巴布罗‧毕加索(1881-1973)
PROPERTY FROM THE JOHN C. WHITEHEAD COLLECTION
巴布罗‧毕加索(1881-1973)

Dessin pour la couverture de Ragtime de Stravinsky (recto); Trois musiciens (verso)

Details
巴布罗‧毕加索(1881-1973)
Dessin pour la couverture de Ragtime de Stravinsky (recto); Trois musiciens (verso)
signed 'Picasso' (lower right)
pen and India ink on paper
10 ½ x 7 ¾ in. (26.7 x 19.7 cm.)
Drawn in 1918-1919
来源
Mr. and Mrs. Igor Stravinsky, New York.
Martin Ackerman, London; sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 11 May 1988, lot 121.
Acquired at the above sale by Achim Moeller Fine Art on behalf of John C. Whitehead.
Literature
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1954, vol. 6, no. 1344 (reproduction of the cover illustrated, pl. 160).
J. Russell, “At Cézanne’s Elbow,” The Sunday Times, 18 November 1973, p. 38.
D. Cooper, Picasso Theatre, New York, 1987, p. 36 (reproduction of the cover illustrated).
The Picasso Project, ed., Picassos Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, From Cubism to Neoclassicism, 1917-1919, San Francisco, 1995, p. 284, no. 19-369 (reproduction of the cover illustrated).
Exhibited
London, Achim Moeller, Ltd., Selected Paintings, Drawings and Graphics of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Autumn 1973, p. 7 (illustrated).
The Montclair Art Museum, Late XIX and Early XX Century French Masters, The John C. Whitehead Collection, April-June 1989, p. 32, no. 54 (illustrated, p. 23).
New York, Achim Moeller Fine Art, The Whitehead Collection, Late 19th and 20th Century French Masters, A Collection in Progress, April-May 1997, p. 166, no. 97 (illustrated in color, p. 167).
New York, Achim Moeller Fine Art, From Daumier to Matisse, Selections from the John C. Whitehead Collection, May 2002, pp. 64 and 90, no. 17 (illustrated in color, p. 65).
New York, Achim Moeller Fine Art, From Daumier to Matisse, French Master Drawings from the John C. Whitehead Collection, April-May 2010, pp. 16 and 34, no. 10 (illustrated in color, pp. 35-37).

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Morgan Schoonhoven
Morgan Schoonhoven

拍品专文

玛雅·维德迈尔-毕加索(Maya Widmaier-Picasso)确认这幅作品确属真迹。
克劳德·毕加索(Claude Picasso)确认这幅作品确属真迹。

Picasso met Igor Stravinsky in 1917 and the two would engage in a thriving artistic dialogue for the next three years, though their friendship lasted throughout their lives. Brought together in Rome by the founder of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, these two artists formed a quick bond of friendship that was strengthened by their admiration for and interest in the other’s creative talents. Though John Richardson notes “Picasso told Stravinsky that he had little ear for music but an inherent sense of rhythm…this enabled him to appreciate the achievements” of the musical visionary (A Life of Picasso, The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932, New York, 2009, p. 23). The present lot, a drawing design for the cover score of Stravinsky’s Ragtime, represents a striking collaboration between two great cultural innovators of the twentieth century.
Composed by Stravinsky for eleven instruments, Ragtime was published in 1919. Executed as one continuous line drawing on each side of the sheet, Picasso has managed to capture the spirit of his composer friend in a way that commemorates his musical talents. With each swirling line, the influence of sheet music and the rhythmic complexities of musical notes becomes apparent. Picasso likely completed these drawings in response to Stravinsky’s own attempt at capturing his new friend in musical form using telegram paper to create “Sketch of Music for the Clarinet.” By scoring the music for a clarinet, Stravinsky made reference to an instrument that featured heavily in Picasso’s works during that time.
Picasso and Stravinsky’s collaborations would come to a fruitful culmination with the 1920 Ballets Russes production of Pulcinella, a ballet based on commedia dell’arte themes, which had first been proposed by Léonide Massine. Picasso designed the stage sets and costumes and Stravinsky worked on the score, based on the music of Pergolesi. Picasso’s admiration for Stravinsky persisted through this collaboration, as is seen in the numerous portraits he completed of his friend during that time (Zervos, vol. 4, no. 60; fig. 1). These drawings and the present lot are remarkable testimony to the strong camaraderie between them.

(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso. Igor Stravinsky, Picasso Museum, Paris.

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