Au Lapin Agile

Pablo Picasso, 1905

Technical Details

About This Work

At the Lapin Agile is set in the Montmartre cabaret of its title and shows Picasso dressed as a Harlequin beside his recent lover, Germaine Pichot. In the back of the painting, Frédé Gérard plays guitar. The 99.1 × 100.3 cm oil on canvas stages the figures as participants in a deliberately theatrical interior, where costume, music, and the cabaret setting make performance part of the image’s subject. The painting’s warmer Rose Period palette deepens the contrast between intimate companionship and public display.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art records that Frédé Gérard commissioned the painting for Le Lapin Agile, where it was the only Picasso work on permanent view in Paris from 1905 until 1912. The Met also identifies Germaine Pichot and notes the personal history surrounding Picasso’s friend Casagemas. These documented details make the painting a more specific record of early bohemian Paris than the often repeated story that it was simply exchanged for drinks. The work entered the Met through the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection.

Current Location

Valuation & Provenance

Keywords