Pablo Picasso

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm
Gerard Bonnier, Stockholm (acquired by 1953 and until at least 1959)
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Private Collection, New York
James Goodman Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above in 1981. Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 8th May 2007, lot 55)
Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, 1918-1953, 1953, no. 115 (titled Le Homard et le poron)
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Cézanne till Picasso, 1954, no. 285 (titled Le Homard et le poron)
Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus, Picasso, 1956, no. 278, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Le Homard et le porron)
Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Picasso, 1959, no. 16
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Das Stilleben im 20. Jahrhundert, 1978-79, no. 92, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Madrid, Fundación Juan March, Maestros del siglo XX - Naturaleza muerta, 1979, no. 68
Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Picasso, kunstenaar van de eeuw, 1999, no. 28, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum, Picasso, Klee, Miró en de moderne kunst in Nederland, 1946-1958, 2006

Maurice Raynal et al., 'Picasso', in Le Point, vol. XLII, Paris, October 1952, illustrated p. 7
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso. Œuvres de 1946 à 1953, Paris, 1965, vol. 15, no. 116, illustrated pl. 68
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. Liberation and Post-War Years, 1944-1949, San Francisco, 2000, no. 48-045, illustrated p. 211 (titled Nature morte aux crustacés)

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the blue is slightly less warm in the original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Throughout the 1940s Picasso returned recurrently to the genre of still-life, first when he was confined to his Parisian studio during the war years, and again later, when he was living in newfound domestic comfort in Vallauris with his companion Françoise Gilot. In these latter pictures, including Nature morte au poron, the artist applies the same linear emphasis and highly graphic quality that he uses in his portraits of Gilot. Paring down the representation of each object to bold lines and flat patches of colour, he is able to convey both movement and stasis, light and shadow in a way that would eventually inspire Arshile Gorky and the Abstract Expressionists in the United States. Picasso's still-lifes allowed him to contemplate the fragility of nature and the significance of the objects in his immediate environment. This was particularly true when he chose to depict animals, or animals-as-food, as in the case of the present work. This highly graphic and linear composition is one of three pictures of a lobster that Picasso completed the day after Christmas in 1948 (C. Zervos, op. cit., nos. 113 & 114). 

 

Marie-Laure Bernadac observed that the events in Picasso's private life had significant bearing on his art, and all of the elements in his paintings, including still-lifes, have an autobiographical significance. 'Indeed under each pot, bowl of fruit, or guitar, there lurks a story, a person, or an anecdote that is part of the painter's life. Because of the autobiographical nature of his art, and because he assigned an equal value to the animal, mineral, plant, and human realms, he painted whatever was around him. When he was at the seashore, he painted fish and crustaceans' (M.-L. Bernadac, 'Painting from the Guts: Food in Picasso's Writings', in Picasso and Things (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992, p. 22).