CHAPTER III

Generalized Classicism - 1905-1906

During the latter part of 1905 and most of 1906, Picasso's work contained figures at peace with themselves, each other and their environment. These new figures had fuller forms than the emaciated persons pictured earlier. He was working with balanced forms harmoniously arranged. Often Picasso's figures displayed his interest in the intervals between separate figures as he placed them against open space or simple blocks, rather than in any specific location.

Pool wrote that Picasso's "supremacy lies in the rhythm of his lines and the general architecture of his pictures which set him in the French 19th century tradition as a follower of Ingres." Picasso's economical color, swift line and generalized vision are classical in their attitude. The classical tradition was, in one sense, a revolt against the lack of form in Impressionism and the misty light in the work of artists in northern Europe. Picasso's work became more impersonal and detached. Form and clarity became important to him. Picasso saw the actual works of the Greek Classical periods as well as the archaic Greek and Etruscan marbles and bronzes in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Pool said that both the styles and the idyllic, Arcadian view of antiquity as seen through the eyes of Picasso's elders: Renoir, Gauguin, Puvis de Chavannes and Cezanne, contributed to this change in Picasso's work. There were important exhibitions of the work of these artists in 1904 and 1905 and Picasso would have had the opportunity to study the work of these artists. He had a copy of Gauguin's book, Noa- Noa, and "drew over" many of the pictures in that book. However, it was from Cezanne that Picasso gained a greater sense of structure and organization (Pool 122-123).

An exhibition of forty-three works by Puvis de Chavannes in 1904 at the Salon d'Automne is mentioned by Pool and she described the "Blend of naivete and sophistication, tranquil gestures of his figures, washes of cool colour, the geometric organization of his pictures and the simplified drawing (which) seem to have appealed to Picasso as they have done to Gauguin and Van Gogh” (Pool 124).

Picasso must also have been aware of the trend of current writing and the

"Mediterranean heritage" which was a reaction against the works of the Northern artists such as Nietzsche and Wagner. At this time, Charles Maurras, an important critic, advanced the idea that "Beauty is harmony" and a work of art "should be submitted to superior reason" with the "parts subordinated to the whole" (qtd. in Pool 127).

EXAMPLES FROM 1905

"Boy Leading a Horse" 1905 (22)

The production of Picasso during this period manifested an interest in this new classicism. One example of the influence of Greek Classical art is found in Picasso's "Boy Leading a Horse" (22). The figure of the boy is detached, serene and resembles the Greek Kouroi of the sixth century B.C., especially in the placement of one foot behind the other and the slim waist and chest. A painting of a boy "Bather" (22B)by Cezanne has the same attitude with arms bent and a hand resting on the hip. The feet in Picasso's version are seen from a lower viewpoint and are more foreshortened than the feet in his earlier figures which were like the feet of El Greco's figures pictured as though we were looking down at the top of the feet. Rembrandt's "Study of a Male Nude" (22A) may have contributed to this work.

A taste for El Greco and the gestures of his figures which are a form of mime in the manner of Greek Classical Miming could have prepared Picasso's vision for an attraction to Greek art. El Greco also influenced Picasso's concept of space. The Picasso paintings have the same shallow space as the space in El Greco's "St. Martin and the Beggar," but the flattened form of the distant landscape refers to the work of Puvis de Chavannes with a flatness not unlike stage scenery.

EXAMPLES FROM 1906

"La Coiffure" 1906 (23)

In 1967, the artist William Gambini showed me "La Coiffure" (23) by Picasso and told me he thought it was based on "A Young Woman at Her Toilette" (23A) by Rembrandt. The child in (23) fits nicely in the dark shadow

area in the Rembrandt.

"Studies for La Toilette” 1906 (24) (25) and (26)

"La Toilette" 1906 (27)

"The Harem" 1906 (28)

One of the strongest parallels between Classical Greek art and the art of Picasso is "La Toilette" (27) and the studies for this work (24), (25), and (26). Pool wrote of the influence of the androgynous flying gods in the Louvre and the figures on Greek vases. The stance of the woman holding the mirror in "La Toilette" is like a maiden on the right of the frieze of the Parthenon in the Louvre. The emphasis that Picasso places on the curls of hair is surely related to the curls carved in Greek Classical sculpture. Picasso painted with a terra-cotta or red color in these paintings, connecting his work with the Hellenistic and Roman terra-cottas and also Greek vases of the fifth century. This figure may be a study after the woman on the right of Botticelli's "A Lady and Four Allegorical Figures" (10B). The female on the left is associated with Titian's "Venus Rising from the Sea" (28B), however a more direct relationship exists between Picasso's work and Bouguereau's "The Birth of Venus" (28A) which was also a model for Picasso's "Young Female Nude and Nude Child, with a Goat," "Young Girl Arranging Her Hair," and for the composition of Picasso's "The Harem" (28). In addition to this, the "Harem" contains elements from Ingres's "The Turkish Bath" (17A), Manet's "Luncheon on the Grass" (28C), and Paul Gauguin's "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?"(28D).

