Yo, Picasso
Yo, Picasso | |
---|---|
English: I, Picasso | |
Artist | Pablo Picasso |
Year | 1901 (1901) |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Movement | Blue Period |
Dimensions | 73.5 cm × 60.5 cm (28.9 in × 23.8 in) |
Location | Private collection |
Yo, Picasso (English: I, Picasso), is an oil-on-canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in 1901. It is a self-portrait of the artist that depicts him in his youth, aged 19. The painting was created at the beginning of Picasso's Blue Period. On 9 May 1989, the painting sold at Sotheby's, achieving a price of $47.85 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings sold up to that date.
Background
This self-portrait of Picasso was painted in 1901, when he was a young man aged 19 who had recently arrived in Paris. The year was a significant point in the artist's career, as it was in the June of that year when Picasso's career as an artist was launched at his first exhibition at the gallery of Ambroise Vollard. In the spring of 1901, Picasso was a prolific artist, painting numerous canvases, which he produced in a studio in Montmartre. The year was also the beginning of his Blue Period, a phase characterised by melancholy, blue hues that dominated his artwork. This period was influenced by the suicide of Picasso's friend, the painter Carlos Casagemas, who had shot himself in the head in a Paris café in February 1901.[1]
Description
Yo, Picasso depicts the artist as he appeared in his youth. The painting is a brightly coloured, flamboyant portrait, reminiscent of Van Gogh, which depicts the artist wearing a white shirt and a bright orange cravate around his neck, set against a blue background.[2] The title of the painting is derived from the inscription made by Picasso on the top left of the painting. It has been described as a "a 19th-century swagger portrait" by Charles Darwent for the Independent.[1] The Irish Times has described the portrait as, "a bohemian dandy with thick hair and an intense look".[3] Picasso looks directly at the viewer "with supreme self-confidence", illustrated by the inscription "YO" in large capital letters. This assertion has been described as "defiant" by the Evening Standard.[4]
Picasso’s YO challenges not only us but the great Raphael portrait of Castiglione in the Louvre; make the comparison, this YO demands, my crude immediate brushwork against Raphael’s delicacy, my jarring chromatic contrasts against his tone, my furious energy against his calm, the work of half an afternoon triumphant over the work of weeks of craft and contemplation. Even the palette is not logically laid out as we might expect, but stabbed with the short strokes of colour characteristic of a finished painting — particularly of La Nana, which may be its immediate contemporary. Picasso’s was a YO about to trample all conventions.
Significance and legacy
On 22 May 1981, Paul Richard for The Washington Post described the painting as "a confident, ferocious self-portrait". "Yo, Picasso was one of the most popular self-portraits seen in the enormous Picasso retrospective last summer at the Museum of Modern Art. He had not yet entered his Blue Period, but could already paint with extraordinary power."[5]
Provenance
In November 1912 Hugo von Hofmannsthal purchased Yo, Picasso from the gallery of Heinrich Thannhauser in Munich.[6] The painting was inherited by Hofmannsthal's daughter Christiane, who moved to New York in 1939 with her husband, the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer. The painting remained in the family's possession until it was sold by their son, Michael Zimmer.[7]
Fletcher Jones purchased the painting at Christie's in London for £147,000 in 1970. In December 1975 his estate sold it at Christie's to "an anonymous French buyer" for £283,500.[8] In May 1981, Wendell Cherry bought the painting at Sotheby's in New York for $5.3 million.[9] In May 1989, he sold it at Sotheby's for $47.85 million to Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos. This was the second highest price paid up to that date for a work of art sold at auction.[10][11]
Exhibitions
In 2013, it was exhibited at the Courtauld Gallery, "Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901".[12]
Other self-portraits
Picasso created many self-portraits throughout his life, many of which he kept in his possession and passed to his heirs. These self-portraits offer a wide variety of self-representations using different styles, including:
Self Portrait (Yo), 1901, oil on cardboard painting mounted on wood, 51.4 cm x 31.8 cm, MoMA.[13]
Self-Portrait, 1907. oil on canvas, 56 cm x 46 cm. Národní galerie v Praze
Self-Portrait, oil on canvas, 56 cm x 45.3 cm, Private collection, Switzerland
Self-Portrait, Barcelona, 1899–1900, charcoal and chalk on paper, 22.5 cm x 26.5 cm[14]
See also
References
- ^ a b Darwent, Charles (17 February 2013). "Visual art review: Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 - Portrait of the artist as quixotic genius and grieving friend". Independent. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ Strauss, Michel (12 December 2013). Pictures, Passions and Eye: A Life at Sotheby's. Halban. ISBN 9781905559688.
- ^ Marlowe, Lara (9 July 2010). "Picasso's genius revisited as Met shows strength of its collection". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ "Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901, Courtauld Gallery - review". Evening Standard. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ Richard, Paul (22 May 1981). "'Yo Picasso' Sells for $5.3 million". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ Hemecker, Wilhelm W. (2017). "Das gerettete Ich? Hofmannsthals Picasso". Tradition in der Literatur der Wiener Moderne. De Gruyter. pp. 157–182. doi:10.1515/9783110549539-010. ISBN 978-3-11-054953-9.
- ^ Cohen, Stefanie (30 November 2008). "Saltwater daffy". New York Post. New York. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
- ^ "Picasso Self-Portrait is Sold for $572,670". The New York Times. 3 December 1975. p. 36.
- ^ Reif, Rita (22 May 1981). "Picasso 'Yo' Sets Record; Auctioned for $5.3 Million". The New York Times. p. 26.
