About This Artwork

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, worked in France, 1881–1973

The Old Guitarist, late 1903–early 1904

Oil on panel
48 3/8 x 32 1/2 in. (122.9 x 82.6 cm)
signed, l.r.: "Picasso"
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.253

© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Galerie Vollard, Paintings by Pablo Picasso, December 1910–February 1911, no cat.

New York, Carroll Galleries, Third Exhibition of Contemporary French Art, March 8–April 3, 1915, no. 3.

Chicago, Art Institute, Birch-Bartlett Collection of Modern European Paintings, September 8–October 8, 1925, no cat.

Chicago, Arts Club, Paintings by Picasso, March 26–April 9, 1930, cat. 6.

Chicago, Art Institute, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, p. 56, cat. 402.

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, Pablo Picasso, February 6–March 1, 1934, cat. 11 (ill.).

Chicago, Art Institute, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, p. 53, cat. 358.

New York, Jacques Seligmann and Company, Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods 1901–1906, November 2–26, 1936, p. 17, cat. 15 (ill.).

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, November 15, 1939–January 17, 1940, pp. 34–35, cat. 20 (ill.); traveled to Chicago, Art Institute, February 1–March 3, 1940; and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, April 26–May 25, 1940.

Chicago, Art Institute, Gallery of Art Interpretation: Presenting the Art Institute's Picassos, September–December 1955, no cat.

Chicago, Art Institute, Picasso in Chicago, February 3–March 31, 1968, pp. 14–15, and 112, cat. 7 (ill.).

Chicago, Art Institute, Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, February 17–May 13, 2007, pp. 107, 112, and 388, cat. 148, fig. 113, as The Old Guitarist, 1903/4; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 13, 2006–January 7, 2007.

Publication History

Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 48 (1926), n.p. (ill.).

R. M. F., “Cézanne, Rousseau, Picasso,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 20:5 (May 1926), p. 64 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Modern Paintings in the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial from the Birch-Bartlett Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1926; reprinted, 1929), pp. 36–37, and 57–58 (ill.).

Quinn, John, 1870–1925, Collection of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture (Huntington, NY: Pidgeon Hill Press, 1926), p. 12, no. 96 (ill.), as The Guitarist—Blue Period.

Watson, Forbes, “A Note on the Birch-Bartlett Collection,” The Arts 9 (June 1926), pp. 307 and 312 (ill.).

Zabel, Morton Dauwen, “An American Gallery of Modern Painting,” Art and Archeology 26:6 (December 1928), pp. 233 and 235 (ill.).

Zervos, Christian, “Picasso: Oeuvres Inédites Anciennes,” Cahiers d’Art 3:5–6 (1928), p. 213 (ill.).
Arts Club, Paintings by Picasso, exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1930), cat. 6.

Rich, Daniel Catton, “Consider Picasso,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 25:5 (May 1931), pp. 68–69 (ill.).

Zervos, Christian, Pablo Picasso I (Paris: Cahiers d’Art, 1932), p. 90, no. 202 (ill.), as Le vieux Guitariste, 1903.

---, “Picasso,” Cahiers d’Art 7:3–5 (1932), p. 89 (ill.).

Cahiers d’Art, numero special (June 1932), n.p. (ill.).

Sweeney, James Johnson, “La Peinture Francaise Moderne a l’Institute des Beaux-Arts de Chicago,” Cahiers d’Art 7:8–10 (1932), pp. 335 and 336 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 167.

Sherwood, Walter J., “The Famous Birch Bartlett Collection,” Chicago Visitor (October 1932), p. 40.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 56, cat. 402.

Wadsworth Atheneum, Pablo Picasso, exh. cat. (Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1934), cat. 11 (ill.).

Taylor, Francis Henry, “African Baroque in Hartford,” Parnassus 6:3 (March 1934), pp. 11 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), p. 53, cat. 358.

A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), p. 30.

Jacques Seligmann and Company, Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods 1901–1906, exh. cat. (New York: Jacques Seligmann and Company, 1936), p. 17, cat. 15 (ill.).

Lane, James W., “Picasso: The Spanish Charivari,” Parnassus 8:6 (November 1936), p. 17.

Barr, Jr., Alfred H., Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1939), pp. 34–35, cat. 20 (ill.).

Frankfurter, Alfred, “Picasso in Retrospect: 1939–1940, The Comprehensive Exhibition in New York and Chicago,” Art News 38:7 (November 18, 1939), p. 12 (ill.).

Soby, James Thrall, “Picasso: A Critical Estimate,” Parnassus 11:8 (December 1939), p. 9.

