“If woman was depicted in all her aspects in Picasso’s art, man always appeared in disguise or in a specific role, the painter at work or the musketeer-matador holding the implements of his virility – the long pipe, the dagger, or the sword. In 1966, a new and final character emerged in Picasso’s iconography and dominated his last period to the point of becoming its emblem. This was the Golden Age gentleman, a half-Spanish, half-Dutch musketeer dressed in richly adorned clothing. […] all of these musketeers are men in disguise, romantic gentlemen, virile and arrogant soldiers, vainglorious and ridiculous despite their haughtiness.”
The musketeer is one of the most celebrated subjects within the iconography which filled Picasso’s prolific late body of work. A motif that dates back to mid-1960s when Picasso re-read Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers, the powerful and virile musketeer is reflective of the aging artist’s own vision of himself, whose artistic vigour and prowess remained strong and unwithered in the final years of his life. Executed in bold, gestural brushstrokes, Buste d'homme contains highly-colored, elaborate details in the depiction of the character. Gowned in a glamourous doublet while seated on a throne-like armchair, the musketeer is a character of distinctive Spanish heritage, like Picasso himself, with the use of national colours of blood red and golden yellow. The interlocking profiles of the musketeer evoke the iconic double portrait motif that Picasso invented in his portraits of Dora Maar, but the roots of which ultimately go back to his early Cubist experiments of multiple viewpoints.
迭戈·維拉斯奎，《自畫像》，約1645年。
Appearing as the Spanish version of the seventeenth-century cavalier with his moustache, goatee, long curls and doublet, the character embodied the courtly mannerisms of the Baroque maestros. In the 1960s, Picasso devoted a huge portion of his work to the reinterpretation of the old masters, especially to pay tribute to two artists he had adored throughout his life - Velasquez and Rembrandt. This thematic focus in his final years was a pointed self-affirmation of Picasso’s own place in the revered lineage of the Western canon.
“These are ornamental figures whose garments serve as pretext for a blaze of blood-red and golden yellow, a resurgence of Spanishness, hispanidad.”
1969 was one of the most prolific years for Picasso, as an entire volume of the Zervos catalogue raisonné is dedicated to his output from that year. His work from that year was celebrated with a major exhibition held at the Palais des Papes in Avignon in1970, an important milestone in the final chapter of his life and a test.mes nt to his unending drive for innovation.
Estimate: USD 4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for: USD 4,421,000 Premium (HKD 34,273,360)
Top auction record of the series
畢加索，《拿著煙斗的男子頭像》，1969年，油彩瓦楞紙板，97 x 65 公分.; 38 x 25½ 英寸。紐約，蘇富比，2017年11月4日。
估價：美元 4,000,000 - 6,000,000
售價：美元 4,421,000 含買家佣金 (港元 34,273,360)
本系列最高拍賣紀錄
In early 1969, Picasso began experimenting with the medium of corrugated cardboard and created a series of 39 portraits of the mostly musketeers, including Buste d'homme. Demonstrating the unique texture of the medium, Picasso continued to use corrugated cardboards in 1970 for 10 other portraits of broader themes, including matadors and females. It is a medium that Picasso specifically chose to use for a very limited period. The series of corrugated cardboard portraits created in 1969 to 1970 is seen in numerous important global institutions, including The Israel Museum (Jerusalem), Musée Zervos (Vézelay), Museu Picasso (Barcelona) and Fundación Almine & Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte.
「如果在畢加索的作品中，女性人物被描繪得淋漓盡致，那麼男性人物則總是以偽裝或特定角色出現，或是正在工作的畫家，或是拿著其陽剛之氣象徵的長煙斗、匕首或劍的劍客鬥牛士。在1966年，一個新的最終角色出現在畢加索筆下主題中，並主導了他晚年最後的創作時期，甚至成為其象徵。這是黃金時代的紳士，一個半西班牙、半荷蘭的劍客，穿著華麗裝飾的衣服。[……] 所有這些劍客都是偽裝的男人、浪漫的紳士、陽剛而傲慢的士兵，儘管他們傲慢，卻顯得自負和可笑。」
火槍手是畢加索豐盛的晚期作品中最常見而備受讚譽的創作主題之一。此一主題可追溯到六〇年代中，當時畢加索重新閱讀亞歷山大・仲馬的名作《三個火槍手》，年紀漸長的藝術家特別憧憬强悍而具男子氣概的火槍手形象，並以此自喻，象徵自己在生命的最終章裏，活力與才華依然強勁不衰。
《男子半身像》表現出藝術家大膽而具有表現力的筆觸，對角色的描繪更是包含了色彩明艷、精緻華麗的細節。火槍手身穿血紅色和金黃色的上衣，坐在類似王座的扶手椅上，極具獨特的西班牙民族特徵，同時又呼應著畢加索作爲西班牙畫家的文化底蘊。火槍手的交錯的正面與側面造型，讓人聯想到畢加索在多拉·馬爾肖像中創造的標誌性雙面肖像風格，而其根源更可追溯到其早期立體主義的多重視點實驗性創作。
倫勃朗·凡·萊茵，《自畫像》，1659年。
這位角色以十七世紀西班牙騎士形象亮相，其擁有鬍鬚、山羊鬍、長卷髮和歐式上衣，形象舉止散發著巴洛克大師般的宮廷氣息。六〇年代，畢加索專注於重新詮釋歷代大師的作品，特別向其一生所崇拜的兩位藝術家——維拉斯奎和倫勃朗致敬。畢加索的晚年作品圍繞此創作主題，為自己在西方藝術史的洪流中定位，傳承昔日大師的使命。
「這些衣裝華麗的人物，其服飾襯托出血紅色和金黃色的光芒，象徵著西班牙風格的復興。」
1969年是畢加索最具生產力的年份之一，Zervos作品全集中有一整本專門記載了該年的作品。1970年，畢加索在阿維尼翁的教皇宮舉辦了一場重要的大型近作展覽，這是他生命最後階段的一個重要里程碑，見證了他對於創新的不懈追求。
1969年初，畢加索開始實驗以瓦楞紙作爲媒材，創作了包括本作在内共39幅以火槍手為主題的肖像畫。此系列展示了媒材的獨特質感，而藝術家在翌年也繼續使用瓦楞紙創作了10幅的肖像，主題包括火槍手、鬥牛士和女士。瓦楞紙可謂畢加索在短暫時期裏選用的獨特媒材，罕見而別致。1969至1970年間畢加索所創作的瓦楞紙肖像系列收藏於許多重要的全球機構中，包括以色列博物館（耶路撒冷）、澤爾沃斯博物館（維澤萊）、畢加索博物館（巴塞羅那）和阿爾敏與伯納德畢加索基金會。