Glass, Guitar, and Bottle

Pablo Picasso, 1913

Technical Details

About This Work

Glass, Guitar, and Bottle, executed by Pablo Picasso in early 1913, is a masterwork of Synthetic Cubism and early collage. Measuring 65.4 × 53.6 cm, the mixed-media composition on canvas incorporates oil, charcoal, pencil, and cut-and-pasted newspaper clippings. The visual structure depicts familiar Parisian café objects—a stemmed glass, the neck and soundhole of a guitar, and a liquor bottle—fragmented and reassembled across intersecting planes. Picasso uses real printed text and bold black contours to juxtapose illusionistic depiction with flat, tangible material reality. The fragments of newspaper create tactile texture while simultaneously establishing an atmospheric sense of a bustling urban café. By dissolving traditional boundaries between painted space and physical ephemera, the artwork challenges conventional perspective and redefines the nature of still-life representation in modern art. The restricted chromatic palette combined with rich material layering emphasizes structural rhythm and formal innovation, inviting viewers into an intellectual and visual puzzle that revolutionized twentieth-century aesthetic expression.

Created in Paris during early 1913, 'Glass, Guitar, and Bottle' emerged at the height of the historic collaboration between Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque that birthed Synthetic Cubism. Following their pioneering experiments with papier collé in late 1912, Picasso integrated actual printed ephemera into his works to engage directly with modern urban mass culture. The inclusion of newspaper clippings reflected contemporary socio-political developments and the lively intellectual discourse in Parisian cafes. Originally held in the collection of art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the canvas was sequestered during World War I and sold through Hôtel Drouot in 1921. It subsequently passed through notable modernist collections, including those of Pierre Loeb and Marie Harriman, before entering the renowned Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. In 1967, it was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The work has since been featured in landmark exhibitions examining the genesis of modern collage, cementing its status as a pivotal artifact in the evolution of twentieth-century avant-garde art practice.

Current Location

Valuation & Provenance

Keywords