sliderarrowCloseMenushare_facebookshare_instagramshare_xshare_linkedinshare_threadsshare_shareshare_tranditionalshare_calendarshare_emailicon_threadsconnect_facebookconnect_instagramconnect_xconnect_youtubeconnect_atbtn_arrowhamburger-x
Skip to main content
Menu Collections

Pipe et partition (Pipe and Sheet Music)

Pipe et partition (Pipe and Sheet Music)

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

Pipe et partition (Pipe and Sheet Music)
Pipe et partition (Pipe and Sheet Music)
ArtistSpanish, 1881–1973
CultureSpanish
Titles
  • Pipe et partition (Pipe and Sheet Music)
Date1914
PlaceFrance
MediumCollage of block-printed paper and gouache, graphite and chalk on paper
DimensionsSheet: 20 1/2 × 26 1/2 in. (52.1 × 67.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice McAshan, Jr.
Object number69.11
Non exposé

Explore Further

DescriptionAs Pablo Picasso continued to experiment with
new means of representation, he embraced
the cut-and-paste technique of collage in
1912, incorporating found materials in his
compositions to play against drawn and
painted illusions. This synthesis of techniques
later gave rise to the term Synthetic Cubism.
Here, he frames a still life within a trompe
l’oeil (fool-the-eye) frame made from printed
wallpaper, finished off with the artist’s signed
nameplate. The refrain of a popular song,
“Ma Jolie” (My Pretty), is delicately lettered
at the top of the sheet music, a nod to
Picasso’s mistress, Eva Gouel.
Provenance[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris]; Dr. Jean Dalsace, Paris, before 1942-after 1942; [Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles], as of 1952; sold to Mr. and Mrs. S.M. McAshan, Jr., Houston, June 17, 1952-November 10, 1969; gift to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition HistoryArt Contemporain, Antwerp, 1926.

Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1932.

Contemporary Arts Association, Houston, 1955.

"Houston Collectors: A Selection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 22–May 12, 1968.

"One Hundred Master Drawings by Picasso," Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 20–April 5, 1981; Art Institute of Chicago, April 29–June 14, 1981; Philadelphia Museum of Art, July 11–August 23, 1981.

"In Our Time: Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum, 1942–1982," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, October 23, 1982–January 2, 1983.

"Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," Museum of Modern Art, New York, September 20, 1989–January 16, 1990; Offentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel, February 25–June 18, 1990.

"Picasso and Things: The Still Lives of Picasso," Cleveland Museum of Art, February 26–April 26, 1992; Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 7–August 30, 1992; Musée Picasso, Paris, September 22–December 28, 1992.

"In Perfect Harmony: Picture and Frame," Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, March 31–July 2, 1995; Kunstforum Wien, Vienna, August 24–November 11, 1995.

"The Dark Mirror – Picasso: Photography and Painting," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 16, 1997–February 1, 1998.

"Modernism in a Century of Change III, From Object to Icon: The Art of Assemblage," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 21–August 30, 1998.

"Picasso and the Great War," Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, February 13–May 9, 2016; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, June 10–September 11, 2016.

