84mm La Famille Soler by Picasso, 1903, 150cm x 200cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège, Belgium.

REDISCOVERY OF 'LA FAMILLE SOLER' BY PICASSO THROUGH PORTABLE ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENTATION

C.DEFEYT*1, B. VEKEMANS2, P. VANDENABEELE2, H. ROUSSELIÈRE3, L. SAMAIN1, P. WALTER3, D. STRIVAY1

1UNIVERSITY OF LIÈGE, BELGIUM, 2UNIVERSITY OF GHENT, BELGIUM, 3PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE UNIVERSITY, FRANCE

*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: CATHERINE.DEFEYT@ULG.AC.BE

A MULTI-TRANSFORMED PAINTING

La Famille Soler (Fig. 2) painted in 1903 is considered as the earliest Picasso’s version of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe made by Manet. With the masterpiece La Vie, it is the only large format painting from the 1903-1904 Blue Period (1). Actually, La famille Soler corresponds to the central part of a domestic triptych ordered by Benet Soler, a tailor established in Barcelona. From 1903 to 1913, La famille Soler was modified three times. A few months after the triptych delivery, Soler asked the Catalan painter S. Junyer-Vidal (Fig. 8), Picasso’s friend to transform the uniform blue background from the central part (2). Ten years later, the Parisian artworks dealer, D. H. Kanhweiler, bought the central part to the tailor in order to sell it in Paris. Picasso took the opportunity to re-work on his painting. Before applying the current uniform blue background over the Vidal’s work, Picasso attempted an unknown composition (3).

AsCu Zn HgRadioIR

IN SITU ANALYTICAL STUDY

• IR reflectography and X-ray radiography techniques were applied for revealing both hidden compositions

• XRF mappings, FTIR, XRD and Raman measurements were undertaken for the pigment identification.

AsCu

Cd Pb

IR

Radio

NEW INSIGHTS

• Junyer-Vidal’s composition- As it can be seen by comparing Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, it was a landscape, probably inspired

by Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Manet, then, connected to the Picasso’s artistic intend.- The used palette contains Cd yellow, Vermillion, zinc and lead whites, Scheele’s green,

Viridian and iron oxides

• 1913 Picasso’s composition- It was a cubist sketch that could correspond to a partial transformation of the Vidal’s

landscape in the synthetic cubist style, see Fig. 4 and Fig. 5- The used palette contains Cd yellow, lead white, Scheele’s green and Ultramarine

CONCLUSIONS

• The composition painted by Junyer-Vidal was certainly inspired from Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe by Manet. This assumption is reinforced by the complicity existing between Picasso and Junyer-Vidal in 1903.

• The cubist sketch made by Picasso in 1913 is connected to the Vidal’s landscape and is in accordance with the synthetic cubism of the early 1910’s

• The palette used by Picasso in 1903 and 1913 and the one used by Vidal are very similar

Fig. 7 Cu, As, Cd and Pb XRF mappings obtained for zone 1 (140mm x 114mm) show the cubist strokes visible in

IR reflectography and X-ray radiography

Current background - 1913

Cubist sketch - 1913

Vidal’s wood - 1903

Original background - 1903

Underdrawing - 1903

Priming layer - 1903

Original canvas - 1903

Lining canvas - prior 1913

Fig. 4 Schematic drawing of Vidal’s composition (1903) revealed by IR reflectography and X-ray radiography. The tree positions as

well as the skyline remind Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Manet

Fig. 5 Schematic drawing of Picasso’s sketch (1913) revealed by IR reflectography and X-ray radiography. The line positions suggest a partial

transformation of Vidal’s landscape in the synthetic cubist style

Fig. 1 Black and white studio-made picture of the Soler’s family, 1903, private collection. Picasso used this picture to

paint La famille Soler (4).

RESEARCH ON THE LOST COMPOSITIONS

• Study of the composition painted by Junyer-Vidal in 1903, hidden by the 1913 Picasso’s composition and the current background, and characterization of the palette used to make it

• Study of the 1913 Picasso’s composition lying beneath the current background, and characterization of the palette used to make it

Fig. 6 Cu, Zn, As and Hg XRF mappings obtained for zone 2 (84mm x 204mm) show the Vidal’s trees visible in

IR reflectography and X-ray radiography

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References

[1] Palau I Fabre Josep. Picasso en Catalogne. Société française du livre, Paris, 1979[2] J. Richardson. Vie de Picasso, vol1, 1881-1906. Musée Picasso, Paris, 1992[3] F. Dumont. Catalogue de l’exposition Pablo Picasso, Liège, salle Saint- Georges, du 6 octobre 2000 au 31 janvier 2001. Ville de Liège, Liège, 2001[4] A. Baldassari. Picasso photographe 1901-1916. Éditions du Chêne, Paris, 1994[5] F.M. Smith and J.D. Easton, J Oil Col Chem Assoc 49 (1966) 614-630.[6] F.H. Moser, L.T. Arthur, Phthalocyanine Compounds. Reinhold, New York 1963

Stratigraphy of the background from La Famille Soler.

Fig. 8 Portrait of Sebastià Junyer i Vidal by Picasso, ca 1902, Museu

Picasso, Barcelona

Fig. 3 Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe by Manet,1863,208cm x 264cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Fig. 2 La Famille Soler by Picasso, 1903, 150cm x 200cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège, Belgium. XRF mappings recorded for the zones 1

and 2 framed in white, are given in Fig. 6 and 7