polity french third republicconcept:era modern

Ma Jolie

Name: Provenio Provenance Knowledge Graph
License: https://provenio.art/terms

Oil on canvas (1911–1912) by Pablo Picasso, depicting a figure with a guitar or zither in Analytic Cubist fragmentation, to the point of near-abstraction. 'Ma Jolie' appears as stenciled text, quoting a popular song. Held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Scholarly Significance

Canonical example of Analytic Cubism at its most advanced — forms almost completely dissolved into faceted planes.

Notes

·'Ma Jolie' is French for 'my pretty one' — a phrase from the popular song 'Dernière Chanson' (1910), which Picasso used as a pet name for his then-companion Marcelle Humbert.
·The text 'MA JOLIE' appears stenciled at the bottom, a signature device of Analytic Cubism.
·The forms are so fractured that the subject — a seated woman playing an instrument — is barely discernible.
·Braque and Picasso worked in such close formal parallel during 1910–1912 that they signed works on the back only, to prevent attribution confusion.
·Acquired for MoMA through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.