Sweet, Frederick A., “Picasso—Forty Years of His Art,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago XXXIV:2 (February 1940), p. 22.

Wilenski, R. H., Modern French Painters (New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1940), pp. 138, 168 199, and 202, pl. 47.

Mackenzie, Helen F., Understanding Picasso: A Study of His Styles and Development (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), pl. II.

Schoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin, The Enjoyment of Art in America (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1942), p. 565, pl. 579.

Palencia, Ceferino, Picasso (Madrid: Editorial Leyenda, 1945), pp. 118–119, fig. 7.

Art Institute of Chicago, Modern Paintings in the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial from the Birch Bartlett Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1946), pp. 38–39, and 59 (ill.).

Barr, Jr., Alfred H., Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946), pp. 28–29 (ill.).

Pellicer, Alexandre Cirici, Picasso Antes de Picasso (Barcelona: Iberia-Joaquin Gil, 1946), pp. 183–185, fig. 170.

Merli, Joan, Picasso (Buenos Aires: Editorial Poseidon, 1948), n.p., fig. 83.

Zennström, Per-Olav, Pablo Picasso (Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt and Söners Förlag, 1948), p. 28, fig. 4.

Antonio, Juan, and Gaya Nuño, Picasso (Barcelona: Ediciones Omega, 1950), p. 12, pl. 9.

Bertram, Anthony, Picasso (The World’s Masters—New Series) (London: The Studio Publication, 1951), pl. 4.

Lieberman, William S., Pablo Picasso (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1952), pp. 10–11 (ill.).

---, Pablo Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1954), pl. 18.

Penrose, Roland, Picasso: His Life and Work (London: Victor Gollancz, 1958), pl. III, no. 6, p. 90.
Pierre de Champris, Picasso ombre et soleil (Paris: Librarie Gallimand, 1960), pp. 267–268 and 294, no. 311 (ill.), as Le Guitariste aveugle.

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 356.

Janson, H. W., History of Art: A Survey of the Major Visual Arts from the Dawn of History to the Present Day (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1962), pp. 509–510, fig. 765.

Blunt, Anthony, and Phoebe Pool, Picasso: The Formative Years, A study of his sources (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1962), no. 111 (ill.), as Blind Guitar-Player.

Ferguson, John, “Picasso and the Classics,” Greece & Rome, 2nd series, 9:2 (October 1962), p. 184.

Boudaille, Georges, Picasso: Première Époque 1881–1906, Périodes Bleue et Rose (Paris: Le Musée Personnel, 1964), pl. IV.

Damase, Jacques, Pablo Picasso, trans by Haydn Barnes (NewYork: Barnes and Noole, 1965), pp. 6, 23, and 86 (ill.).

Palau i Fabre, Josep, Picasso en Cataluña (Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 1966), pp. 104, 106, 109, 113, 116, and 125, fig. 92 (ill.).

Sweet, Frederick A., “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo LXXXIV:55 (September 1966), pp. 194, 195 and 197, fig. 13.

Daix, Pierre, and Georges Boudaille, Picasso 1900-1906: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint (Neuchâtel: Editions Ides et Calendes, 1966), pp. 62–66, and 229, no. IX.34 (ill.).

Penrose, Roland, The Eye of Picasso (New York: The New American Library, 1967), p. 8, pl. 4.

Wertenbaker, Lael, The World of Picasso (New York: Time-Life Books, 1967), pp. 34 and 44 (ill.).

El Mundo de los Museos, The Art Institute of Chicago (Madrid: Editorial Codex, S. A., 1967), pp. 14, and 72–73 (ill.).

Hamilton, George Heard, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880-1940 (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967), p. 88, as The Blind Guitarist.

Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso in Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1968), pp. 14–15, cat. 7 (ill.).

Young, Mahonri Sharp, “Let’s Talk Turkey,” Apollo 87:75 (May 1968), p. 390, fig. 8.

Reid, B. L., The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), pp. 207–208, as Old Man.

Greer, Thomas, A Brief History of Western Man (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968), pp. 556–557, fig. 13–2.

Chevalier, Denys, Picasso: époques bleue et rose (Paris: Flammarion, 1969), pp. 17 and 62 (ill.).
Picasso (Tokyo: Holp Shuppan, 1970), n.p. (ill.).

Sutton, Denys, and Paolo Lacaldano, The Complete Paintings of Picasso Blue and Rose Periods (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1970), p. 94–95, pl. XV, no. 92, as The Old Blind Guitar Player.

Maxon, John, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1970; reprinted, London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), p. 109 (ill.).

Greenfeld, Howard, Pablo Picasso: An Introduction (Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1971), pp. 33 and 61 (ill.).

