it is a Gothic beer hall for enthusiasts of the North, and an Andalusian patio for lovers of the south; it is a rest-home for the infirm of our century and a haven of friendship and harmony for those who enter to take shelter under the porticoes” (as quoted in Picasso and els 4 Gats (exhibition catalogue), op.cit., p. 11).