Garçon à la pipe

Property of the Greentree Foundation from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney: Impressionist and Modern Art Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin (probably acquired circa 1910) Countess Else Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Kesselstett (née Lavergne-Paguilhen), Berlin and Switzerland (by inheritance from the above) Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zürich (acquired from the above) Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney (acquired from the above on January 13, 1950) One of the iconic images of the Blue and Rose periods, Garçon à la pipe probably began as a study from life in Picasso’s immediate surroundings but was dramatically transformed in a moment of sudden inspiration. According to André Salmon: “After a delightful series of metaphysical acrobats, dancers like priestesses of Diana, delightful clowns and ‘wistful Harlequins,’ Picasso had painted, without a model, the purest and simplest image of a young Parisian working boy, beardless and in blue overalls: having indeed, more or less the same appearance as the artist himself during working hours. One night, Picasso abandoned the company of his friends and their intellectual chit-chat. He returned to his studio, took the canvas he had abandoned a month before and crowned the figure of the little apprentice lad with roses. He had made this work a masterpiece thanks to a sublime whim” (André Salmon, La jeune peinture française , Paris, 1912, pp. 41-42, quoted in Joseph Palau i Fabre, Picasso: The Early Years 1881-1907 , New York, 1981, p. 428). Picasso’s work of the Rose period has always been admired for its melancholy charm and haunting poetry, contrasting with the deep gloom of the immediately preceding Blue period, yet in both instances the source of inspiration was in his immediate surroundings. Since 1904 he had been living in the Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre, so named because of its resemblance to a Seine washing barge, and when not socializing there he would meet his friends in inexpensive restaurants and cabarets such as Le Zut and Le Lapin Agile. As described by Roland Penrose, Montmartre, “being a village within a city…was almost self-contained. Within a small distance a great variety of amusements and theatres were at hand. For some years the most popular place of entertainment was the Cirque Medrano, which to this day still continues to enchant successive generations of Parisians. Its clowns, acrobats and horses had delighted Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Forain, Seurat and many others. There, behind the scenes and outside among the sideshows of the fair that traditionally occupies the whole boulevard during the winter, Picasso made friends with the harlequins, jugglers and strolling players. Without their being conscious of it, they became his models” (Roland Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work, 1981, p. 110). The entertainment provided by street fairs and the acrobats who performed there provided inspiration for many of the works created in 1905-1906, culminating in the great Saltimbanques in the National Gallery, Washington D.C (see fig. 1) . Although the model for the present work has sometimes been identified as an actor, it seems likely that he was an adolescent known as “p’tit Louis,” who was frequently to be found at the Bateau Lavoir along with, in Picasso’s own words, other “local types, actors, ladies, gentlemen, delinquents…….He stayed there, sometimes the whole day. He watched me work. He loved that” (Hélène Parmelin, Picasso Says , London, 1969, p. 71, quoted in John Richardson, A Life of Picasso , vol. 1, 1881-1906, New York, 1991, p. 340). A number of preliminary studies for the present painting show Picasso depicting his model in a variety of different positions, standing, sitting, leaning against a wall, lighting a pipe or simply holding it in his hands (see figs. 2,3). The most painstakingly worked study depicts the boy seated in the pose utilized in the final composition, although he clasps his left elbow with his right hand (see fig. 4) instead of letting it hang d