Père Romeu

Pablo Picasso

1900 · Ink and essence on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

In connection with, or soon after, his first solo exhibition at the principal meeting place of the Barcelona avant-garde, the bohemian tavern Els Quatre Gats, Picasso made a set of small caricatures of the prominent members of the informal club. Romeu (1862–1908) was nearly twenty years older than Picasso and, along with Casas, Rusiñol, and Utrillo, a cofounder of Els Quatre Gats. Although he aspired to be a painter, during a trip to Paris in 1893 he became intrigued by the shadow theater of the Montmartre café Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat), the model for Barcelona's Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats). Perhaps Picasso's use of silhouette here is a sly reference to Romeu's shadow puppets.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

1900

Medium

Ink and essence on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Raymonde Paul, in memory of her brother, C. Michael Paul, 1982