During his early years in
Paris, Picasso gradually
mastered the French language
and made many French
friends; one of the earliest was
the poet Max Jacob, with
whom he shared a room, and
some very hard times, as early
as the winter of 1902-03. But
he also remained close to his
fellow-Spaniards in the French
capital, among them the
Catalan artist Ricardo Canals,
now mainly remembered as
the man who taught Picasso
etching - a not insignificant
distinction in view of Picasso's
later pre-eminence in this art.
This is a lovely but enigmatic
work, painted at some point
after Picasso's return from a
trip to Holland, in the summer
of 1905. The bov is shown
against a floral background
which may be a screen or a
theatre curtain. We do not
know why he wears a garland
on his head, or why his hand is
holding a pipe in an oddly
clumsy grip; one suggestion,
that it refers to the pleasures
of opium, is lent credibility by
Fernande Olivier's account of
how smoking the drug 1
heightened and intensified her
lovemaking with Picasso.
Whatever the exact
circumstances, Boy with a Pipe
maintains the mild, reflective
mood characteristic of his Rose
Period works. These were
making Picasso's reputation in
Paris and finding willing
buyers — in spite of which he
broke abruptly with the past '
and developed a radical new
style of painting that would
transform the history of 20th-century art.
Original Painting: Collection Mrs. John Hay Whitney
