Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1939)

Erwin Swann, New York

Private Collection

New York, Perls Galleries, Picasso Before 1910, 1939, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue (titled l'Hotel de l'Ouest)

New York, Columbia University, on temporary loan

Portland, Portland Art Museum; New York, Gallery of Modern Art; Seattle, Seattle Art Museum; Salt Lake, Salt Lake Art Museum; Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art; Michigan, University of Michigan Museum of Art & Dayton, Dayton Art Institute, Paintings and Drawings of Caroline and Erwin Swann, 1964, no. 61, illustrated in the catalogue (titled L'Hôtel de l'ouest, chambre 22)

New York, Pace Wildenstein, Picasso and Drawing, 1995, no. 2, illustrated in co🅠l🌊or in the catalogue

Bogotá, Museo Nacional de Colombia, Picasso en Bogotá, 2000,🦹 no. 9🌌, illustrated in color in the catalogue

 

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Supplément aux volumes 1 à 5, vol. 6, Paris, 1954, noꦍ. 616, illustrated pl. 75

Pierre Daix & Georges Boudaille, Picasso, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1900-1906, Paris, 1966, no. XI 14, illustrated p. 250

Alberto Moravia & Paolo Lecaldano, L'Opera completa di Picasso, blu e rosa, Milan, 1968, no. 148, illustrated p. 98

Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso, The Early Years 1881-1907, Barcelona, 1985, no. 1009, illustrated p. 393

Phyllis Tuchman, "Picasso's Sentinel," Art in America, LXXXVI, no. 2, February 1998, p. 115

The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Blue Period - 1902-1904, San Francisc𓆉o, 2011, no. 1904-085, illustra𓆏ted p. 214

This work is in good condition. Executed on buff colored wove paper affixed to a mat at center of left and right edges and at top corners. Some minor repaired tears at extreme edges, at the lower left corner, center of the top edge, and upper right corner. Sheet is slightly time darkened. The stippling throughout the sheet is likely a result of the aging process of the medium.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the summer of 1904, Picasso received a commission from Gustave Coquiot to design posters for a new theatrical production, entitled Saint-Roulette that Coquiot had co-authored with Jean Lorrain, a rather scandalous Parisian novelist, and poet. Picasso had known Coquiot at least since 1901, when he had written t💛he catalogue for the 1901 Vollard show of works by Picasso and another Spanish artist, Francisco Iturrino. Picasso painted Coquiot's portrait twice during 1901. In one, he is depicted sitting in three-quarters length, his face harshly illuminate🌃d, dancing girls and a crowd visible in the background. In the other portrait he sits in a green chair, the wall behind him overflowing with artwork, paintings piled and leaning on the wall to his right and left.

Coquiot would later be one of the first critics, if not the first, to coin the terms "blue period" and "rose period" in reference to Picasso's work during the first decade of the twentieth century. These terms, now so well known, appeared in an article about Picasso that Coquiot wrote in 1914, which discussed Picasso's fame and importance as a Cubist painter: "He breaks new ground with the "blue period." Works of that time are now much sought after by collectors.... It is the skeletal period of famished couples, transfixed before a glass of absinthe.... Then comes the "rose period" and we are graced with some exceptional portraits.... He keeps attempting the impossible, and he goes down each and every road" (Gustave Coquiot as quoted in Marilyn McCully, ed., Picasso, The Early Years 1892-1906, (exhibition catalogue), National 💧Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997, pp. 146-147).

L'Étrangleur was created as Picasso left his blue period and entered his rose period. The figures in this composition – the victim, the strangler, and the two accomplices, all stand at the front of the picture plane, their gazes, except for that of the victim, center on the victim's face. In the final version of the poster (fig. 1), the figures have rotated away from the viewer and a fireplace with decorative elements has appeared in the background at left. The title of the production and of the theater have been added at top and bottom; the palette has become darker. In L'Etrangleur thꦗe faces are full of emotion - surprise, ferocity, anger𝔍. The dynamism and expectations of the melodrama that this work would have at one point advertised are clearly expressed.