Private Collection, Biarritz
Donna Carmen Pardo, Biarritz
Thence by descent to the present owner

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1920 à 1922, Paris, 1951, vol. 4, no. 212, illustrated p. 72
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. Neoclassicism I 1920-1921, San Francisco, 1995, no. 20-504, illustrated p. 155 
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso. From the Ballets to the Drama, 1917-1926, Cologne, 1999, no. 919, illustrated p. 247

Executed on thick cream wove paper, not laid down, and t-hinged to the mount in two places on the upper edge. The sheet is time-stained and there is a crease which runs diagonally from the left edge towards the lower right edge, visible in the catalogue illustration. There are a further few light creases towards the upper right corner of the sheet, away from the composition. There is a small water mark towards the centre of the right edge and some tape and glue remants to the edges of the verso, due to previous mounting. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: fairly accurate in the printed catalogue.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Picasso's Cubist still lifes are arguably his most inventive and original artistic manifestations. During the first half of the 1920s, Picasso painted in different perspectival manners simultaneously, producing volumetric figure studies and flattened still lifes. In these compositions, Picasso experimented with the deconstruction and reconstruction of form and the manipulation of space, nodding to his previous Cubist explorations at the same time as venturing into a style influenced by Neo-Classical tenets. The present work relates to a series executed by the artist in 1920 which incorporates the table and guitar as a pictorial motif. In Guitare et compotier, Picasso has reduced the forms of the table⛎ and the instrument to black silhouettes outlined against flat planes of colour. The effect of transparency is heightened by the way in which the dotted outlines seem to represent temporary space through which the colour planes appear. With the recognisable shapes of the guitar parts and the varying outlines, Picasso relishes the imaginative interplay of verisimilitude that was a hall🦋mark of the Synthetic style of Cubism.

Discussing Picasso's work from this period, John Richardson suggests that 'the development of this last great period of Synthetic Cubism can easily be followed through the Guéridons – still lifes on a pedestal table [...] which are a recurrent feature [...] No longer did Picasso feel obligated to investigate the intricate formal and spatial problems that preoccupied him ten years before. Instead he felt free to relax and exploit his cubist discoveries in a decorative manner that delights the eye [...] Never again did the artist's style recapture the air of magisterial calm that is such a feature of this last great phase of Cubism' (John Richardson, Picasso, An American Tribute, New York, 1962, p. 52).