La guitare - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

Back

Information

Artist

Pablo Picasso

1881
Málaga, Spanien

1973
Mougins, Frankreich

Work data

Material/Technique

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Image: 116,5 x 81 x 2,5 cm
Frame: 135,5 x 100 x 7,5 cm

Signature

Bez. u.M.: "Picasso"

Accession Number

0179

Catalogue Raisonné

Zervos 2/442

Acquisition year

1970

Provenance

Little is known about the whereabouts of Pablo Picasso’s painting “La guitare” after its creation in 1913. Owned by the collector and artist Méric Callery, who was a friend of Picasso, the work can only be traced from 1942 to 1945. In 1945, Curt Valentin exhibited it at the Buchholz Gallery as part of a private collection, which was presumably Callery’s own. From 1948 to 1962, the work can be found in a private collection. After that, its trace is lost for almost ten years. At the end of 1970, the New York gallery M. Knoedler & Co. and the Parisian gallery Berggruen & Cie. jointly offered the work for sale to the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and sent it to Düsseldorf for viewing. A few months later, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen finally purchased the painting “La guitare” for its holdings.

Between 2009 and 2012, several freelance provenance researchers examined the origins (provenance) of all works in the collection of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen as part of a comprehensive research project funded by the German Lost Art Foundation. The focus was on all works created before 1945. For the painting “La guitare,” the ownership history during the National Socialist period (1933–1945) could not be fully clarified. For this reason, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen commissioned a more in-depth investigation into the history of this work in 2025.

If you have any questions or information regarding this work, please contact us:
Dr. Vivien Trommer
Head of Collection
trommer@kunstsammlung.de

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions

Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Masterpieces of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Meisterwerke der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 17.10.2008-30.5.2009, Nagoya City Art Museum, Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe
Die Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen zu Gast in Gottorf. Picasso, Klee, Beckmann, Matisse und weitere Künstler in Schloß Gottorf, 18.7.-24.10.2009, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig
Silent Revolution - Eine neue Sammlungspräsentation, 26.2.-12.6.2010, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf
Georges Braque 1906 - 1914. Erfinder des Kubismus/Inventor of Cubism, 24.9.2021-22.1.2022, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)