Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - Danseuse espagnole

signed '.Picasso.' (lower right) - oil on board - 19 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (49.5 x 33.6 cm.) - Painted in 1901 - Estimate: £3,000,000-4,000,000

Provenance: Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, circa 1925.
Josef Gottschalk, Munich.
Fine Arts Associates, New York, by 1950.
Mrs Albert S. Ingalls, Cleveland.
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York.
Richard and Dorothy Rodgers collection, New York, by whom acquired from the above on January 5, 1958; their sale, Christie's, New York, 11 November 1992, lot 5.
Private collection, America, by whom acquired at the above sale.

Literature: D. Rodgers, My Favorite Things, New York, 1964 (illustrated).
P. Daix & G. Boudaille, Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods, New York, 1966, no. IV.3 (illustrated p. 142).
D. Rodgers, My Favorite Things, New York, 1967 (illustrated p. 55). C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso: supplément aux années 1892-1902, vol. XXI, Paris, 1969, no. 262 (illustrated pl. 100).
J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Life and Work of the Early Years, 1881-1907, New York, 1981, p. 534, no. 594 (illustrated p. 234).

Exhibited: Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, The Music Makers, July - August 1959, no. 11 (illustrated pl. I).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Picasso: An American Tribute, April - May 1962, no. 7 (illustrated).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Homage to Picasso, October 1971. New York, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., Picasso, April - May 1975 (illustrated).

Notes: In his twentieth year, Picasso already clearly had a thirst and fascination for the nightlife, be it in Paris, Madrid or Barcelona. Painted in 1901, Danseuse espagnole is filled with colour, with a brightness that speaks of youthful joy and energy and enthusiasm. At the same time, the artist has deliberately emphasised the discord between the bold colours, so synonymous with the bright lights of the big city, and the strange contrapposto pose of the dancer herself, who appears huddled, perhaps defensive. The anxiety implied by her slightly unnatural position prefigures the tormented and despondent figures who peopled the Blue Period works that Picasso began later that same year.
By the time Danseuse espagnole was painted, Picasso had already spent some time in the French capital, where he had met with modest success, securing himself a stipend from the dealer Pedro Mañach who managed to sell works by the young artist to a mixture of collectors and galleries. Danseuse espagnole dates from one of the most important and formative years in Picasso's career. Towards the end of 1900, he had left Paris for Barcelona, in the company of his friend, the tormented artist Casagemas whose death would provide so much impetus to the Blue Period. He had first visited Barcelona, and then at the turn of the year they arrived in Málaga, where he hoped to borrow money from an uncle in order to buy his way out of military service. Their unruly behaviour resulted in this journey being not entirely successful. Following this, Picasso went to Madrid in order to co-edit and to illustrate the periodical Arte Joven with Francisco de Asís Soler. He spent some months there, and during this time painted many scenes of Spanish life and Spanish characters before returning to Paris in May that year.

Even in these pictures of Spanish life executed in Málaga, Madrid and Barcelona, Picasso had remained heavily influenced and marked by his time in the French capital. He had been absorbed and invigorated by the Parisian demi-monde, and had been shocked by-- but had soon enthusiastically accustomed himself to-- the affrontery, the exposed passions, the public displays of emotion and lust that were such a far cry from the behaviour in his native Spain. There was an openness that attracted Picasso, and so it was only natural that he should be entranced by the examples of Degas, Steinlen and of course the greatest, most notorious and most celebrated chronicler of that world, Toulouse-Lautrec, a great touchstone for the young Spanish artist during this period. Picasso determined to capture modern life in all its permutations, seeking out, with unflinching eye, the mysterious beauty in our world, a beauty that could lie even in the strangest and most sordid subjects and scenes. On his return to Spain, Picasso continued his investigations in this direction, as exemplified in works such as La nana and Femme aux bijoux.

Like Danseuse espagnole, both of the above-mentioned works feature the tessellated background comprising blocks of contrasting bold colour, adding a fire-like vivacity to the works. In all three works, the content is curiously at odds on some level with this shimmering, colourful background: in one, a dwarf is shown, in another a woman often considered to be an ageing harlot, and in Danseuse espagnole, in the combination of the pale, drawn features and awkward pose and posture of the subject. All of these works have a confrontational aspect to them, a complexity that shows the young artist's interest in the more muddied areas of human life and interaction. His pictures from this period often depicted prostitutes, the cabaret and entertainers, the less respectable subjects of the modern world, although sometimes this was a subtext that could not be immediately ascertained from a superficial glance. This was perhaps best exemplified by the painted ladies who feature in his racetrack scenes, which focus on the people rather than the sport-- it was not so much horse-flesh that Picasso was exploring. Picasso was seeking to place on display the underside of cosmopolitan life, an underside in which he himself was becoming more and more involved, striking up relationships with precisely the kind of people whom he was painting.

