The Chocolate Pot

Pablo Picasso

Paris, early 1909 · Watercolor and gouache with traces of charcoal on white laid paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Chocolate pots, popular in turn-of-the-century France, are usually distinguished by their short spout (partially shown here as a dark triangle on the left side of the pot), angled handle, and hole in the lid. What may appear to be a straw is actually the stem of the frother or stirrer, which was rolled between one’s palms to blend together the ingredients. Picasso enjoyed perceptual ambiguities, such as the spout of the chocolate pot that simultaneously defines the curved pedestal of the adjacent compote.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

Paris, early 1909

Medium

Watercolor and gouache with traces of charcoal on white laid paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2016