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Pablo Picasso The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro Horta de Sant Joan, summer 1909

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 503 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

This landscape was among several Picasso painted in southern Spain in 1909 that were critical to the development of the early Cubist style. He depicts the town of Horta de Ebro (now called Horta de Sant Joan) with simplified geometric shapes and uses interlocking planes to fuse the background’s rugged topography with the terracotta and stucco architecture of the village in the foreground. The composition exemplifies the spatial ambiguity characteristic of Cubism: the steep hillside seems to be shown as seen from below, while the curved shape at the bottom—a cistern—provides a downward view into a reflective pool of water.

Gallery label from 2024
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
24 1/8 x 20 1/8" (61.5 x 51.1 cm)
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller
Object number
81.1991
Copyright
© 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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Provenance Research Project

This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.

1909, Pablo Picasso.

1909 - 1913, Leo Stein (1872-1947) and Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), Paris, acquired from the artist.

1913 - 1946, Gertrude Stein, Paris and San Francisco.

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 - 1991, David and Peggy Rockefeller, New York, acquired from the Museum of Modern Art Syndicate.

1990, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as fractional and promised gift from David and Peggy Rockefeller.

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