"The Birth of Venus" by Bouguereau (28A) suggested the pose and the centaur's nose and beard on the left. The light negative space looks like the horns of the goat in Picasso's painting. On the opposite side a shell becomes a jug in Picasso's work. Note the female head turning around in the Bouguereau and the placement of the hands for comparison.

"Flower Girl" (Study for the Peasants) 1906 (29)

"Flower Girl" (Study for the Peasants) (29) was based on several works. One

was Botticelli's "Study for the Allegorical Figure, Abundance" (29A). Another was Pierre Auguste Cot's "Paul and Virginia" (29B). A third possibility is a central figure in Ingres' "The Golden Age" (29C).

Study for the "Composition: the Peasants" 1906 (30)

A study for the "Composition: the Peasants" is shown in (30). This work shows a relationship between the garlands floating over the head of the man and the angels in the "Birth of Venus" by Bouguereau (28A).

"Composition" 1906 (31)

The painting of peasants and oxen called the "Composition" (31) was probably painted after Picasso returned to Paris after a trip to Gosol. On this journey, he went through Barcelona where his friend Miguel Utrillo had just published the first Spanish monograph on El Greco. This book contained a reproduction of El Greco's "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" (31A) which Barr compared with Picasso's "Composition." Barr pointed out that in the El Greco the flowers are borne by angels and there are no cattle. The relationship between El Greco and Picasso is perhaps strongly suggested in a composition of these paintings than the other El Greco's that Picasso worked from and yet Picasso was noncommittal when asked about the influence of El Greco in his "Composition." This is one of the earliest paintings in which Picasso implies motion. The small head and large arms of the man and the thin-waisted, floating figure of the girl are akin to the manneristic art of El Greco. Two dark shapes, one in the area of St. Joseph's right hand, the other just above the horizon, suggested to Picasso's imagination the heads of cattle. One head is easier to perceive. The jaw is near Joseph's hand. The nostril and mouth are situated near the top of the staff. A dark spot for an eye and surrounding dark area are above Joseph's wrist and on a line horizontally with the beard of Joseph. Curves in the lower left of the landscape are simplified by Picasso. The angels and flowers in the sky became a bouquet in the "Composition." The highlight on the right elbow of the man occurred as a light area of cloud in the El Greco. The shape of his hand was determined by the light area of cloud in the midst of the angels. His hand and the contour of his face come from a shape formed by the angel's arm. Picasso reversed the light-dark relationship of the

clouds to create an arbitrary value contrast and a line formed by their coming together points to the head of the girl. The relationship of the figures is obvious and the unusual placement of the feet on the edge of the format conclusively ties these two works together. (Barr 53)

In addition, the previously mentioned (29C), (29A), (29B), and (28A) were combined by Picasso to create his painting. Figure (32) is a diagram from Picasso's "Composition" (31). The figure (32A) is a diagram from Bouguereau's "The Birth of Venus" (28A). Twenty-five points of comparison are identified.

"Two Women" 1906, (33)

Picasso's intimacy with Chasseriau's "Two Sisters" (33B) reveals itself in "Two Women" (33). Another source coupled with this one is Jan Gossaert's "Neptune and Amphitrite" (33A). The left hand, torso and the placement of the feet of Amphitrite were repeated by Picasso.

"Two Nudes" 1906 (34)

The manner in which Courbet created shapes on his figures with patterns of light and shadow was applied by Picasso to his "Two Nudes" (34). See (34A) which is a detail of Courbet's "The Painter's Studio". Picasso's painting appears to combine the Iberian style and his interest in sculptural modelling. This work was produced during a time when Picasso was sculpting. He did not sculpt extensively again until over twenty years had passed. Significantly, the woman on the left holding back the drapery is a forerunner of the woman on the left of Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" 1906, (40). The size and pose of the figure on the right of Ruben's "The Three Graces" (34B) must also be compared to Picasso's bulky female. A suggestion of the poise of Ingres' standing figure on the right of the "Turkish Bath" (17A) was transferred to Picasso's figures in this work.

Picasso's study of classical form shows that his style was evolving from the sentimental subject-centered work of the earlier periods and that he was preparing for a major synthesis of form.

Works cited.

Pool, Phoebe "Picasso's Neo-Classicism First Period 1905-1906," Apollo, V-LXXXI 36 February 1965 122. Print.

Pool, Phoebe "Picasso's Neo-Classicism First Period 1905-1906," Apollo, V-LXXXI 36 February 1965 123. Print.

Pool, Phoebe "Picasso's Neo-Classicism First Period 1905-1906," Apollo, V-LXXXI 36 February 1965 123-124. Print.

Pool, Phoebe "Picasso's Neo-Classicism First Period 1905-1906," Apollo, V-LXXXI 36 February 1965 124. Print.

Pool, Phoebe "Picasso's Neo-Classicism First Period 1905-1906," Apollo, V-LXXXI 36 February 1965 127. Print.