Red Guitar is a painting believed to have been created by the renowned artist Pablo Picasso. Its owner affirmed that Red Guitar was a gift from Picasso to Stevan Hazdic, a former Yugoslav army chief who employed Picasso’s brother-in-law. Professor Marica Bakovic at the University of Guelph, in collaboration with scientists and historians at different Canadian institutes, set out to verify this theory and further explore the painting’s origin. Read More
The researchers found historical documents confirming the relationship between Pablo Picasso’s family and the Yugoslav army chief that he supposedly gifted the painting to. Letters between Picasso’s wife Olga and her brother mentioning Stevan Hazdic, along with anecdotes from an autobiographical book written by Aleksandar (Sasha) Deroko, confirmed the relations between Picasso and Hazdic’s family.
Although it did not mention Red Guitar, Deroko’s autobiography alluded to paintings that Picasso had sent to Hazdic. It is unsurprising that there are no records of the painting being owned by Hazdic’s family, as people living in Yugoslavia at the time did not often report valuables gifted to them. A stamp by the Serbian Ministry of Art and Culture at the back of the painting, however, supports beliefs about its origin.
To gain evidence about the painting’s origin, the researchers used advanced scientific techniques to analyse its chemical makeup, and to obtain high-resolution images of the artwork. The products and colour palette used in Red Guitar match those of other artworks by Picasso, containing pigments dominated by zinc, lead, and iron, as well as the red colorant PR4 and nitrocellulose. The team’s results support the hypothesis that Red Guitar is an authentic artwork gifted from Picasso to the Hadzic family as a sign of appreciation for helping his brother-in-law.
Scans collected by the researchers confirmed that Red Guitar is an original painting and not a copy of a painting by Picasso called Blue, as the team found discernible differences in the contours of objects in the two paintings. They also detected artistic changes, suggesting that the artist modified parts of the painting before reaching the final version, further confirming that Red Guitar is not a replica.
By imaging specific areas, the researchers revealed that the artwork is devoted to Picasso’s sister Lola and their father Jose Ruiz Blasco. The text ‘OLE MIA LOLA’ appears in big white letters, and Lola’s full name ‘Dolores’ is discretely written in black. The face of Picasso’s father, with his initials JRB, is above Picasso’s signature. The art contains discrete drawings of the artist, his father and his sister, alongside related words and letters.
In recent analysis of the artist’s earlier work, Bakovic found various consistencies between Red Guitar and other Picasso paintings, including the artist’s signature, letters hinting at the subjects of his paintings, carefully executed details, and similar paint-colour compositions.
Bakovic’s research has uncovered new insights into Picasso’s life, including details about his relationship with Olga’s brother, while also highlighting nuances that characterise his paintings.
