Oil on canvas mounted on panel
In the winter of 1912, Gertrude Stein, a well-known writer and art collector of the era, visited Pablo Picasso’s Paris studio. The artist was away, so Stein—who was also his close friend and frequent patron—left her calling card. Picasso soon painted an image of this card in The Architect’s Table, where it appears at lower right in the form of a flat rectangular surface with Stein’s name spelled in difficult-to-decipher cursive. Other parts of the painting are equally challenging to perceive. Scattered across the oval-shaped composition—like objects on a tabletop—are what appear to be a pipe, a bottle, a glass, a set square (a tool used by architects), and a page of sheet music featuring the phrase “Ma Jolie” (“My Pretty One” in French), the refrain from a then-popular song. Picasso rendered these objects with the limited palette and small, flickering facets characteristic of Analytic Cubism.
2026
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Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973 1251 works onlineWith these words, Picasso shed light on two central principles of his artistic production over nearly 80 years: his openness to a diverse range of styles, subject matters, and mediums, and his resistance to the notion that change in art necessarily corresponds to improvement or progress.
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A Cubist Salon
Gallery 503What does Cubism look like? For the international network of artists who first engaged with this movement, it was a work in progress.
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1912, Pablo Picasso, Paris.
1912, Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, acquired from the artist.
1914 - 1946, Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), Paris and San Francisco, purchased from Galerie Kahnweiler.
1946 - 1968, Estate of Gertrude Stein, c/o Alice B. Toklas, Paris.
1968, The Museum of Modern Art Syndicate, New York, purchased from the heirs of the Stein estate.
1968 - 1971, William S. Paley (1901-1990), New York, acquired from the Museum of Modern Art Syndicate.
1975, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as gift from William S. Paley.
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