Pablo Picasso

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

Galerie Kahnweiler (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1884-1979), Paris [1]; [sequestered during the war by the French government as enemy property and sold through Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 17-November 18, 1921] [2]. Pierre Loeb (1897-1964), Paris, by 1932 [3]; Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, by 1933 [4]; purchased by Sidney and Harriet Janis, New York, 1934 [5]; acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967 (The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection).

[1] Per Pierre Daix, Picasso: The Cubist Years, Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979, no. 570: "Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris (archive photograph 248)."
[2] See note in Daix: "This canvas was probably the Picasso no. 194 in the catalogue of the 2nd Kahnweiler sale, Paris 17-18 November 1921: 'Nature morte, H. 0.65 x L. 0.54 signé au dos et daté 1913,' a work which was sold for 900 fr." Tableaux, aquarelles, gouaches & dessins [2nd sale of Kahnweiler collection], Paris: Hôtel Drouot, November 17-November 18, 1921. According to Daix, the painting was originally signed and dated on the back "Picasso/1913" before it was rebacked in 1950.
[3] Lender to the exhibition Picasso, Galerie Georges Petit, June 16-July 30, 1932, no. 88, repr. p. 32 (Nature morte à la guitare).
[4] Included in the exhibitions French Painting, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, February 21- March 1933, no. 4; Abstract Painting by Four Twentieth Century Artists: Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, January 12-February 2, 1934, no. 12; and Pablo Picasso, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, February 6-March 1, 1934, no. 24.
[5] Date of acquisition published in The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, exh. cat. Kunsthalle Basel et al., New York: International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, 1970, no. 71. Reproduced in Christian Zervos, Histoire de l'art contemporain, Paris: Cahiers d'art, 1938, p. 220: "Picasso, Nature morte à la guitare, printemps 1913 (63 x 54 cm), coll. Sidney Janis." First exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1935: Summer Exhibition: The Museum Collection and a Private Collection on Loan, June 4-September, 24, 1935.

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