"Cubism and the Trompe L'Oeil Tradition," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 17, 2022–January 22, 2023.
Published References Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso: Volume 2. Oeuvres de 1912 à 1917. Paris: Cahiers d’Art, 1942, p. 230, no. 503. Daix, Pierre and Joan Rosselet. Picasso: The Cubist Years 1907-1916. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979, no. 683. “Acquisitions by Museums of Works by Picasso.” Supplement to The Burlington Magazine (October 1971), p. 625, illus. no. 74. Russoli, Franco and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, Rizzoli, 1972, illus. no. 708. Rosenblum, Robert. “Picasso and the Typography of Cubism.” Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, eds. Sir Roland Penrose and Dr. John Golding. New York: Portland House, 1973, p. 67, illus. no. 108. Carmean, E.A. “Picasso in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,” The Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin (Summer 1973), p.4-7, illus. p. 5. Russell, John. The Meanings of Modern Art: Reality Reassembled, Volume 4. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1974, p. 47, illus. p. 31, no. IX. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: A Guide to the Collection. Introduction by William C. Agee. Houston: The Museum, 1981, p. 131-2, illus. p. 131. Tinterow, Gary. Master Drawings by Picasso. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1981, p. 126, illus. p. 127. Celant, Germano. “Framed: Innocence or Guilt?” Artforum (Summer 1982), illus. p. 54. Brutvan, Cheryl. In Our Time: Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum, 1948-1982. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1982, p. 75. de Lima Greene, Alison. “Twentieth-Century Art in the Museum Collection: Direction and Diversity,” The Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, vol. XI, no. 3 (Summer 1988): 6, 9, 13, illus. p. 9. Rudenstine, Angelica Zander. Modern Painting, Drawing & Sculpture, Collected by Emily and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Volume IV. Cambridge: Harvard University Art Museums, 1988, p. 812. Rubin, William. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989, illus. p. 310. Poggi, Christine. In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992, p. 129, illus. p. 130. Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Picasso and Things. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 160, illus. p. 161. Brunette, Peter and David Wells, eds. Deconstruction and the Visual Arts: Art, Media, Architecture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 133, illus. p. 134. Mendgen, Eva A. In Perfect Harmony: Picture and Frame, 1850-1920. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum; Zwolle: Waanders, 1995, p. 230, no. 221. Caws, Mary Ann. The Surrealist Look: An Erotics of Encounter. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1997, p. 307, illus. p. 309. Krauss, Rosalind E. The Picasso Papers. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998, p. 179, illus. p. 164, no. 54. Cottington, David. Cubism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 72, illus. no. 59. Lebensztejn, Jean-Claude. Annexes – de l’oeuvre d’art. Bruxelles: Part de l’oeil, 1999, p. 211-212, illus. p. 210. Landay, Janet. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Visitor Guide, 2000, p. 315, illus. p. 315. Florman, Lisa. “Refusing Collage: Juan Gris’s Still Life.” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 75, no. 2 (June 2001), p. 11-12. Florman, Lisa. “The Flattening of Collage.” October, no. 102 (Fall 2002), p. 78 and p. 82, illus. p. 75. Tallman, Susan. "Feinting Spells." The New York Review of Books, Jan. 19, 2023, illus. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in rectangle at bottom center: "Picasso"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Jazz Studies III (Stereo [Myths and Stereotypes])
Tierney Malone
1997
Tempera, chalk, pastel stick, marker, and graphite with collage of cut and torn printed papers and tapes on wove paper
97.204.3
Aerial View of San Marino
Uberto Bonetti
c. 1935
Watercolor, graphite and black chalk with blue oil pastel and gouache on wove ledger paper
2015.268
Patural 2
Nadezda Prvulovic
1982–1983
Gouache, watercolor, ink, chalk, graphite, and metallic pigment on wove paper
2018.299
Caryatid
Amedeo Modigliani
c. 1914
Gouache and watercolor with chalk and graphite on wove paper
84.412
Untitled
James Reaben
March-June, 1989
Gold leaf, resin, ink, gouache, chalk and graphite on wove paper
90.328.7
The Milk Bottle
Pablo Picasso
1905
Gouache on hardboard
84.413
Man with Pipe
Rafael Barradas
1925
Graphite and red chalk on laid paper
2016.97
Untitled
Ambreen Butt
2003
Watercolor, gouache, pen and ink, graphite, and thread on layered Mylar, printed paper, and handmade paper
2016.49
On the River Machawy, Wales
Samuel Palmer
July 5, 1837
Watercolor and gouache over black chalk on wove paper, heightened with white chalk on wove paper
2017.15
Yellow Sleep
Kurt Kemp
2001
Collage of cut printed paper, paper tags and folders, and tracing paper with monotype, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic paint, etching and aquatint, watercolor, charcoal, ink, and ballpoint pen on cut board
2001.765
Untitled (Door)
Richard Artschwager
1980
Collage of pen and ink over graphite on yellow wove paper and printed paper on paper
83.50
Monte Della Giustizia, Villa Montalto - Negroni, Rome
Richard Wilson
c. 1752
Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, white gouache, and gray wash on blue-gray laid paper
2021.290
Pablo Picasso