Picasso in Fontainebleau

Exploring Picasso’s seemingly opposite styles and artistic processes during a three-month summer vacation. This publication and the accompanying exhibition are the first to reunite major works from Picasso’s studio in Fontainebleau, France, in over 100 years.

Between July and September of 1921, in a rented villa in the town of Fontainebleau, France, Pablo Picasso created an astonishingly varied body of work. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, that reunites these works for the first time since they left the artist’s studio, Picasso in Fontainebleau presents both monumental versions of Three Musicians and Three Women at the Spring alongside other major works on canvas, small preparatory paintings, line drawings, etchings, and pastels he created in Fontainebleau. Encompassing both Cubist and classic academic styles, these works are complemented by never-before-seen photographs and archival documents. An introductory essay by curator Anne Umland examines the critical issues that distinguish Picasso's Fontainebleau oeuvre, and is followed by 15 short essays co-authored by curators and conservators that offer art historical analysis of groups of closely related works and object-based insights into materials, structures, and processes. By investigating Picasso’s decision to paint simultaneously in seemingly opposite styles, Picasso in Fontainebleau emphasizes the interconnectedness of his process and practice, and his ability to disrupt expectations of artistic evolution and stylistic consistency.

About the Authors:

Anny Aviram is Senior Paintings Conservator at MoMA.
Lee Ann Daffner is a Photography Conservator at MoMA.
Michael Duffy is a Paintings Conservator at MoMA.
Emilie Faust is an Paintings Conservator, the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte.
Francesca Ferrari is a former Mellon-Marron Research Consortium Fellow in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA.
Starr Figura is Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at MoMA.
Alexandra Morrison is Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA.
Erika Mosier is a Conservator at MoMA.
Rachel Mustalish is a Paper Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Table of Contents:

Before Fontainebleau
1. “Where Is the Real Picasso?” by Alexandra Morrison and Michael Duffy
2. “Ballets Russes Designs” by Francesca Ferrari and Erika Mosier
3. “Pochoirs” by Starr Figura and Erika Mosier
In Fontainebleau
4. “Line Drawings” by Alexandra Morrison and Erika Mosier
5. “Family Photographs” by Lee Ann Daffner and Francesca Ferrari
6. “Maternities” by Francesca Ferrari, Anny Aviram, and Emilie Faust
7. “The Spring” by Anne Umland, Anny Aviram, and Erika Mosier
8. “Studies for Three Women at the Spring” by Francesca Ferrari, Anny Aviram, and Erika Mosier
9. “Studio Photographs” by Lee Ann Daffner, Francesca Ferrari, and Michael Duffy
10. “Three Women at the Spring and Three Musicians” by Anne Umland, Cindy Albertson, Anny Aviram, and Erika Mosier
11. “Red Chalk and Charcoal Drawings” by Alexandra Morrison, Erika Mosier, and Anny Aviram
12. “Pastels” by Rachel Mustalish and Anne Umland
13. “Cubist Still Lifes” by Alexandra Morrison and Anny Aviram
Coda
14. “The Wallace Fountain” by Francesca Ferrari and Erika Mosier
15. “Studies” by Francesca Ferrari and Anny Aviram
Backmatter
Illustrated chronology
Checklist of the exhibition
Selected Bibliography