Grung, Sandra, Supplement to Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1971), p. 86.

Soldea, Ileana, Picasso (Bucharest: Editura Meridiane, 1972), p. 59, fig. 7.

Sakazaki, Otsuro, Picasso (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1972), p. 114, pl. 9.

Nishimura, Toshio, Picasso (Tokyo: Japan Art Center, 1973), p. 115, pl. 22.

Monk, Diane, “‘Meet me at the Picasso’ Artistic landmark for all Chicagoans,” Chicago Daily News (April 9, 1973), p. 4.

Porzio, Domenico, and Marco Valsecchi, Understanding Picasso (New York: Newsweek Books, 1974), pl. 12.

Johnson, Ronald W., “Picasso’s ‘Old Guitarist’ and the Symbolist Sensibility,” Artforum 13:4 (December 1974), pp. 56–62, fig. 1.

Nakahara, Yusuke, Picasso and Matisse (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1974), pl. 3.

Lipton, Eunice, “Picasso Criticism, 1901–1939: The Making of an Artist-Hero,” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, New York, 1975, p. 191.

Hilton, Timothy, Picasso (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), p. 35, fig. 19, as The Blind Guitarist.

Baumann, Felix Andreas, Pablo Picasso: Leben und Werk (Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje, 1976), p. 22, fig. 29.

Johnson, Ron, The Early Sculpture of Picasso, 1901–1914 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1976), pp. 21–22 and 201, fig. 25.

Art Institute of Chicago: 100 Masterpieces (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), p. 131, no. 82 (ill.).

Zilczer, Judith, “The Noble Buyer:” John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde, exh. cat. (Washington D.C.: Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 1978), pp. 32–33, 65, and 176, fig. 10.

Lauer, David L., Design Basics (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979), pp. 80–81, fig. c.

Speyer, A. James, and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 62, no. 3C10.

Gedo, Mary Matthews, Picasso: Art as Autobiography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 54 (ill.).

Rubin, William, and Jan Fluegel, Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980), p. 47 (ill.).

Rosenthal, Mark, “The Nietzschean Character of Picasso’s Early Development,” Arts Magazine 55: 2 (October 1980), p. 8, fig. 1.

Gasman, Lydia, Mystery, Magic and Love in Picasso, 1925–1938: Picasso and the Surrealist Poets, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University (New York, 1981), p. 1335.

Palau i Fabre, Josep, Picasso: Vivent (1881–1907) (Barcelona: Ediciones Poligrafa, 1980), pp. 358 and 542, fig. 932.

Ibañez, Federico Sopeña, Picasso y la Musica (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1982), p. 29 (ill.).

Ugarte, Francisco, and Michael Ugarte, España y su Civilización, third edition (New York: Random House, 1983), pp. 186–187 (ill.).

Brettell, Richard R., “The Bartletts and the Grande Jatte: Collecting Modern Painting in the 1920s,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12:2 (1986), pp. 105 and 111.

Donnell, Courtney Graham, “Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett: The Collectors,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12:2 (1986), p. 95, fig. 11.

Gedo, Mary Mathews, “A Youthful Genius Confronts His Destiny: Picasso’s ‘Old Guitarist’ in The Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 122 (1986), pp. 153-165 (ills.).

Fichner-Rathus, Lois, Understanding Art (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986), p. 356, fig. 13–5.

Daix, Pierre, Picasso Créateur: La vie intime et l’oeuvre (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987), p. 48.

Zelanski, Paul, and Mary Pat Fisher, The Art of Seeing (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1988), pp. 142–143, fig. 2.109.

Wood, James N., and Katherine C. Lee, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1988; reprinted in 1999), p. 108 (ill.).

Didier Imbert Fine Art, Picasso: La Célestine, exh. cat. (Paris: Didier Imbert Fine Art, 1988), p. 36 (ill.).

Leighten, Patricia, Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897–1914 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 34, fig. 21.

Auckland City Art Gallery, Pablo Picasso: The Artist Before Nature, exh. cat. (Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland City Art Gallery, 1989), p. 41.

Podoksik, Anatoly, Picasso: The Artist’s Works in Soviet Museums, trans. by Vladimir Malakhov (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989), pp. 32, 39, 145–146 (ill.).

Richardson, John, A Life of Picasso, Volume I 1881–1906 (New York: Random House, 1991), pp. 170, 292.

Cortenova, Giorgio, La Vita e l’Opera: Picasso (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1991), p. 74 (ill.).

Beardsley, John, Pablo Picasso: First Impressions (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), p. 23 (ill.).
Picasso (France: ODA Laser Edition, 1992), p. 15, no. 6432.

