Pablo Picasso
Buste d’homme barbu
(Bust of a Bearded Man)
Pablo Picasso and his work transcend art history: they have achieved global celebrity within both academic circles and popular culture. More than any other artist, his ever-evolving, evocative style has come to define modern art of the 20th century, and to this day he continues to gain recognition. The most compelling of his works offer a glimpse into the psyche of the master himself, and the present work can be counted among these. Combining saturated color with a jarring simplicity, Buste d’homme barbu represents an important series of bearded men portraits that the artist composed during the last few years of his life.
Picasso’s male subjects derive from various sources. Often they were self-referential portraits; often they referenced his father, Spanish painter José Ruiz y Blasco. Picasso once said, “Every time I draw a man, I find myself thinking of my father… To me a man means ‘Don José,’ and it will always be so, all my life… He wore a beard… All the men I draw I see more or less with his features.”
While his father’s dark mustache and beard are clearly distinguished in Buste d’homme barbu, Picasso’s portraits of men from the mid-1960s served more as composite, archetypal figures representing vitality and virility. Although he would live eight more years after this work was created in April of 1965, at the age of 84, Picasso was preoccupied with thoughts of aging and mortality. He was suffering from an ulcer that would require surgery later that year. He seemed to combat these thoughts with a burst of youthful, creative energy, and the mid-1960s witnessed an outpouring of productivity from Picasso, with his subjects such as this displaying that same vitality.
Highly modern and expressionistic, this painting explores an extreme simplification of form, breaking the figure down to its basic essentials. Remarkably, though, Picasso still managed to capture the most expressive features of his subjects in just a few choice brushstrokes. His male portraits from this period employ a particular set of facial traits delineated with decisive swoops of color to suggest a nose or a cheekbone, built up upon fields of white paint. Composed with a highly simplified palette and sparsity of line, Buste d’homme barbu successfully evokes a striking sense of vigor. This character is also endowed with a powerful, hypnotic gaze, the mirada fuerte, that Picasso included in many of his portraits. These wide eyes allude both to ancient portraiture and to the artist himself, who was known personally for his strong gaze, an indication that he has projected himself onto the figure.
Other examples of late portraits by Picasso reside in important museums worldwide such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museé Picasso in Paris and the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.
Dated 1965
Canvas: 31 1/2″ high x 25 1/2″ wide
Frame: 33″ high x 27 1/8″ wide
Provenance:
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private collection
Christie’s New York, November 14, 1990, Impressionist and modern paintings, and sculpture (part 1), lot 47
Private collection
Christie’s New York, May 13, 1998, 20th Century Art, lot 238
Private collection
M.S. Rau, New Orleans
Literature:
Pablo Picasso, Volume 25, 1971, by C. Zervos, p. 57, no. 101 (illustrated)
ABOUT BILL RAU:
Considered one of the foremost experts in art, Bill Rau has worked in the family-owned gallery full-time since he was 21 years old, and part-time since the age of 14. Bill’s extensive knowledge and reputation as a leader have not only brought him success in the antiques business, but accolades from his peers. An avid collector as well as an authority in his field, Bill has helped to place several items in museums around the world. Bill has written numerous articles published in a wide variety of antique journals, lectured around the world at museums and events, and was the youngest senior member ever accepted to the American Society of Appraisers. Bill is also the author of the widely acclaimed, quintessential resource on 19th-century European painting. Published in 2012, 19th Century European Painting, From Barbizon to Belle Epoque, offers a comprehensive overview of the century’s artistic innovation in a knowledgeable and savvy format and is filled with an impressive array of extraordinary illustrations and artist biographies. All proceeds from the sale of the book directly benefit the Rau for Art Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of talented emerging artists at the high school level in the New Orleans region.