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Woman with Mandolin
1925
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
On View

Picasso created this deceptively simple picture using a technique, called sgraffito, generally associated with ceramics, not oil painting. After applying two or more layers of contrasting color (blue over white, pale pink over brown), the artist scraped off the top layer or layers of paint to create an incised line drawing in the color underneath: the white frets of a brown guitar, the dark and light contours of bare breasts, and so on. The effect thus produced is curiously naive, rather like a child’s drawing. The picture dates to 1925, the beginning of Picasso’s engagement with the Surrealist movement, whose members prized children’s drawings and pocket-knife graffiti

Woman with Mandolin
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Details

  • Artist Name: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
  • Title: Woman with Mandolin
  • Date: 1925
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 51-3/8 x 38-1/2 in. (130.5 x 97.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Museum Purchase
  • Accession Number: P.1984.2
  • Copyright: © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Object Information

The artist, gift? to;
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, by 1926];
[Marguerite and Paul Rosenberg, New York, private collection stock no. 5144, sold January 1964 to];
Walter Annenberg, Palm Springs (sale, New York, Christie’s, 13 November 1984, lot 143, ill., as Femme a la mandoline [La musicienne], to);
Norton Simon Museum.

The Annenberg Collection

  • Tate Gallery, 1969-09-02 to 1969-10-08

Picasso

  • Tate Gallery, 1960-07-06 to 1960-09-18

Picasso 1900-Paris-1955

  • Paris, Musee des Arts Décoratifs, 1955-06 to 1955-10

Picasso

  • Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1949-04 to 1949-04

Drawings Gouaches Paintings from 1913 to 1947 by Picasso

  • New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1948-03 to 1948-04

Exposition d'art français contemporain

  • Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1938-11 to 1938-12

Paintings by Picasso and Braque

  • Art Institute of Chicago, 1946-09 to 1946-09

Picasso Ingres: Face to Face_02

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2022-10-21 to 2023-01-30

Exposition d'oeuvres choisies de Pablo Picasso

  • Paris, Paul Rosenberg, 1936-03-03 to 1936-03-31

Picasso, an American Tribute

  • New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1962-04-25 to 1962-05-12

Picasso, Forty Years of His Art

  • Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), 1939-11 to 1940-01
  • Art Institute of Chicago, 1940-02 to 1940-03
  • City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1940-03 to 1940-04
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1940-04 to 1940-05
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1940-06 to 1940-07

Exhibition of Masterpieces by Braque-Matisse-Picasso

  • London, Rosenberg & Helft, Ltd., 1936-10-05 to 1936-10-31

Picasso

  • Zurich, Kunsthaus, 1932-09-11 to 1932-10-30

Exposition Picasso

  • Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1932-06-16 to 1932-07-30

Exposition d'oeuvre récentes de Picasso

  • Paris, Paul Rosenberg, 1926-06-15 to 1926-07-10

Les maîtres de l'art indépendant 1895-1937

  • Paris, Petit Palais, 1937-06 to 1937-10

Reinstallation of South Wing

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
  • Barr, Alfred H., Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art, p. 137
  • Elgar, Frank; and Robert Millard, Picasso, p. 142
  • Boeck, W; and J. Sabartés, Picasso, pl. 118 p. 468
  • Jaffé, H. L. C., Pablo Picasso, p. 113
  • Muchnic, Súzanne, Los Angeles Times,
  • Register, Kathy, Pasadena Star News,
  • Muchnic, Suzanne, Los Angeles Times, pp. 1, 8
  • Pasadena Star-News, p. C-5
  • Zevros, Christian, Picasso: Oeuvres 1920-1926, 1926, pl. 25
  • Cahiers d' Art, 1928, no. 70
  • Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, 1939, no. 188 p. 122
  • Gieure, M., Initiation a l'Oeuvre de Picasso, 1951, pl. 69
  • Zervos, Christian, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1923 à 1925, 1952, no. 442 p. 177
  • Merli, J, Picasso, 1955, pl. XIX
  • Picasso, An American Tribute, 1962, no. 43
  • D'Ors, Eugenio, Pablo Picasso, 1964, p. 27
  • The Tate Gallery, The Annenberg Collection, 1969, no. 24
  • Christie's, Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture (Part I), 1984, p. 96
  • Christie's, Christie's International Magazine, 1984, cover
  • Christie's, Christie's Review of the Season, 1985, p. 105
  • Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 195
  • Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1712 p. 438
  • Madeline, Laurence, Picasso 1932, 2017, CAT. 57 p. 98

Additional Artwork by Artist

La Table, Plate II in "Saint Matorel" by Max Jacob Pablo Picasso 1910 (published 1911)
Long-Haired Young Girl Pablo Picasso November 6, 1945
Long-Haired Young Girl Pablo Picasso November 7, 1945
SEE ALL

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