Warncke, Carsten-Peter, Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 I (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen, 1992), p. 94 (ill.), as Le Vieux Guitariste aveugle.

Miller, Simon, “Instruments of Desire: Musical Morphology in the Early Work of Picasso,” The Musical Quarterly 76:4 (Winter 1992), pp. 447–448, fig. 1.

Chapman, Laura H., A World of Images (Worcester, Mass.: Davis Publications, 1992), p. 48 (ill.).

Clark, Hiro, Picasso: In His Words (San Francisco, Cal.: Collins Publishers, 1993), p. 45 (ill.).

McCully, Marilyn, Picasso: A Private Collection (London: Cacklegoose Press, 1993), p. 63 (ill.).

MacLeod, Glen, Wallace Stevens and Modern Art: From the Armory Show to Abstract Expressionism (New Haven, Mass.: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 64.

Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), pp. 192 and 304.

Geelhaar, Christian, Picasso: Wegbereiter und Förderer seines Aufstiegs 1899–1939 (Zurich: Palladion, 1993), pp. 205–206, fig. 230.

Wood, James N., Treasures of 19th-and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 186 (ill.).

Pablo Picasso: A Vision, exh. cat. (West Palm Beach, Fl.: Norton Gallery of Art, 1994), pp. 12–13, fig. 3.

Preble, Duane and Sarah, Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts, fifth edition (New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1994), p. 80, fig. 119.

Adams, Laurie Schneider, A History of Western Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), p. 412, fig. 26.1.

Jasper, Joan, “Identifiable Fragments: Comparisons Between Picasso and Gertrude Stein, 1905–1907,” Master’s Thesis, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1994, n.p., fig. 6, The Blue Guitarist.

Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center 1:2 (March 1994), cover (ill.).

Wood, James N., and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting ad Sculpture (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), p. 12 (ill.).

Richardson, John, A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907–1917 (New York: Random House, 1996), pp. 363 and 472, note 20.

Art Institute of Chicago: Pocketguide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), p. 38, fig. 66.

McCully, Marilyn, et. al., Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1906, exh. cat. (Washington DC: The National Gallery of Art, 1997), pp. 40, 41, and 200, fig. 26.

Seligman, Martin E. P., and David L. Rosenhan, Abnormality (NY: W. W. Norton and Company, 1998), p. 226 (ill.).

Schaffner, Ingrid, The Essential Pablo Picasso (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), p. 41 (ill.).

Wood, James N., and Debra N. Mancoff, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2000), p. 231 (ill.).

Schapiro, Meyer, The Unity of Picasso’s Art (New York: George Braziller, 2000), pp. 10–11, fig. 15.

Immenga, Silke, Picasso und Spanien: Kulturelle Identität als Strategie (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2000), pp. 60, 306, and 339, fig. 38.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Picasso: The Artist’s Studio (http://www.clevelandart.org/exhibcef/picassoas/html/7327426.html) (2002) (ill.).

The Portable Picasso (New York: Universe, 2003), p. 54 (ill.).

Regards complices, hommage à Picasso / Sharing Views, Tribute to Picasso, exh. cat. (Paris: Somogy, 2003), pp. 59 and 90 (ill.), as The Blue Guitar/The Old Guitarist.

La epoca de Picasso: donaciones a los museos americanos (Santander: Fundación Marcelino Botín, 2004), pp. 41 and 246.

Adams, Laurie Schneider, A History of Western Art, fourth edition (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004), pp. 467 and 478, fig. 26.1.

Rabinow, Rebecca A. (ed.), Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), pp. 107, 112, and 388, cat. 148, fig. 113, as The Old Guitarist, 1903/4.

Fitzgerald, Michael, and Julia May Boddewyn, Picasso and American Art, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2006), pp. 69–70, fig. 25, 104, 329, 334, 336, 339, 340, 342, 344, 346, and 350.

Mallen, Enrique, The On-Line Picasso Project (http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/), no. 03:22 (ill.), as Vieux Guitariste aveugle.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Revealing Picasso Conservation Project” (http://www.artic.edu/aic/conservation/revealingpicasso/index.html) (ill.).

Ownership History

Ambroise Vollard (1867–1939), Paris, probably acquired directly from the artist [Chicago 2006]; sold through Carroll Galleries, New York, to John Quinn (1870–1924), New York, 1915 [letter from John Quinn to Ambroise Vollard of February 26, 1915 in curatorial file]; Quinn estate; sold by Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959), New York, to Frederic Clay Bartlett (1873-1953), Chicago [letters from Alexandre Rosenberg of November 17, 1975 and Frederic Clay Bartlett to Joseph Stransky of May 21, 1927 in curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute, 1926.