Pablo Picasso

Galerie Doestch-Benzinger, Basel
Perls Galleries, New York
Davlyn Gallery, New York
Galeria Theo, Madrid
Acquired from the above in 1975

Madrid, Galeria Theo, Picasso y Bacon, 1977, no. 33

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Vol. IV : Œuvres de 1920 à 1922, Paris, 1951, no. 412, illustrated p. 172

The canvas is not lined. There is no evidence of retouching under UV light. Apart from some very minor losses dotted around the edges, this work is in excellent original condition.
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Verre is part of a series of still-lifes executed by Picasso at the beginning of the 1920s. In these paintings, Picasso abandons the sobriety of the war years, combining pure colour with powerful linear black shading to express volume and space. In 1938, Gertrude Stein wrote: "During this period... the cubic forms were continually being replaced by surfaces and lines, the lines were more important than anything else, they lived by and in themselves, he painted his pictures not by means of his objects, but by the lines" (Gertrude Stein, Picasso, London, 1938, pp. 27-8).

In Verre, abandoning a more decorative approach, Picasso chooses a very simple composition, where the glass merely stands out by the use of a bold black line. Discussing this phase of Picasso's Cubism, Sir John Richardson notes that these still-lifes "are astonishingly varied in their dazzling colours, elaborate patterning, rich textures and complex compositions. No longer did Picasso feel obliged to investigate the intricate formal and spatial problems that had preoccupied him ten years before. Instead he felt free to relax and exploit his cubist discoveries in a decorative manner that delights the eye" (John Richardson, Picasso, An American Tribute (exhibition catalogue), New York, 1962).