January is a month of good resolutions and also of renovations, and just as we’ve been doing for the last few years, it is time for a series of changes in the galleries of the permanent collection of the museum. Changes which are both due to loans of works to our own temporary exhibitions or to other centres, as well as the removal of pieces for their preventive conservation, and also changes that derive from maintaining of a coherent expositive discourse in the galleries. The museum is alive and this movement of works also provides the opportunity of showing the public the wealth of works that we conserve and that cannot be exhibited all at once.
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of the artist’s father. Barcelona, 1896. Watercolour on paper. 25.5 x 17.8 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.331 | Pablo Picasso. Self-portrait. 1896. Oil on canvas. 22.1 x 13.7 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.205
· Gallery 1: in this room, dedicated to the first period of Picasso, some of the works in the glass cabinets go away on loan for the exhibition at the Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña “The first Picasso. A Coruña: 1891-1895”, opening this February. The Portrait of the artist’s mother will also be taken down for reasons of preventive conservation. In their place three self-portraits of Picasso will be shown, as well as the sanguine Portrait of the artist’s father, amongt other works.
· Gallery 2: the most notable changes in this room are the incorporation of the work Mountain Landscape and the oils on wood Corner of the cloister of Sant Pau del Camp and Man leaning against a Gothic doorway of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
Pablo Picasso. Mountain landscape. Malaga, June-July 1896. Oil on canvas. 60.5 x 82 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.008 | Pablo Picasso. Man leaning against a Gothic doorway of the Cathedral of Barcelona. Barcelona, 1896. Oil on wood. 20.5 x 12.6 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.203
· Gallery 3: this is the room where the masterpiece Science and Charity is located, and in which we recently restored the ceiling. During the month of January a series of drawings that Picasso did in Madrid and Horta de Sant Joan will be incorporated in the glass cabinets, such as “Salón del Prado” and Partial view of Horta de Sant Joan.
Pablo Picasso. “Salón del Prado”. Madrid, 1897. Oil on wood. 10 x 15.5 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.160 | Pablo Picasso. Partial view of Horta de Sant Joan. Horta de Sant Joan, 1898-1899. Oil on wood. 10 x 15.5 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.173
· Gallery 4: this is the room devoted to the period of Picasso in the Barcelona of the turn of the century, 1899-1900, and during this month a series of works of tenebrist themes will be hung, such as the work on paper Poeta decadente, which had been resting since February 2014. Furthermore, various watercolours and drawings in Indian ink, all with female figures as their main theme, will also be exhibited in the glass cabinets , and it will be possible to see the inside of the covers of a notebook that also hide sketches of women reading.
Pablo Picasso. “Decadent poet”. Portrait ofJaume Sabartés. 1900. Charcoal and essence on laid paper with watermark. 48 x 32 cm. Gift of Jaume Sabartés, 1962. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 70.232 | Pablo Picasso. Two sketches of a seated woman. Barcelona, c. 1899. Charcoal and black pencil on cardboard folder covers. 23 x 16.8 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.230 | Pablo Picasso. Seated woman reading. Barcelona, c. 1899. Watercolour on paper. 19.1 x 14 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.238
· Gallery 5: in this space, dedicated mainly to Paris, a series of drawings that Picasso did in the Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc during 1989 will be incorporated, such as Man leaning against a wall, that was the protagonist of the exhibition of the museum “A Collage before Collage” in 2012.
Pablo Picasso. Man leaning against a wall. Barcelona, march 1899. Conté crayon on paper and illustration attached to the right side. 49 x 32.7 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.844 | Pablo Picasso.Home amb barba, dempeus i de perfil. Barcelona, march 1899. Conté crayon on paper. 48.5 x 32 cm. Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1970. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.848
· Gallery 6: sharing the space with the work Fairground stall and The wait (Margot), you can see various drawings of Paris that had been resting due to reasons of preventive conservation, such as “Rastaquouères” and Can-Can dancer.
Pablo Picasso. “Rastaquouères”. Paris, 1901. Pen and Indian ink and watercolour on paper. 18 x 11.5 cm. Given by the Barcelona City Council, 1963. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 4.772 | Pablo Picasso. Can-Can dancer. 1901. Pen and Indian ink and watercolour on paper. 17 x 11.5 cm. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 4.774
· Gallery 8: this room, dedicated to the blue period of Picasso, displays once again the works The madman in the central part of the room, and The offering in the left wing. Furthermore, on the occasion of the seminar of restoration and conservation “The Blue Period: New interpretations by means of technical studies”, in the right-hand space of the room various drawings and sketches related to La Vie, the leading work of the blue period of Picasso, will be hung.
Pablo Picasso. The madman. 1904. Watercolour on paper. 85 x 35 cm.Given by the Barcelona City Council, 1963. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 4.272 | Pablo Picasso. The Offering. Paris, 1908. Gouache on cardboard with white primer. 30.6 x 30.6 cm. Gift of Lord Amulree, 1985. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 112.761 | Pablo Picasso.Old woman, seated. June, 1903. Pastel and charcoal on cardboard (folder cover). 60 x 40 cm.Given by the Barcelona City Council, 1963. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 110.015
· Galleries 12-13: this galleries house the series of Las Meninas, and there will be some modifications due to the exhibition “Picasso/Dalí. Dalí/Picasso” that will be inaugurated in March. One of the works from this series will also return to these galleries.
Pablo Picasso. Painter Working. 1965. Oil and Ripolin on canvas. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 70.810 | Pablo Picasso. Las Meninas. Canes, 17/09/1957. Oil on canvas. 130×161.5 cm. Gift of de Pablo Picasso, 1968. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 70.462
· Gallery 15: in February, after returning from the exhibition of the Dalí Museum of Florida, the oil painting Painter working will return to this gallery.
Pablo Picasso. Vase. Paris, 5th April, 1943. Indian ink and wash on paper. 65.8 x 50.6 cm. Gift of Jaume Sabartés, 1962. Museu Picasso, Barcelona. MPB 70.240
· Gallery B1: the B Galleries show works related to the friend and personal secretary of the artist, Jaume Sabartés, and during the changes of January, the drawing Vase will be hung. , and in the glass cabinets, a series of photographs in which you can see the two friends during the stay of Picasso in Antibes.
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