Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Still life on a pedestal... Lot 185

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Still life on a pedestal table in front of an open window, 1919, watercolour on paper, signed, 49x31 cmProvenance: Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne, acquired by Mr and Mrs Grodtmann, Switzerland, remained in the family to this dayBibliography: Christian Zervos, Catalogue raisonné de Pablo Picasso, Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1975, vol. 29, p. 167, no. 454, illus. (Written confirmation of inclusion in the catalogue from Mrs. Gagarin, collaborator of Mr. Zervos)This work is accompanied by a letter with a photograph of the work certified by Picasso to Siegrfried Rosengart dated 26 February 1958In the summer of 1919, Picasso arrived in Saint-Raphaël on the Côte d'Azur, after a stay in London with Serge Diaghilev and his Russian ballets. Picasso settled with his young wife, the dancer Olga Kholokhova, in the splendid Hôtel Continental, which offered a spectacular view of the Mediterranean. The idyllic setting of his hotel room, furnished with a small tablecloth-covered pedestal table, on which a compote and a guitar are placed in front of a window opening onto a wrought-iron balcony overlooking the sea, will be the one chosen by the artist for his new work, the famous series of cubist gouaches "still lifes with pedestal table". This series is crucial to appreciate Picasso's gradual shift to the most abstract Cubism, and this gouache is one of the most accomplished examples of the series. In this work, naturalistic and cubist elements are combined. While the setting is represented in a succinct manner, the still life is of complex construction for which several analytical studies and two cardboard models were executed (Zervos). The artist combines and juxtaposes motifs that are taken from below and reused above as fragments of glued paper. The modernism of the scene contrasts with the classicism of the background, creating a strong visual contrast and accentuating the motifs. The impact is spectacular. By combining avant-garde and classicism, he achieves this innovative representation of astonishing beauty, between modernity and tradition. The open window is rich in symbols, the first of which is a new perspective for Cubism. The open window is rich in symbols, the first of which is a new perspective for Cubism. After returning from the trenches of Verdun, around 1917-1918, artists began to paint again. The previously fragmented forms of deconstructed objects were refocused, structured, reconstructed, and interlocked with each other in their essential features. This was the birth of "synthetic cubism". This series of "still lifes with a pedestal table" follows this context of parallel reconstruction of the country and its spirits. It marked a definitive break with the synthetic cubist works of George Braque (one of the two leaders of the movement with Picasso) and affirmed the artist in a new style: the fusion of cubism and neo-classicism. After this period of research, Picasso produced one of his major works in oil on the basis of this idea.Other examples are currently on display in the most prestigious collections such as the National Gallery in Berlin, the Picasso Museum and the Moma. He chose the Paul Rosenberg Gallery in Paris to exhibit this series on 20 October 1919. Out of reach of the public in a private collection in French-speaking Switzerland for more than 50 years, this work is unseen on the auction market, and was acquired directly from the famous collector and art dealer Siegfried Rosengart (1894-1985), friend, collector and dealer of Picasso. It has remained in the family ever since. The "?still life on a pedestal table in front of an open window? is accompanied by a letter from Picasso to S. Rosengart, who was living in rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris at the time. The Rosengart collection is now housed in the Picasso Museum in the old town of Lucerne and the Rosengart Foundation in Lucerne, which exhibits 200 works, mostly by Picasso and Paul Klee. Very good condition The sheet probably comes from a drawing book as it bears on the left side a trace of a punched cut It is free in the frame, maintained only by 2 small tabs on the upper edge Slight oxidation, yellowing Presence of 2 small irregularities on the periphery on the right (very slightly flawed edge-see photo) Upper right and lower left corner very slightly corroded No visible restoration Presence of small minor stains - In the blue, small nodules of about 1mm which seem to be linked to the creation process (bubbles of the material linked to the a