As with Danseuse espagnole, there is some debate about where La nana and Femme aux bijoux were painted. Are they the products of Barcelona, Madrid or Paris, or even some combination? The history of Picasso's movements during this period makes such judgements difficult, especially as he appeared already to be preparing enough works in order to be able to mount an exhibition. On his eventual return to Paris, Mañach would arrange for this to take place at the gallery of the legendary dealer Ambroise Vollard. During the frenzied run-up to the exhibition, Picasso not only painted new works from scratch but also revisited many of the pictures he had painted in Spain. It would appear that Danseuse espagnole dates from this exciting period in the run-up to the Vollard exhibition. Intriguingly, Picasso may well have been tapping into the great vogue of the time for all things Spanish, which had resulted in the success of other artist compatriots, for instance Francisco Iturrino, with whom he shared the exhibition. Was it homesickness, personal preference or market awareness that prompted Picasso to depict so many scenes of Spanish life? Most likely the answer is a complex mixture of all three, and if anything, market interests were those least likely to play a part in the judgement of the notoriously stubborn Picasso, who often spurned business and those who seemed overly interested in that aspect of art.

Certainly, there appears to be an Iberian flair in the picture of this Danseuse espagnole, in part in the background, in part in the presence of the livid red dress, in part in the residual echo of the features in his depiction of the woman shown standing in his picture of the same name of the previous year, now in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo. Perhaps this dancer too was in Paris as a result of the French passion or fashion for the Spanish, or perhaps she was depicted in Spain. Certainly, though, Spanish themes would remain core to Picasso's interests, to his visual references, to the lexicon of subjects and characters that would recur in his pictures for the rest of his life, even when he had not visited his homeland for decades. Picasso's nationality was a part of his identity. The Spanish dancer, the Spanish guitar, the bullfight: all these would remain intrinsically linked to the artist's persona.

This persona was becoming increasingly evident during precisely this period of Picasso's life and career. It was during the build-up to his exhibition at Vollard's that he began to drop his patronymic and use instead the matronymic by which he has so long been recognised: Picasso. So too, Danseuse espagnole features his name writ large across the bottom of the board. This work and its contemporaries proclaimed that bold and brash 'Yo Picasso', demanding the same attention as his self-portraits of the same period.

The favourable reviews that Picasso received for his exhibition at Vollard's contained comments which have a clear application to Danseuse espagnole, especially the words of Gustave Coquiot:

'This very young Spanish painter, who has been here for only a short time, is wildly enamoured of modern life. It is easy to imagine him-- wide awake, with a searching eye, keen to record everything happening in the street, all the adventures of life. He does not need to contemplate his subject-matter for long; so it is that we see him covering his canvas quickly, as if in a fury, impatient at the slowness of his hand, which holds long brushes laden with colour. Here, then, we have an artist who has created a new harmony of light colours, making use of striking yellows, reds, greens and blues. We can see at once that P.R. Picasso wants to see everything and say everything. All too often an artist attracted by just two or three aspects of our times is described as portraying Modern Life, but P.R. Picasso deserves this description more than anybody else. From our own time he has taken prostitutes, country scenes, street scenes, interiors, workers and so on, and we can be sure that tomorrow he will offer us everything else that he has not been able to attain up to now because of his extreme youth' (from Le Journal, 17 June 1901, quoted in J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Life and Work of The Early Years 1881-1907, Oxford, 1981, p. 514).

Intriguingly, Picasso did not immediately reap the success that the Vollard exhibition's reviews or sales may have implied. It was in the wake of the exhibition that the Blue Period began in earnest. However, the seeds of the Blue pictures had long been evident, be it in the example of his painting of the funeral of his friend Casagemas following his chaotic suicide at a farewell dinner he had arranged for himself, or in the example of the pallid and contorted figure in Danseuse espagnole. It is in Danseuse espagnole and pictures of its like that we see the birth of Picasso's fascination with the world of dancers, prostitutes and entertainers that would continue to supply Picasso with subject matter for his melancholy Blue Period and subsequently for the mood-drenched, poetic Rose Period, and which would remain a central theme for him for the rest of his career.

It is only fitting that a work that appears to have music as one of its themes, that relates to the world of cabaret and entertainment, should for decades have been in the collection of the legendary Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, whose compositions remain celebrated today, not least those he created in conjunction with Oscar Hammerstein II, for instance South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma and The King and I, all of which are still performed today.

Christie's. Impressionist + Modern Art Evening Sale.  February 2008, 6:00 pm. 8 King Street, St. James's, London