Las Meninas (Picasso)

Las Meninas is a series of 58 paintings that Pablo Picasso painted in 1957 by performing a comprehensive analysis, reinterpreting and recreating several times Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. The suite is fully preserved at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and is the only complete series of the artist that remains together. This is a very extensive survey work, which consists of 45 performances of the original picture, 9 scenes of a dove, 3 landscapes and a portrait of Jacqueline.

Picasso himself understood this series as a whole, and as such gave them to the museum in Barcelona in May 1968, in memory of Jaume Sabartés, who died the same year. Picasso's famous phrase said to Sabartés in 1950:

If someone want to copy Las Meninas, entirely in good faith, for example, upon reaching a certain point and if that ona was me, I would say..what if you put them a little more to the right or left? I'll try to do it my way, forgetting about Velázquez. The test would surely bring me to modify or change the light because of having changed the position of a character. So, little by little, that would be a detestable Meninas for a traditional painter, but would be my Meninas.

Exhibits


The Suite has been shown in the following exhibitions:
 * 1959 - Les Menines, Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.
 * 1960 - Picasso, Tate Gallery, London.
 * 1964 - Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan.
 * 1964 - Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan.
 * 1964 - Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964, Nagoya City Art Museum, Japan.
 * 1966 - 1967 - Hommage à Pablo Picasso, Grand Palais, Paris.
 * 1967 - Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
 * 1968 - Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
 * 2008 - Forgetting Velázquez: Between 16 May and 28 September 2008, an exhibition at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, which explains the influence of Velázquez and Picasso's work in other contemporary artists, having as central to Las Meninas.The exhibition, divided into two sections, we could see one side works of the seventeenth century Spanish painters such as Velázquez, Juan Carreño de Miranda or Juan Bautista del Mazo, and some of the Las Meninas by Picasso next to more contemporary productions, with works by artists such as Francisco Goya, Michael Craig-Martin, Josep Maria Sert, Richard Hamilton or Thomas Struth, among others. It was curated by Gertje Utley and Malén Gual.

However, there are several works from theSuitethat have been part of other exhibitions. Here you will find the most relevant:


 * 1980 - Picasso: A Retrospective, MoMA, Nova York.
 * 1981 - Picasso 1881-1973. Exposición Antológica, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid.
 * 1985 - La peinture après 1940. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
 * 1988 - Picasso in the Soviet Union. Pushkin Museum, Moscou
 * 2006 - Picasso. Tradición y vanguardia. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
 * 2008 - Picasso et les Maîtres. Grand Palais, Paris
 * 2009 - Picasso: Challenging the past. National Gallery of London
 * 2010 - Picasso: Peace and Freedom. Tate Liverpool

Other versions
Velázquez's Las Meninas have served as inspiration not only to Picasso. The first follower of Velazquez was certainly his son-in-law Juan Bautista del Mazo, court painter to Philip IVin 1661. In the portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Spain, 1666, in the backplane, man can see the placement of Charles II and the dwarf Mari Bárbola in a scene similar to Las Meninas by Velazquez. There is a list of some works of artists who also have versioned Las Meninas throughout art history.


 * Claudio Bravo, La vista
 * Herman Braun-Vega :
 * Velázquez mis à nu accompagné des menines (1968), Museum of Antioquia
 * Velásquez Going to His Easel (From the series Velázquez Stripped Bare) (1968), Blanton Museum of Art
 * Les invités sur l'herbe d'après Vélasquez, Manet et Picasso (1970), Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
 * ¡Caramba! (Cézanne, Goya, Ingres, Matisse, Picasso, Rembrandt, Vélasquez) (1983), private collection
 * Il est interdit de s’arrêter (Velazquez) (1984), private collection
 * Hotel du Sud (Vélasquez, Ingres, Manet et Matisse) (1985), private collection
 * Dual insight into the West (Velazquez and Picasso) (1987), private collection
 * La familia Informal (Vélasquez, Goya, Picasso) (1992), Ralli Museum (Marbella)
 * Concierto en el mercado (Vélasquez) (1997), private collection
 * Juan Pareja revisiting Picasso Meninas (Velazquez) (2000), private collection
 * Louis Cane, Meninas squatting (1982), private collection
 * Philippe Comar, Las Meninas (1978), Centre Georges Pompidou
 * Equipo Crónica, El recinte (1971), private collection
 * Salvador Dalí, Velázquez pintant la infanta Margarida amb les llums i les ombres de la seva pròpia glòria (1958), Salvador Dalí Museum
 * Edgar Degas, Variation on Velázquez's Las Meninas (1857), Neue Pinakothek
 * Antonio de Felipe, In-Fanta de llimona II (1992), Iria Souto Catoira collection
 * Luca Giordano, Hommage to Velázquez (National Gallery of London
 * Alberto Gironella, Cambra Oscura (1975), private collection
 * Francisco de Goya, Las Meninas (1780–85) Biblioteca Nacional de España
 * Richard Hamilton, Interior II (1964) Tate
 * Richard Hamilton, Las Meninas of Picasso (1973) Tate
 * Yasumasa Morimura, Daughter of Art History (Princess A), private collection
 * Vik Muniz, Las Meninas by Velazquez (the chocolate paintings)(2002)
 * Jorge Oteiza, Hommage to Las Meninas (1958), Fundació Juan March
 * Giulio Paolini, Contemplator Enim VI (fuori l'autore) (1991)
 * Antonio Saura, Infanta i Saba (1962)
 * Josep Maria Sert, Figurí per a Las Meninas (1916), Fundación Juan March
 * Soledad Sevilla, Las Meninas Núm. IX (1981-1983)
 * John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 * Thomas Struth, Museo del Prado 6 (2005), private collection
 * Franz von Stuck, Family group (1909), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
 * Eve Sussman, 89 segons at the Alcázar (2004), private collection
 * Manolo Valdés, Reina Marianna (1989), private collection
 * Jeff Wall, Picture for Women (1979), Centre Georges Pompidou
 * James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Whistler in his studio (1865)
 * Joel-Peter Witkin, Las Meninas. New Mexico (1987)