Sale: 606 / Evening Sale, June 12. 2026 in Munich → Lot 126000282
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Raumbeispiel
126000282
Pablo Picasso
Études de personnages, Ca. 1904/05.
Mixed media. Gouache, watercolor, pen and ink
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 140,400 - 175,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
126000282
Pablo Picasso
Études de personnages, Ca. 1904/05.
Mixed media. Gouache, watercolor, pen and ink
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 140,400 - 175,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Pablo Picasso
1881 - 1973
Études de personnages. Ca. 1904/05.
Mixed media. Gouache, watercolor, pen and ink.
Signd in the lower left. On wove paper. 24.8 x 32.1 cm (9.7 x 12.6 in), size of sheet.
• An important work from his early years in Paris.
• Archaic classicism as a decisive step toward Picasso’s radical reinvention of the figure.
• The pivotal year of 1905: Created during the transition from the melancholic Blue Period to the brighter, more poetic imagery of the Rose Period.
• Diverse, masterfully executed figure studies reveal Picasso’s artistic creative process as well as motifs that recur in central works such as “Femme à l’éventail” (1905).
• Significant provenance: From the renowned collection of art patron Robert von Hirsch (1883–1977).
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by Paloma Ruiz-Picasso and Diana Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso, Comité Picasso, Paris, dated September 17, 2025.
PROVENANCE: Robert von Hirsch Collection, Basel.
British Rail Pension Fund Collection, London (acquired in 1978, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London).
Private collection (acquired in 1989, Sotheby's, London).
Private collection (acquired in 1995, Sotheby's, London).
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired in 2004, Sotheby's, London).
EXHIBITION: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Works from a British Collection, The Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, March–May 1986, cat. no. 35, p. 98 (illustrated) The Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas, Austin, September–November 1986; Castle Museum, Norwich, England, October–November 1987, cat. no. 17.
LITERATURE: Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, The Robert von Hirsch Collection, June 27, 1978, lot 856 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, From the Collection of The British Rail Pension Fund, April 4, 1989, lot 23 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part I, June 27, 1995, lot 25.
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper, June 22, 2004, lot 450 (illustrated in color).
1881 - 1973
Études de personnages. Ca. 1904/05.
Mixed media. Gouache, watercolor, pen and ink.
Signd in the lower left. On wove paper. 24.8 x 32.1 cm (9.7 x 12.6 in), size of sheet.
• An important work from his early years in Paris.
• Archaic classicism as a decisive step toward Picasso’s radical reinvention of the figure.
• The pivotal year of 1905: Created during the transition from the melancholic Blue Period to the brighter, more poetic imagery of the Rose Period.
• Diverse, masterfully executed figure studies reveal Picasso’s artistic creative process as well as motifs that recur in central works such as “Femme à l’éventail” (1905).
• Significant provenance: From the renowned collection of art patron Robert von Hirsch (1883–1977).
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by Paloma Ruiz-Picasso and Diana Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso, Comité Picasso, Paris, dated September 17, 2025.
PROVENANCE: Robert von Hirsch Collection, Basel.
British Rail Pension Fund Collection, London (acquired in 1978, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London).
Private collection (acquired in 1989, Sotheby's, London).
Private collection (acquired in 1995, Sotheby's, London).
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired in 2004, Sotheby's, London).
EXHIBITION: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Works from a British Collection, The Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, March–May 1986, cat. no. 35, p. 98 (illustrated) The Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas, Austin, September–November 1986; Castle Museum, Norwich, England, October–November 1987, cat. no. 17.
LITERATURE: Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, The Robert von Hirsch Collection, June 27, 1978, lot 856 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, From the Collection of The British Rail Pension Fund, April 4, 1989, lot 23 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part I, June 27, 1995, lot 25.
Sotheby's, London, Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper, June 22, 2004, lot 450 (illustrated in color).
Created between 1904 and 1905, the gouache “Études de personnages” marks a pivotal moment in Pablo Picasso’s early career and bridges the Blue Period and the emerging Rose Period. At this time, Picasso was living and working in the Montmartre district of Paris, immersed in a vibrant milieu of cabarets, circus performers, and an intense artistic exchange that left a lasting imprint on his visual language and sparked new thematic impulses.
At the age of only 23, he began working on the present piece, an early testament to his burgeoning talent. The composition combines male and female figures in varying poses and degrees of detail. At first glance, the sheet appears to possess a remarkable spontaneity and lightness, conveying the impression of an immediate artistic rendering. At the same time, the balanced composition and Picasso's deliberate signature attest to his understanding of the work as an independent and complete visual composition. This productive tension points to a key aspect of his artistic practice: drawings serve not merely as preliminary studies but as living vessels of ideas that he repeatedly revisits, transforms, and refines in dialogue with new inspirations. The figures appear as a reservoir of visual ideas and can be linked to figures in contemporary compositions. Thus, the gently reclining female figures echo the famous painting “Femme à l'éventail” (1905), The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., while the upright male figure anticipates a form that recurs in “Le Harem” (1906). “Études de personnages” provides a fascinating glimpse into the creative process and illustrates the evolution of his motifs across various techniques and time periods. Stylistically, the work combines the lingering echoes of the melancholic Blue Period with the emerging lightness of the Rose Period. The somber introversion gives way to a growing interest in figures from the world of performance, such as harlequins, acrobats, and saltimbanques. Their presence, still in its early stages here, heralds more dynamic and poetic pictorial themes.
At the same time, the figures reveal an increasing classicism under the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Simplified, mask-like faces and calm, sculptural bodies evoke ancient ideals, filtered through a modern sensibility. Thus, “Études de personnages” proves to be a significant work that shows an artist in a state of experimentation, observation, and refinement, standing on the threshold of one of the 20th century's most influential stylistic developments. [KA]
At the age of only 23, he began working on the present piece, an early testament to his burgeoning talent. The composition combines male and female figures in varying poses and degrees of detail. At first glance, the sheet appears to possess a remarkable spontaneity and lightness, conveying the impression of an immediate artistic rendering. At the same time, the balanced composition and Picasso's deliberate signature attest to his understanding of the work as an independent and complete visual composition. This productive tension points to a key aspect of his artistic practice: drawings serve not merely as preliminary studies but as living vessels of ideas that he repeatedly revisits, transforms, and refines in dialogue with new inspirations. The figures appear as a reservoir of visual ideas and can be linked to figures in contemporary compositions. Thus, the gently reclining female figures echo the famous painting “Femme à l'éventail” (1905), The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., while the upright male figure anticipates a form that recurs in “Le Harem” (1906). “Études de personnages” provides a fascinating glimpse into the creative process and illustrates the evolution of his motifs across various techniques and time periods. Stylistically, the work combines the lingering echoes of the melancholic Blue Period with the emerging lightness of the Rose Period. The somber introversion gives way to a growing interest in figures from the world of performance, such as harlequins, acrobats, and saltimbanques. Their presence, still in its early stages here, heralds more dynamic and poetic pictorial themes.
At the same time, the figures reveal an increasing classicism under the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Simplified, mask-like faces and calm, sculptural bodies evoke ancient ideals, filtered through a modern sensibility. Thus, “Études de personnages” proves to be a significant work that shows an artist in a state of experimentation, observation, and refinement, standing on the threshold of one of the 20th century's most influential stylistic developments. [KA]
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