1913, Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Guitar -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Painted in early 1913, this composition exemplifies the style known as Synthetic Cubism. At left, a fragment of green faux-marble paneling evokes the interior of a Parisian cafe, while a series of circles, lines and curves arranged along the central vertical axis suggests facial features, a guitar and a hand grasping the instrument's neck. Picasso's previous work in papier collé (a form of collage) here inflects his practice as a painter, layering a trompe l'oeil element (the highly realistic faux-marble slab) over an emphatically abstract line drawing. As in many Cubist portraits, the gender of the sitter, and even the type of instrument, portrayed here have been subject to interpretation. Titled "Femme avec une guitare" (Woman with a Guitar) in the inventory of Daniel Kahnweiler, the artist's principal dealer in the IgIos, the picture was variously described by subsequent owners and critics as "Personnage tenant une mandoline" (Person Holding a Mandolin) and "Joueur de mandoline" (Male Mandolin Player).
1913, Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Guitar -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Painted in early 1913, this composition exemplifies the style known as Synthetic Cubism. At left, a fragment of green faux-marble paneling evokes the interior of a Parisian cafe, while a series of circles, lines and curves arranged along the central vertical axis suggests facial features, a guitar and a hand grasping the instrument's neck. Picasso's previous work in papier collé (a form of collage) here inflects his practice as a painter, layering a trompe l'oeil element (the highly realistic faux-marble slab) over an emphatically abstract line drawing. As in many Cubist portraits, the gender of the sitter, and even the type of instrument, portrayed here have been subject to interpretation. Titled "Femme avec une guitare" (Woman with a Guitar) in the inventory of Daniel Kahnweiler, the artist's principal dealer in the IgIos, the picture was variously described by subsequent owners and critics as "Personnage tenant une mandoline" (Person Holding a Mandolin) and "Joueur de mandoline" (Male Mandolin Player).