About the Artwork
Picasso’s synthetic cubism is elegantly exemplified by these objects on a tilted pedestal table, painted by laying down dots and dashes with the tip of the brush. This painting may be a self-portrait in disguise: the elongated bottle resembles a harlequin, the artist’s favorite motif, and the trompe l’oeil nameplate with “Picasso” underscores this possibility. It is also supported by the silhouette of a blue bird, the still life’s secondary feature, thought to represent the expiring soul of Eva Gouel, the artist’s companion, then dying in a Paris hospital.
Bottle of Anis del Mono
1915
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973
Spanish
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 18 1/8 × 21 1/2 inches (46 × 54.6 cm) Framed: 24 1/4 × 27 5/8 × 3 1/8 inches (61.6 × 70.2 × 7.9 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill
70.192
Restricted
Markings
Signed, in black and white letters on brown rectangle at lower center: PICASSO
Provenance
about 1916, (Léonce Rosenberg [1879-1947], Galerie de l'Effort moderne, Paris, France);early 1930s, (G.F. Reber [1880-1959], Lausanne, Switzerland);
before 1933, (A.E. Von Saher, Amsterdam, Netherlands);
before 1948, (Fine Arts Associates, New York, New York, USA);
1948, purchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA);
1970-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Raynal, Maurice. Picasso. Paris, 1922, (pl. 50).
Cubism. Exh. cat., Buchholz Gallery. New York, 1949, no. 48.
Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, vol. 2. Paris, 1961, p. 552.
The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1970, pp. 11-12 (ill.), 21, 29.
Rubin, William. Picasso in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York, 1972, p. 215, no. 69.
Daix, Pierre, and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907-1916: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings and Related Works. Paris, 1979, no. 838.
Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1980, p. 190.
The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso, and their Friends. Exh. cat., The Tate Gallery. London, 1983, no. 148.
Le Siecle de Picasso. Exh. cat., Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 1987, no. 10.
El siglo de Picasso. Exh. cat., Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Madrid, 1988, no. 8.
Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso, Cubisme (1907-1917). Paris, 1990, p. 457, no. 1388.
Kosinski, Dorothy. "G.F. Reber: Collector of Cubism." Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1061 (August 1991): p. 531.
Picasso and Things. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1992, no. 62.
Leal, Paloma Esteban. Juan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910-1927, vol. 1. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Madrid, 2005, p. 145.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Pablo Picasso, Bottle of Anis del Mono, 1915, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill, 70.192.
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