The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 29, 2025

Bottle, Glass, Fork

1911–12
(Spanish, 1881–1973)
Spain, 20th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 92.4 x 75.9 x 8.3 cm (36 3/8 x 29 7/8 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 72 x 52.7 cm (28 3/8 x 20 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1972.8
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Did You Know?

Just before the First World War, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented a radically new kind of painting that dispensed almost completely with visual resemblance to the world, substituting an intellectual method of abstraction that challenged every convention and created a revolutionary conception of space, even a redefinition of reality in art.

Description

This still life depicts a variety of objects found on a café table: a bottle, glass, folded newspaper, and utensils. Intricate in its composition and subtle in palette, this painting exemplifies Analytic Cubism, an artistic style devised by Picasso and Georges Braque between 1908–12 characterized by the fragmentary appearance of multiple, simultaneous viewpoints and overlapping planes. Maintaining a connection to the real world, Picasso inserted letters and numbers with personal and political meanings. The “fe 20” could refer to the word “café” and a street address. “EAN” above [P] ARIS may allude to the newspaper L’Intransigeant founded in 1880 in Paris; but ultimately, the meaning of these fragments remains mysterious and known only to the artist.
  • (Kahnweiler, Paris, France)
    1959
    Carlo Frua de Angeli [1895-1969] Milan, Italy
    1972
    (Galerie Beyerler, Basel, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1972-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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
    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. 94-95, no. 25
    Perl, Jed. Art in America, 1945-1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism. New York, NY : Library of America, 2014. Reproduced: P. 139
    Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p. 85
    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. 113, no. 21
  • Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-12. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (May 29-August 21, 2011); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (organizer) (September 17, 2011-January 9, 2012).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (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).
    Jasper Johns Numbers. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 2003-January 1, 2004); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (February 1-April 18, 2004).
    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 Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-February 1, 1987).
    Picasso. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (co-organizer) (July 27-September 23, 1984); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (October 9-December 2, 1984).
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    Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (May 22-September 16, 1980).
    Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (April 9-May 11, 1975); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (May 26-June 23, 1975); The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (August 4-September 1, 1975).
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
  • {{cite web|title=Bottle, Glass, Fork|url=false|author=Pablo Picasso|year=1911–12|access-date=29 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.8