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Man with a Guitar

Paris, 1915–16
Not on view
After several years of working in oil and papier collé, this work heralds Picasso’s return to the media of watercolor and gouache. It also revisits one of his favorite themes, the man with a guitar, who is shown here within a teetering environment of interlocked and colored planes. Clearly recognizable elements (a guitar, the scrolled side of an armchair, faux-marble wallpaper) compete with illegible, opaque forms. The man, who appears as if framed by a doorway or reflected in a mirror, is neither fully abstract nor fully convincing as a figure. In fact, he may not be a man at all: his rigid form and simple outline recall the tailors’ mannequins that appear in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, an artist in whom Picasso was deeply interested at the time.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Man with a Guitar
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: Paris, 1915–16
  • Medium: Watercolor, opaque watercolor, resin, and graphite on paper
  • Dimensions: 12 5/16 × 9 5/8 in. (31.3 × 24.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.237.3
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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