Picasso Museum

Kate and I had only been to the Picasso Museum once. We went in 2009 with our Study Abroad students and their Art History class. After our 2009 visit, the museum was under renovation for five years and reopened at the end of 2014. So it was time to go back to the museum in the historic 17th century Hôtel Salé in the Marais. A hôtel in France is not what we would call a hotel in the US-it is a large private mansion.

Picasso Musem Courtyard
in the Hôtel Salé

According to the museum website, "The Musée Picasso-Paris collection comprises over 5,000 works and tens of thousands of archived pieces. For its quality and scope as well as the range of art forms it encompasses, this collection is the only one in the world to present both Picasso’s complete painted, sculpted, engraved and illustrated œuvre and a precise record—through sketches, studies, drafts, notebooks, etchings in various stages, photographs, illustrated books, films and documents—of the artist’s creative process." 

In 1966, there was a big celebration of Picasso's 85th birthday with an exhibition at the Grand Palais. Capitalizing on this momentum and in anticipation of the future inheritance of Picasso's works, France passed a law in 1968 to allow heirs to donate works of art to the government in lieu of paying inheritance taxes. In the years after Picasso's death in 1973, his heirs took advantage of this law. We saw only a sliver of the works donated to the museum.

Current Exhibit

The main floor of the museum was closed because they are preparing to open a new exhibit mid-February titled "Degenerate" Art: Modern art on trial under the Nazis. The exhibit we saw included Picasso works throughout his life.

Kate walking up
to the Exhibit

Mansion Stairs

At the top of the stairs was this sweet painting of a child playing with a "camion" or truck.

Enfant Jouant avec un camion
1953

The painting below, "Les Amoreux" or "Lovers" depicts a man in a tuxedo dancing with a woman, and references Manet in the upper right hand corner. On the ground, a page of the newspaper L’intransigeant is being trodden on by the dancers. This could be Picasso’s way of snubbing the critics who were not impressed by Cubism. Manet was also a painter of modern life who was snubbed by critics as he ushered in Impressionism. Picasso's painting could reference a painting by Manet titled "Nana," which also has a man in a tuxedo with a woman in a room with similar bourgeois decor.

Les Amoreux
1919

In the same room was a portrait of his 3-year-old son, Paulo, or Paul, dressed as a harlequin. During this time, Picasso received various commissions from Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the famous Ballets Russes company. Picasso created the various sets, stage curtains and costumes that set the tone for each ballet. The different characters in these ballets influenced his art.

Paul en Arlequin
1924

View onto the garden
behind the museum

Picasso made sculptures out of found items. A whimsical example was this girl jumping rope from 1950. The face is made from a cake tin, the body from a wicker basket, and real shoes are on her feet. He was able to suspend her in midair. 

Little Girl Jumping Rope

In the 1950s, Picasso was influenced by Matisse and moved to southern France near Cannes. Below is a painting of his workshop, L'Atelier de la Californie, with palm trees showing Matisse's influence and the Moorish Decor of his villa.

L'Atelier de la Californie
1956

The blank canvas represents all the paintings to come. 

This last painting below is of a young girl sitting. I loved how colorful she is.

Jeune fille assise
1970

This is just a small sample of the works in the Picasso Museum. I may need to go back to see the new exhibit on "Degenerate" art and the Nazis next month.

Ladurée 

We also made our first trip to Ladurée for our favorite macarons. We found when we arrived in Paris that the small shop Ladurée had opened on the rue Cler a few years ago had unfortunately closed. So it takes a bit more work to get our macaron fix. They did not disappoint. And rose is still my favorite flavor!

Ladurée 

Macarons