- ^ Muchnic, Suzanne (10 May 1989). "Self-Portrait by Picasso Nets $47.85 Million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ "Niarchos Family". Artnews. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ Melikian, Souren (2013-03-08). "The Year Picasso Experimented With Style". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ^ "Pablo Picasso Self Portrait (Yo) 1901". MoMA. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ "The creative process of "Yo Picasso.Self-portraits"". Museu Picasso de Barcelona. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- v
- t
- e
- Le petit picador jaune (1889)
- Science and Charity (1897)
- Le Moulin de la Galette (1900)
- The Appointment (1901)
- Child with a Dove (1901)
- La Gommeuse (1901)
- Yo, Picasso (1901)
- Portrait of Jaime Sabartés (1901)
- The Blue Room (1901)
- Femme aux Bras Croisés (1901-02)
- Old Jewish Man with a Boy (1903)
- The Old Guitarist (1903)
- La Vie (1903)
- Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto (1903)
- Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904)
- The Actor (1904-1905)
- Woman Ironing (1904)
- Girl in a Chemise (c. 1905)
- Acrobat and Young Harlequin (1905)
- Family of Saltimbanques (1905)
- Garçon à la pipe (1905)
- Girl on a Ball (1905)
- Les Noces de Pierrette (1905)
- Au Lapin Agile (1905)
- Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905)
- Famille d'acrobates avec singe (1905)
- Boy Leading a Horse (1905–06)
- Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905–06)
- Head of a Young Woman (1906)
- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
- Woman with a Fan (1908)
- Brick Factory at Tortosa (1909)
- Woman with a Fan (1909)
- Femme et pot de moutarde (1910)
- Girl with a Mandolin (1910)
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910)
- Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910)
- The Accordionist (1911)
- Le pigeon aux petits pois (1911)
- La Coiffeuse (1911)
- Violon et Raisins (1912)
- Bottle, Glass, Fork (1912)
- Ma Jolie (1912)
- Arlequin (1913)
- Ma Jolie (1914)
- Three Musicians (1921)
- Reading the Letter (c. 1921)
- The Pipes of Pan (1923)
- The Three Dancers (1925)
- Woman in a Red Armchair (1929)
- Le Repos (1932)
- Girl before a Mirror (1932)
- La Lecture (1932)
- Le Rêve (1932)
- Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)
- Nude in a Black Armchair (1932)
- Femme à la montre (1932)
- Two Girls Reading (1934)
- Jeune Fille Endormie (1935)
- Guernica (1937)
- Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)
- Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937)
- The Weeping Woman (1937)
- Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom (1937)
- Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937)
- Maya with Doll (1938)
- Woman's Head (1939)
- Dora Maar au Chat (1941)
- The Charnel House (1944–1945)
- Nature morte au poron (1948)
- Massacre in Korea (1951)
- Les Femmes d'Alger series (1955)
- Las Meninas (1957)
- The Fall of Icarus (1958)
- Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) (1960)
- Jacqueline (1961)
- Femme au Chien (1962)
- Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse) (1931)
- Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (1941)
- Bull's Head (1942)
- Baboon and Young (1951)
- Figure découpée (1963, 1964, 1965)
- Chicago Picasso (1967)
- Sylvette (1970)
- Vollard Suite (1930–1937)
- Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl (1933)
- Minotauromachy (1935)
- The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937)
- 347 Series (1968)
- Girl from Majorca (1905)
- Don Quixote (1955)
- Toros y toreros (1961)
- Le Taureau (1945-1946)
- Dove (1949)
- Desire Caught by the Tail (c. 1941)
- The Four Little Girls (c. 1947–48)
- Picasso and the Ballets Russes
- Parade
- The Three-Cornered Hat
- Pulcinella
- Le Train Bleu
- Mercure
- Musée Picasso (Paris)
- Musée Picasso (Antibes)
- Museu Picasso (Barcelona)
- Museo Picasso Málaga (Malaga)
- Museo Casa Natal (Malaga)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Normandy)
- Olga Khokhlova (first wife)
- Jacqueline Roque (second wife)
- Maya Widmaier-Picasso (daughter)
- Claude Picasso (son)
- Paloma Picasso (daughter)
- Diana Widmaier Picasso (granddaughter)
- Marina Picasso (granddaughter)
- Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (grandson)
- José Ruiz y Blasco (father)
(France)
- Bateau-Lavoir (Montmartre Paris)
- Villa La Vigie (Juan-les-Pins, Summer 1924)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Gisors, 1930-1937)
- Château of Vauvenargues (Vauvenargues, 1958-1962)
- Villa La Californie (Cannes, 1955-1961)
- Château de Vie (Mougins, 1961-1973)
television about
- Visit to Picasso (1949)
- Guernica (1950)
- The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
- The Adventures of Picasso (1978)
- Surviving Picasso (1996)
- Picasso: Magic, Sex & Death (2001)
- Modigliani (2004)
- Genius (2018 TV series)
- Carles Casagemas
- Carl Nesjar
- Lydia Corbett
- Lump (dog)
- Fundación Picasso
- Picasso. In the heart of darkness (1939-1945) (2019-2020 exhibition)
- Picasso & Lump (2006 book)
- Picasso referendum of Basel
- Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria
- Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1915 painting)
- "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1924 poem)
- Woman, Bird, Star (Homage to Pablo Picasso) (1973 painting)
- "Pablo Picasso" (1976 song)
- The Blue Guitar (1977 etchings)
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993 play)
- Picasso (crater)