The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented painting in mute blue-greens and browns with radiating geometric shapes depicting highly abstracted items on a table. On a table with a crumpled brown tablecloth sits a melon cut into crescent moon slices. Left of it, an angular brown salt box zig-zags up almost triple its height. Behind the box the blue-green blades of a hand fan flare out, merging with a crumpled grey background.

Fan, Salt Box, Melon

1909

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)
Spain, 20th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 100.3 x 83.5 x 7.3 cm (39 1/2 x 32 7/8 x 2 7/8 in.); Unframed: 81.3 x 64.2 cm (32 x 25 1/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1969.22
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: Zervos II. 189; Daix 314; Minervino 311
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Did You Know?

Picasso's Cubist compositions frequently feature fans.

Description

One of Pablo Picasso’s earliest Cubist paintings, this still life depicts a wooden salt box, a sliced melon in a crystal bowl, and a rumpled cloth resting on the table. A green fan is opened and propped against the wall, where it dissolves into faceted, geometric planes. While some objects are depicted from a frontal view, the table is tilted upright, as if seen from the ceiling, providing multiple simultaneous views of the scene, which became typical of Cubist works of art.
  • 1928
    G. F. Reber [1880 – 1959] Lausanne, Switzerland
    A. von Saher [1890-1996] Amsterdam, Netherlands
    1948
    The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY.
    -1969
    (Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY, 1969, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1969-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 196 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 2 archive.org
    Hennig, Edward B. "Pablo Picasso: Fan, Salt Box, and Melon." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 8 (October 1969): 273-286. Mentioned p. 278-286; Reproduced: cover and p. 273, fig. 1. www.jstor.org
    “Acquisitions by Museums of Works by Picasso: Supplement.” The Burlington Magazine 113, no. 823 (October 1971): 625-633. Mentioned p. 625; Reproduced: p. 627, fig. 72. www.jstor.org
    Minervino, Fiorella. L’Opera Completa Di Picasso Cubista. Milano: Rizzoli, 1972. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 102-103, no. 311
    Henning, Edward B. “Pablo Picasso: Bouteille, Verre, et Fourchette.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 7 (September 1972): 195–203. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 196-197, fig. 6 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 242 archive.org
    Daix, Pierre. Picasso, the Cubist Years, 1907-1916 : A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979. Mentioned and reproduced, p. 249, no. 314.
    Henning, Edward B. “Two New Cubist Paintings by Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 2 (February 1981): 39–50. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 38-39, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    Cooper, Douglas and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism, 1907-1920 : Braque, Picasso & Their Friends. London: Tate Gallery, 1983. Mentioned: p. 248; Reproduced: cat. 119, p. 249
    Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 112, no. 20
    Palau i Fabre, Josep. Picasso Cubism (1907-1917). New York: Rizzoli, 1990. Mentioned and reproduced: p.443-444, fig. 444 (as The Melon)
    Kosinski, Dorothy. "G.F. Reber: collector of Cubism." The Burlington Magazine CXXXIII, no. 1061 (August 1991): 519-531. Mentioned: p. 512 www.jstor.org
    Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Brigitte Léal, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. Picasso and Things: The Still Lifes of Picasso. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 80-81, no. 20
    Adrichem, Jan van. "Collectors of Modern Art in Holland: Picasso as pars pro toto, 1920-40." Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 22, no. 3 (1993-1994): 148-198. Mentioned: p. 153; Reproduced: p. 154 www.jstor.org
    Adrichem, Jan van. De ontvangst van de moderne kunst in Nederland 1910-2000: Picasso als pars pro toto. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Prometheus, 2001. Reproduced: p. 120
    Staller, Natasha. A Sum of Destructions: Picasso's Cultures & the Creation of Cubism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001 Mentioned p.214 and 217; Reproduced p.218, fig. 226
    Read, Peter. Picasso & Apollinaire: the persistence of memory. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008. Reproduced: p. 127, fig. 44
    Mishory, Alec. Still Life: From Represented Objects to Real Objects. Israel: The Open University of Israel, 2009. Reproduced: p. 13, vol. 2
    Lopez, Jonathon. "Hyde in Plain Sight." Art & Antiques (September 2010): 49-50. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 49-50
    Philippot, Emelia. "Cubism." In Picasso and Paper. William H. Robinson, et al., 118-145. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2020. Reproduced: P. 125, cat. no. 100
    Fisher, Frederick J. The Practice Run: How a Failed Art Heist Provided a Blueprint for the World’s Largest Art Robbery. Lanham, [Maryland]: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2025. Mentioned: p. 24
  • Picasso and Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (December 8, 2024-March 23, 2025).
    Path to Abstraction: Picasso, Braque, and Cubism’s Impact on Modern Art - Reciprocal Loan. Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR (organizer) (December 12, 2023-April 14, 2024) https://arkmfa.org/art/exhibitions/path-to-abstraction-picasso-braque-and-cubisms-impact-on-modern-art/.
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
    Picasso und Braque: Die Geburt des Kubismus (Picasso & Braque: Pioneering Cubism). Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland (organizer) (February 25-June 18, 1990).
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    The Essential Cubism. Tate, London SW1P 4RG (organizer) (April 27-July 9, 1983).
    Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (May 22-September 16, 1980).
    Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
  • {{cite web|title=Fan, Salt Box, Melon|url=false|author=Pablo Picasso|year=1909|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.22