Man with a Guitar

Pablo Picasso

Paris, 1915–16 · Watercolor, gouache, resin, and graphite on white wove paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

After several years of working in oil and papier collé, this work heralds Picasso’s return to the media of watercolor and gouache. It also revisits one of his favorite themes, the man with a guitar, who is shown here within a teetering environment of interlocked and colored planes. Clearly recognizable elements (a guitar, the scrolled side of an armchair, faux-marble wallpaper) compete with illegible, opaque forms. The man, who appears as if framed by a doorway or reflected in a mirror, is neither fully abstract nor fully convincing as a figure. In fact, he may not be a man at all: his rigid form and simple outline recall the tailors’ mannequins that appear in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, an artist in whom Picasso was deeply interested at the time.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

Paris, 1915–16

Medium

Watercolor, gouache, resin, and graphite on white wove paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

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