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Pablo Picasso’s Mousquetaire buste, 1968, is part of the artist’s wider engagement of the 17th century French King’s guard archetype from 1966 through to the 1970s. The foppish form of the curly-haired, pipe-smoking soldier was a character through which Picasso engaged with the master painters of the art historical canon, and Western myth-making in art. The features are abstracted into a cartoonish state: his eyes are lopsided, and his mustache flurried like cat whiskers. In this iteration his musketeer is a bust, the grandeur of the medium undercut by Picasso’s riotous use of greens and purples.
The literary, popular, and artistic references for Mousquetaire buste are as wide-ranging and varied as Picasso’s oeuvre itself. In 1966, when recovering from surgery, Picasso spent his time reading classic literature, particularly texts from the 17th century, including Spanish Siglo d’Oro authors such as Luis de Góngora and Lope de Vega, and the plays of William Shakespeare. Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844), a swashbuckling serial set in 17th century France, was also, purportedly, on his reading list.i
The cast on the set of Les Trois Mousquetaires, May 3, 1961. Image: © AGIP / Bridgeman Images Picasso probably enjoyed film versions of The Three Musketeers story, too; as a movie buff, he was “unlikely to have missed Bernard Borderie’s popular 1961 movie, Vengeance of the Three Musketeers,” which was the sixth most-watched film at the French box office that year.ii Beyond literature and film, though, the artist’s wife, Jaqueline, shared that the ultimate source of subject matter was deeply art historical: the musketeers “came to Pablo [Picasso] when he’d gone back to studying Rembrandt.”iii
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch, 1642. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Later in life, Picasso was known to have projected slides of Rembrandt van Rijn’s masterpiece, The Night Watch, 1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, onto his studio walls, and concurrent with his mousquetaire paintings are a series of works based on Rembrandt’s compositions.iv Picasso’s musketeers are “in a general way related to portraits by Rembrandt, even if it is not always possible to point to specific prototypes,” Gert Schiff writes.v Picasso found inspiration, too, from royal court painters, such as France’s Philippe de Campaigne, and Spanish master Diego Velázquez. This generalized Baroque inspiration, free from any one artist or region, allowed Picasso to draw from a larger, mythic source: the tradition of Grand Master painters in Western art.
detail, Diego Velázquez, Philip IV Hunting Wild Boar (La Tela Real), c. 1632-1637. National Gallery, London. Image: © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY The mousquetaire character was a visual shorthand for the Grand Tradition of European painting, within which Picasso sought to place himself at the end of his life. Having spent the past sixty years building his career as one of the most successful and influential artists of the 20th century, Picasso, aged 86 in 1968, surely knew that his artistic legacy would outlive him. José L. Barrio Garay noted that the Spanish term for musketeer, mosquetero, also refers to the non-paying, standing spectators in Spanish Golden Age theaters.vi Garay observed that it was “as if Picasso were now himself a spectator in his own life and oeuvre, or as if his images had acquired the volition to create their own spectacle in his art…”vii
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Portrait Bust of King Louis XIV, 1665. Palace of Versailles, Versailles. Image: © NPL - DeA Picture Library / Bridgeman Images The bust form of Picasso’s mousquetaire is particularly apt for the role of spectator. Without a body of its own, all the mousquetaire buste can do is sit on its plinth and watch the world go by. This comparison becomes particularly poignant in 1968, a watershed year for social revolutions led by young people, such as the student uprising in Paris in May, which Picasso was sympathetic to. Though Picasso would famously quip that “now that I have arrived at a great age, I might as well be twenty,” he certainly knew himself to be 86, and living in Mougins, hundreds of miles from the action in Paris.
