Pablo Picasso in Barcelona - Las Meninas

Pablo Picasso, Las Meninas at the Picasso Museum, Barcelona.

Throughout his career Picasso engaged in an open dialogue with masterpieces from earlier times. He made an exhaustive analysis in the form of variations on iconic works such as Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez (1957), Women of Algiers by Eugene Lacrois (1954-55), Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe by Edouard Manet (1950-62).

Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656.

In the summer of 1957 he set about the task of  'copying'  Las Meninas 'in my own way, forgetting about Velazquez', as he put it. The result was fifty eight works painted between 17 August and 30 December: in forty four of them he breaks down and recomposes Velasquez's painting; two are free interpretations (The Piano and a Portrait of Jacqueline Roque); nine feature the dovecote he had installed on the balcony of his studio (to see some of those go    here);  and three are small oils in which he captures the landscape of the Bay of Cannes that he could see through his studio window.

Most of these copies are to be found in the Picasso Museum. I was fascinated by them. In the same way as I have been fascinated by the original, and the fascination it has held for so many artists over the centuries. When I did my art course I tried to understand why all these artists have been obssessed with this painting. You can see some of the results of my research here

Las Meninas, 17 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

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Maria Augustina Sarmiento ?

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Infanta Margarita Maria

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This was the only copy of the whole painting. The rest are studies of individual characters and they are below.

Las Meninas {Maria Agustina Sarmiento}, 20 and 26 August 1957, (oil and grease pencil strokes on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 21 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 22 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 26 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 27 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 27 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 28 August 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 4 September  1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 4 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 4 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 5 September  1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 6 September  1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas {Infanta Margarita Maria], 14 September  1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Maria Augustina Sarmiento], 10 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Maria Agustina Sarmiento and Infanta Margarida Maria], 17 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 17 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 18 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 19 September 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 2 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 3 October, 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco], 9 October, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, [Maria Augustina Sarmiento], 9 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Maria Augustina Sarmiento and Infanta Margarita Maria], 10 October, (oil on canvas)

Las Meminas [Maria Agustina Sarmiento], 10 October, 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Maria Agustina Sarmiento], 10 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

The Piano, 17 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Nicolasito Pertusato, 24 October 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Usabel de Velasco, Maria Barbola i Nicolasito Pertusato], 24 October, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco, Maria Barbola i Nicolasito Pertusato], 24 October, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco, Maria Barbola i Nicolasito Pertusato, 24 October, oil on canvas)

Las Meminas [Isabel de Velasco i Maria Barbola], 8 November 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meminas [Infanta Margarida Maria i Isabel de Velasco], 15 November 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas 15 November 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas 17 November 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Maria Agustina Sarmiento], 17 November 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco], 17 Nobember 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco], 17 Nobember 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco], 17 Nobember 1957, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas [Isabel de Velasco], 17 Nobember 1957, (oil on canvas)

Pablo Picasso in Barcelona - 2

Pablo Picasso in the Picasso Museum, Barcelona - 2

This is the second post of the Picasso Museum, you can see the first one here

The Blue Period:

In the autumn 1901, while staying in Paris for the second time, Picasso fell into a period of deep introspection triggered by the suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas, which formally marked the beginning of his so-called Blue Period. Tinged with an intense, omnipresent blue in consonance with the artist's state of mind, most of the works from that time, have marginalised individuals as their protagonists, sometimes doubled into themselves, sometimes with signs of cold, hunger, desperation or illness marked on their bodies, through which Picasso seems to want to draw up a symbolic record of human misery in all its forms. 

Barcelona Rooftops, 1902, (oil on canvas)

Sebastian Junyent i Sans, 1903, (oil on canvas)

Female Nude, 1903, (oil on canvas)

The Dead Woman, 1903, (oil on canvas)

Woman with a Bonnet, 1901, (oil on canvas)

Jaume Sabartes with Pince-Nez, 1901, (oil on canvas)

Interlude in Pink:

The works Picasso produced in 1905 show that the artist had entered a new period, in which varied, intense and warm pink tones had gained ground.

Madame Canals, 1905, (oil and charcoal on canvas)

Head of a Young Woman, 1906, (oil on canvas)

Woman and Child by the Sea, 1902, (oil on panel)

Forms of Desire:

Many of these images are openly pornographic and Picasso drew them on the calling cards of the business run by his friends Carles and Sebastia Junver Vidal, undoubtedly as youthful pranks.

Reclining  Nude, with Frontal Gaze, 1902-03, (pen and ink and wash on paper)

Carles Casagemas Naked, 1903, (pen and ink and blue pencil on an advertising postcard)

On the Road to Cubism:

Gored Horse, 1917, (graphite pencil on canvas with ochre primer)

Blanquita Suarez, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Woman in an Armchair, 1917, (oil onn canvas)

Man with Fruit Bowl, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Seated Man, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Still Life with Glass and Packet of Tobacco, 1924, (oil on canvas)

Jaume Sabartes with Ruff and Bonnet, 1939, (oil on canvas)

Vase, 1943, (ink and wash on paper)

Owl with Chair on Ochre Background, 1947, (lithograph)

Black Pitcher and Skull, 1946, (lithograph)

Painter at Work, 1965, (oil an Ripolin on canvas)

Pigeons:

From 9 to 16 September 1957, Picasso took a break from analysing and interpreting Las Meninas (post to follow) and focused instead on the dovecote on the balcony in his studio. He always considered this group of works as part of Las Meninas series.

The pigeons, 1957, (oil on canvas)

The pigeons, 1957, (oil on canvas)

The pigeons, 1957, (oil on canvas)

The pigeons, 1957, (oil on canvas)