The Bruce Museum Shows "Pablo Picasso's Vollard Suite ~ The Sculptor’s Studio"

Written by Onslow Bresslaw Thursday, 01 September 2011 22:52

Greenwich, CT.- The Bruce Museum is proud to present "Picasso’s Vollard Suite: The Sculptor’s Studio" on view until October 16th. In 1932, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) purchased the château Boisgeloup in Normandy, where he set himself up with a fully appointed studio for sculpture, a medium to which he would devote himself in the years to come. The excitement of working in the three-dimensional art form, which had always been subsidiary to pictorial art for Picasso, inspired one of the great series of modern prints, “The Sculptor’s Studio,” forty-six etchings made over the course of a year, from spring 1933 to spring 1934. Rendered in the purified linear style that he first began to exploit during the First World War, these extraordinary images bring the classical world of the artist-and-model, as Picasso imagined it, fully to life.

This exhibition features key images of The Sculptor’s Studio etchings from the group of 100 prints he made for the legendary art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. These superb works from the Vollard Suite demonstrate Picasso’s ability to please and astonish with equal intensity. The Vollard Suite collection traces the erotic and passionate love affair between Pablo Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter, his model, and mistress. She captivated him and was the object of his "amour fou" or "mad love." Pablo Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter met in 1927 and she soon became his inspiration for the Vollard Suite. Described as his "eternal" love, she was enraptured by Pablo Picasso. At their first meeting Pablo Picasso took her arm and stated; "I'm Picasso! You and I are going to do great things."


The Vollard Suite is composed of several thematic groupings. The complete collection is united by the powerful themes of tenderness, love and violent sexuality. The main groupings include: "The Battle of Love," "Rembrandt," "The Sculptor's Studio," "The Minotaur" and "The Blind Minotaur," and three portraits of Ambroise Vollard. The whole Suite is given coherence by two groups, "The Sculptor's Studio" and "The Minotaur." These groups highlight Pablo Picasso's relationship with Walter and his work as a sculptor, and follow Pablo Picasso as he separates from Walter and moves on to a new love affair with Dora Maar. The stirring tale ends here. "It stops with Picasso's tragic awareness that he must acknowledge Marie-Therese's role in freeing him from the destructive relationship with Olga, his wife," explains Bell. Ambroise Vollard helped launch the careers of such respected artists as Pierre Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne.

Ambroise Vollard was a respected Paris picture dealer and publisher of limited-edition books, lithographs & etchings. Ambroise Vollard's gallery was known as the centre for leading art figures in Paris and helped stimulate a new movement in art. In 1901, Ambroise Vollard's gallery hosted Pablo Picasso's first Paris exhibition. Vollard eventually made the transition from art dealer to publisher. He began to purchase Pablo Picasso's etching plates in 1913. Later, in 1937, Pablo Picasso and Ambroise Vollard made a valuable trade. In exchange for some paintings he wanted, Pablo Picasso gave Vollard 97 copper plates of his work dating from 1930 to 1936. Pablo Picasso also offered to sketch Ambroise Vollard's portrait each time he visited. Vollard was killed in a car accident in 1939 and only three portraits were ever completed. The resulting Vollard Suite did not become available for sale until 1950. Roger Lacouriere was the printer who released the limited edition of 303 folio book prints.


The Bruce Museum was originally built as a private home in 1853 for lawyer, clergyman and historian Francis Lister Hawks. Robert Moffat Bruce (1822-1908), a wealthy textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange, bought the house and property in 1858. In 1908, Robert Moffat Bruce deeded his property to the Town of Greenwich, stipulating that it be used as “a natural history, historical, and art museum for the use and benefit of the public." The first exhibition ever at the Bruce Museum took place in 1912 and featured works by local artists known as the Greenwich Society of Artists, several of whom were members of the Cos Cob Art Colony. The Museum served as home base for the Greenwich Society of Artists hosting its Annual Exhibition from 1912 through 1926. The Cos Cob School is now well established as an important part of the history of American painting, and it forms the nucleus of the Museum's holdings of painting, watercolors, sketchbooks, and notebooks by such artists as Leonard and Mina Ochtman, George Wharton Edwards, and Hobart Jacobs. Over the years, the community, through its generosity, has built the Museum collection to nearly 15,000 objects representing the arts and sciences. Paralleling an interest in Connecticut painters and their paintings, early directors of the Bruce Museum, such as Ray Owens, Paul Howes, and Jack Clark, pursued the development of the natural sciences, building particular strengths in the mineral and avian collections. In 1992, the Bruce Museum undertook a complete renovation of its 139-year-old building. Reopened in September 1993, the redesigned Bruce is an architectural model of museum quality. In 1998 the Bruce Museum received accreditation from the American Association of Museums, an honor granted to fewer than 5% of all museums. Sitting high on a hill overlooking Greenwich Harbor, the Bruce Museum offers a changing array of exhibitions and educational programs that promote the understanding and appreciation of art and science. The Bruce Museum has been voted the best museum in Fairfield County for the past five years, a recognition of its growing popularity and efforts to consistently address new subjects of remarkable beauty or great interest with new insights, The Bruce plays an integral role in the cultural life of area residents and attracts approximately 100,000 visitors annually, reaching out to families, seniors, students, the handicapped, at-risk children, and community organizations. The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, presents more than a dozen new exhibitions in art and science every year. Visit the museum's website at ... http://brucemuseum.org

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