Three Musicians
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Spanish, 1881 - 1973
Geography:
Made in France, Europe
Date:
1921Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
6 feet 8 1/2 inches × 6 feet 2 1/8 inches (204.5 × 188.3 cm) Framed: 6 feet 10 1/2 inches × 6 feet 4 1/2 inches × 2 1/2 inches (209.6 × 194.3 × 6.4 cm)Copyright:
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
European Painting
1952-61-96Credit Line:
A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952
Made in France, Europe
Date:
1921Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
6 feet 8 1/2 inches × 6 feet 2 1/8 inches (204.5 × 188.3 cm) Framed: 6 feet 10 1/2 inches × 6 feet 4 1/2 inches × 2 1/2 inches (209.6 × 194.3 × 6.4 cm)Copyright:
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
European Painting
* Gallery 167, Modern and Contemporary Art, first floor
Accession Number:1952-61-96Credit Line:
A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952
Label:
The three masked musicians in this painting represent comic figures from the tradition of popular theater in Italy. This Cubist concert features Harlequin playing a violin, Pierrot witha recorder, and a Franciscan friar holding an accordion. The painting has been interpreted as a nostalgic elegy to a trio of friends: the recently deceased poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire (Pierrot), the poet Max Jacob (the friar), and Picasso himself as the Harlequin.
The three masked musicians in this painting represent comic figures from the tradition of popular theater in Italy. This Cubist concert features Harlequin playing a violin, Pierrot witha recorder, and a Franciscan friar holding an accordion. The painting has been interpreted as a nostalgic elegy to a trio of friends: the recently deceased poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire (Pierrot), the poet Max Jacob (the friar), and Picasso himself as the Harlequin.
Provenance
Consigned by the artist to Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris, January 21, 1925 [1]; with Rosenberg until c. 1927 (exchanged it and other paintings with Reber for a Cézanne); Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber (1880-1959), Lausanne, 1927-1936 (possibly in the possession of a creditor 1934-1936) [2]; with Zwemmer Gallery, London; sold to A. E. Gallatin and George L. K. Morris, NY, September 18, 1936 [3]; bequest of A. E. Gallatin to PMA, 1952. 1. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Duncan Phillips Collects: Paris Between the Wars, Washington, DC, 1991, p. 43-45 and n. 92, citing Paul Rosenberg Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library. 2. Reber underwent financial difficulties as a result of the Depression: Alfred H. Barr wrote to MOMA trustee Stephen C. Clark on July 13, 1934, that the painting 'formerly in the Reber Collection, is now apparently in the possession of a bank following Reber's recent collapse on the Paris bourse'; see Dorothy Kosinski, "G. F. Reber: Collector of Cubism," Burlington Magazine, v. 133, August 1991, p. 526. 3. The Zwemmer Gallery ledger records the sale to Gallatin on September 18, 1936, with a note that the work was being sent to New York directly from Lausanne; see Nigel Vaux Halliday, More Than a Bookshop: Zwemmer's and Art in the 20th Century, London, 1991, p. 183. In addition, a letter of Alfred Barr (who was campaigning to acquire the painting for MOMA at the time) dated July 31, 1936, notes that Zwemmer was offering the painting. The Mayor Gallery in London may also have been involved in the sale: Morris' painted receipt (Gallatin Papers, New York Historical Society) for his half of the payment for the painting refers to the Mayor Gallery and not to Zwemmer; repro. in Susan Larsen, "Albert Gallatin: the 'Park Avenue Cubist' Who Went Downtown," Art News, December 1978, p. 80. The Mayor Gallery, however, has no record of this transaction, as indicated to Gail Stavitsky by Andrew Murray, Director, letter of April 21, 1989, and by Dorothy Kosinski, curator of the Douglas Cooper Collection; see Gail Stavitsky, The Development, Institutionalization, and Impact of the A.E. Gallatin Collection of Modern Art [Ph. D. dissertation, New York University], 1990, v. 9, p. 240, and letter from Stavitsky dated 19 October 1989 in curatorial file. Nevertheless the Mayor Gallery's connection with Reber is well documented; Douglas Cooper, who was one of the gallery's directors from 1933 to 1937 or 1938, bought fifteen works from Reber in the 1930's (see Dorothy Kosinski, Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism, Houston, 1990, p. 22).* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.