Thus, below the carnival-colored levity of Mosquetaire buste, there is also a sense of frustration, of a past time gone by, of being out of place. The work is ironic, in its caricature of a historical type, but also sincere, in its quotation of past masters such as Rembrandt, and in its longing to participate in the revolution from Mougins.viii In short, the work participates in an artistic legacy greater than Picasso himself.
i Picasso: Mosqueteros, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2009, p. 20.
ii Ibid.; “Box Office Annuel France 1961,” Box Office Story, online.
iii Jaqueline Roque [1976], quoted in Gert Schiff, Picasso: The Last Years, 1963-1973, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1983, p. 31.
iv Picasso: Mosqueteros, 19.
v Gert Schiff, Picasso: The Last Years, 1963-1973, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1983, pp. 36-37.
vi Ibid., 41.
vii José L. Barrio Garay [1970], quoted in Schiff, 41.
viii Pablo Picasso, quoted in Picasso: Mosqueteros, op. cit., p. 245.Provenance
Sala Gaspar, Barcelona
Sotheby's, New York, November 4, 1982, lot 87A
Lucille and Norton Simon, Los Angeles
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
Christie’s, New York, November 1, 2011, lot 62
Martin Lawrence Galleries, San Francisco
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
New York, Van de Weghe Fine Art, Picasso / Basquiat, April 29–May 30, 2012
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso. Œuvres de 1967 et 1968, vol. 27, Paris, 1973, no. 306, p. 198 (illustrated, p. 119)
Artist Biography
Pablo Picasso
Spanish • 1881 - 1973
One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.
Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs.
Property of an Esteemed Private Collector
Ο◆6
Mousquetaire buste
indistinctly signed "Picasso" upper left; dated "25-26.9.68." upper right
oil on panel
36 3/8 x 14 3/8 in. (92.4 x 36.5 cm)
Painted on September 25–26, 1968.
Estimate
$2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Global Managing Director and Specialist, Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1278
ALoiacono@phillips.com
Carolyn Mayer
Associate Specialist, Associate Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1206
CMayer@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 15 November 2022
1
Ilana Savdie
Marimonda Desplegada
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $176,400
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2
Danica Lundy
Miss Fist Kiss
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $189,000
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3
Lauren Quin
Arrow
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $163,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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5
Rashid Johnson
Standing Broken Men
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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6
Pablo Picasso
Mousquetaire buste
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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7
Julie Mehretu
Tsunemasa (next to Kaija)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,386,000
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8
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $41,640,000
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9
René Magritte
Le météore
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,265,000
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10
Amy Sherald
Pilgrimage of the Chameleon
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,087,000
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11
Loie Hollowell
Lick, Lick in Purple, maroon-yellow
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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12
Tom Wesselmann
Mouth #14 (Marilyn)
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,236,500
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13
René Magritte
Le coup de grâce
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,966,000
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14
Anna Weyant
Bum
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $390,600
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15
Mark Bradford
He Barked Just Like a Watchdog
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,870,000
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16
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Circus No. 12 Face 44.30)
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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17
Marc Chagall
Le Père
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $7,404,500
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18
Marlene Dumas
Snow White in the Wrong Story
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,781,000
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19
María Berrío
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $1,603,000
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20
Alex Katz
The Grey Dress
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $2,208,000
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21
Yayoi Kusama
All The Eternal Love
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,966,000
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22
Alexander Calder
Plutôt jaune
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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23
Amy Sherald
Madame Noire
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
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24
Jean-Michel Basquiat
To Repel Ghosts
Estimate $7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for $7,862,500
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25
This lot is no longer available.
26
Yayoi Kusama
Nets Blue
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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27
Lucy Bull
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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28
Willem de Kooning
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,870,000
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29
Milton Avery
Hot Moon
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,208,000
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30
Amoako Boafo
Pink Shorts
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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31
Rashid Johnson
Untitled Anxious Collage
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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32
Joan Mitchell
Cobalt
Estimate $3,000,000 - 4,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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33
Andy Warhol
Oxidation
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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34
Alexander Calder
Petite croix
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Willem de Kooning
Event in a Barn
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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37
Pablo Picasso
Paysage au pin
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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38
Mickalene Thomas
I Can’t See Me Without You
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $441,000
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39
Balthus
La Sieste
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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40
Andy Warhol
Nosepicker I: Why Pick on Me (The Broad Gave Me My Face But I Can Pick My Own Nose)
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $491,400
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41
Andy Warhol
Living Room
Estimate $250,000 - 450,000
Sold for $315,000
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42
Robert Motherwell
Open No. 25: In Blue with Variations
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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43
Luc Tuymans
Absence
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $453,600
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44
Ernie Barnes
Slam Before the Storm
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $604,800
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45
Carmen Herrera
Noche Verde
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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46
Anne Truitt
Autumn Dryad
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $567,000
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