Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767" aria-label="More by Pablo Picasso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pablo Picasso</a>
NeoClassical Painter in his Studio
Presented by Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler 1974, accessioned 1994
adults
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
easel
female
fine arts and music
interiors
male
man
model
nudes
objects
paintbrush
people
studio
woman
work and occupations
workspaces
<p>The artist in his studio was one of Picasso’s favourite themes, and in November 1963 he made at least twenty prints devoted to it. Instead of depicting the artist’s studio as a place of contemplation and work, he populated it with models, onlookers, mythical creatures and others, turning it into a social hub where no-one looked out of place.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper print etching
24 May 2004 – 8 November 2004
2004-11-08
24 May 2004
2004-05-24
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
11 December 2004
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-05-24
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-12-11
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
Neo-Classical Painter in his Studio
image: 424 × 575 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999791" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</a> 1974, accessioned 1994
<i>Neo-Classical Painter in his Studio</i><b> </b>depicts a painter at his easel, wearing a traditional Greek fez. Facing him are two smaller-scale nude models, one male and one female, while two larger figures, a bearded man and a younger <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> warrior wearing a Corinthian helmet, look on. It is impossible to say which, if any, of these personages are supposed to be ‘real’ and which are meant to be imaginary. Picasso made this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a><b> </b>on 27 November 1963 at Mas Notre Dame de Vie, the house in Mougins, South of France, where he and his wife Jacqueline had moved in June 1961. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> was printed by the brothers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck, who had worked with Picasso’s erstwhile printer Roger Lacourière in Paris and moved to Mougins in 1963, eventually becoming Picasso’s main printers until his death. Three proofs were pulled from the original copper plate. The plate was then steelfaced and published in 1967 in an edition of fifteen artist’s proofs (of which this is one) plus fifty signed and numbered <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> on white Rives wove <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> by the Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.
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<br/>Between the end of October and early December 1963, Picasso made at least twenty prints on the subject of the artist with a model and one or more spectators. In these works the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> is almost always shown in profile and therefore cannot be seen, so that all that is left is a confrontation between the artist and those facing him. Instead of depicting the artist’s studio as a place of contemplation and work, Picasso populated it with models, onlookers, mythical creatures and others, turning it into a social hub where no-one looked out of place.
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<br/>The writer and friend of the artist Michel Leiris compared Picasso’s images of the artist’s studio to a stage, writing, ‘Picasso adds to [his] gallery of painters and models an astonishingly varied gallery of men and women, the protagonists of an erotic comedy which has many aspects, and which Picasso readily invests with the appearance of a simple masquerade illustrating the kind of play-acting that goes on between lovers, as well as the comedy of errors, to which the intrigues of seduction so often lead.’<sup> </sup>(Leiris 1973, p.414)
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<br/><b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Michel Leiris, ‘The Artist and his Model’, in Roland Penrose and John Golding (eds.), <i>Picasso 1881/1973</i>, London 1973, pp.243-62
<br/>Brigitte Baer, <i>Picasso the Printmaker: Graphics from the Marina Picasso Collection</i>, exhibition catalogue, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas 1983
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli, ‘Pablo Picasso’, in Jennifer Mundy (ed.), <i>Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2004, pp.88-90, reproduced p.102
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<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli
<br/>June 2004


Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><span>The artist in his studio was one of Picasso’s favourite themes, and in November 1963 he made at least twenty <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> devoted to it. Instead of depicting the artist’s studio as a place of contemplation and work, he populated it with models, onlookers, mythical creatures and others, turning it into a social hub where no-one looked out of place.</span></p>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults artist, painter arts and entertainment easel female fine arts and music interiors male man model nudes objects paintbrush people studio woman work and occupations workspaces