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Man with a Hat and a Violin

1912
Not on view
In September 1912, Picasso followed the example of his friend Georges Braque by pasting colored or printed pieces of paper onto his compositions. These works, called papiers collés (meaning "pasted papers"), initiated Synthetic Cubism, a style characterized by large superimposed planes and clear geometric structure. Here, clippings from the newspaper Le Journal are arranged onto a schematic sketch of a man wearing a hat and holding a violin. The clippings refer to various topics, among them the Balkan Wars, unrest in French mines, serial novels, advertisements, and the tragic story of a young man driven to suicide by unrequited love.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Man with a Hat and a Violin
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1912
  • Medium: Cut and pasted newspaper, and charcoal, on two joined sheets of paper
  • Dimensions: 49 × 18 7/8 in. (124.5 × 47.9 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998
  • Object Number: 1999.363.64
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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