| Portrait of Suzanne Bloch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Year | 1904 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Picasso's Blue Period,Post-Impressionism |
| Dimensions | 65 cm × 54[1] cm (25.6 in × 21.3 in) |
| Location | São Paulo Museum of Art,São Paulo |
Portrait of Suzanne Bloch is anoil on canvas painting executed by theSpanish artistPablo Picasso in Paris in 1904, towards the end of hisBlue Period. The subject, Suzanne Bloch, was a singer known for herWagner interpretations, and the sister of the violinist Henri Bloch.[2] The painting is housed in theSão Paulo Museum of Art.
A luminary in the Parisian sets frequented byPicasso at the beginning of the 20th century, Suzanne Bloch was aWagnerian singer and the sister of the violinist Henri Bloch. She was introduced to the Spanish artist by the French poetMax Jacob, in 1904, and she sat for aportrait by Picasso in hisBateau-Lavoir studio at 13 rue Ravignan inParis, between the late spring and early summer of that year.[3] Apen and inksketch heightened withgouache, and signed and dated by Picasso, preceded the oil painting; it is now conserved at the Neubury Coray collection, inAscona,Switzerland.[4]
The portrait inoils has been described by Luiz Marques, professor of art history atUnicamp, as exemplary of "the blue period, to which it fully belongs."[2] It has been called the last important work of the blue period,[5] although Palau i Fabre says that it is "difficult to date and determine the stage of transition from one period to the other—which in any case was not a sudden shift but a gently nuanced, though intermittent, progress".[6] In a similar vein, Denys Chevalier has written: "Any attempt... to date the blue period too precisely can only lead to errors".[7]
The painting, fully imbued with a somber, melancholy aura, is rendered inmonochromatic shades, varying fromblue toblue-green, with the sporadic presence of warmer tones. Nevertheless, it is possible to notice that the painting already announces some characteristics of a future transition in the Spanish painter's pictorial style, foreshadowingCubism. In the words of Camesasca, quoted by Marques: "[…] this portrait is marked by the emergence of a reflection about the plastic-chromatic structure of Cézanne’s works, in the scope of a 'post-impressionism, already absorbed in the problems which will make the art explode."[2][4]
The painting belonged to Suzanne Bloch, and was sold by her heirs after her death. TheThannhauser Gallery, Munich, sold the paintingc. 1916 to Sally Falk, Mannheim, but his collection was already dispersed in 1919, under the supervision of the Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, and Picasso'sLady without hat, blue portrait was acquired byMechthild Princess Lichnowsky,[8] who kept it at her private collection inLondon. From the English capital, the painting went toLugano, inSwitzerland, where it was held in the private collection of the Biber family. The painting remained on deposit at theNational Gallery of Art, inWashington between 1942 and 1946. In the following year, it was acquired by theSão Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), with financial resources donated byWalter Moreira Salles, founder ofUnibanco.[2]
On 20 December 2007, the painting was stolen from theSão Paulo Museum of Art. Around five o'clock in the morning, three men broke into the museum and stole Picasso'sPortrait of Suzanne Bloch andCandido Portinari'sO lavrador de café from the museum collection; the perpetrators were able to carry out the robbery in just three minutes,[9] using a hydraulic jack and a crowbar.[10] The estimated value of both artworks combined was US$55 million, with the portrait alone valued at US$50 million.[5]
The paintings, which are listed as part of the Brazilian National Heritage by IPHAN,[11] remained missing until 8 January 2008, when they were recovered inFerraz de Vasconcelos by thePolice of São Paulo, who also arrested two suspects.[12] The paintings were returned, undamaged, to the São Paulo Museum of Art.[5][13] The incident was described as "a major embarrassment"[12] for the museum, which was not only forced to admit that they "had no alarm system and no sensors",[10] but that its entire collection "was not insured".[10]
The painting was exhibited at theThannhauser Gallery inBerlin (1913); at theMuseo Nacional de Bellas Artes inBuenos Aires (1939); at theM. H. de Young Memorial Museum inSan Francisco (1940); at the famous exhibitionFrom Cézanne to Picasso, inLos Angeles (1941); at the exhibitionA Nova Pintura Francesa, inRio de Janeiro (1949); at theMuseu Picasso inBarcelona and at the Kunstmuseum inBern, both in 1992; and at the Picasso retrospective, at theMusée Picasso, inParis, carried out in 1994.[2]