Picasso's 'Two Views of a Left Eye' of 1892-93: A Recent DiscoveryAuthor(s): Joan P. UraneckSource: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 145, No. 1205 (Aug., 2003), pp. 585-587Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20073169 .Accessed: 29/03/2011 17:00

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Picasso's 'Two views of a left eye'

of 1892?93: a recent discovery

by JOAN P. URANECK, Maine College of Art, Portland

pablo Picasso spent five and a half years as a student studying at

three different art schools. Before going to the Barcelona School of Fine Arts (1895-97) and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de

San Fernando in Madrid (1897-98), at the age of eleven he

was enrolled at the Instituto da Guarda in La Corana, where he

studied for three years.1 It was here that he made the academic

drawing Two views of a left eye (1892-93; Fig.47) which, as I have

discovered, was copied from Study of eyes (Fig.48), plate three of Cours praeparatoire, a French drawing manual published in 1864 by

Bernard-Romain Julien.2

Picasso's father, Jos? Ruiz Blasco, moved with his family to La

Corana in 1891 when he was hired as a drawing instructor at the

Instituto da Guarda. Picasso, only ten years of age, was not old

enough to be enrolled in the art school until the following year when, just before his eleventh birthday, he was accepted in his

father's class.3 Two views of a

left eye is one of seven extant drawings

from that first year, executed under Jos? Ruiz's tuition.4 All are

signed 'Pablo Ruiz Picasso', with his class enrolment number, 88,

neatly placed beneath.5 Four of the drawings are copied from two other French drawing manuals, Cours de dessin (1869) and

Exercises au fusain (1871), both by Charles Bargue.6 The practice of

copying from two-dimensional examples, called drawing from the

'flat',7 had been a common procedure in training artists, both in

the workshop and in the academy, since the seventeenth century,

when drawing manuals became popular.8 Drawing from the 'flat'

was usually introduced in the first year of schooling before the student passed on to drawing from plaster casts.9

Drawing books were somewhat out of fashion and not much

used in France in private ateliers, such as Carolus-Duran's, or in

independent art schools, such as the Acad?mie Julian.10 Bernard

Romain Julien's Cours praeparatoire was a new type of manual

called a cours de dessin, developed in the nineteenth century to

teach students how to draw the human figure.11 The term cours de

47- Two views of a left eye, by Pablo Picasso. 1892-93. Cont? pencil on paper, 23-7 by 31-5 cm. (Museo Picasso, M?laga).

48. Study of eyes (plate 3 of Cours praeparatoire), by Bernard-Romain Julien. 1864. Lithograph, 36 by 157 cm. (National Art Library, Victoria and

Albert Museum, London).

I wish to thank the National Endowment of the Arts for two research stipends to

study the history of drawing books, and Charles E. Pierce Jr, Anne F?bregas and

Susan Waller. 1 For information on Picasso's student years, see J. Palau I Fabre: Picasso: Life and

Work of the Early Years, 1881-1907, New York 1981, pp.38-142; J. Richardson with

M. McCully: A Ufe of Picasso, 1881-1906, London and New York 1991, I,

pp.37?69; L. Bagunya: 'Picasso's Formal Training and Apprenticeship: Malaga

1890?1891', in M.T. Ocana, ed.: Picasso: The Development of a Genius, 1890?1904, Barcelona 1997, pp.47-57; N. Stallen 'Gods of Art: Picasso's Academic Education

and its Legacy', in M. McCully, ed.: exh. cat. Picasso: The Early Years 1892?1906,

Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1997, pp.67-85; and E. Cowling: Picasso:

Style and Meaning, London 2002, pp. 3 2-5 8. 2 A copy of the 1864 Cours praeparatoire by B.-R. Julien is in the National Art

Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 3 Richardson, op. cit. (note 1), p.45. 4 Palau I Fabre, op. cit. (note 1), p.42. The seven academic drawings are: Acanthus

leaves, 1892-93 (Museu Picasso, Barcelona); Study for the right profile of an old man,

1892?93 (private collection); Study for the right profile of a man, 1892?93 (private col

lection); Two views of a left eye, 1892?93 (Museo Picasso, M?laga); Torso, 1892?93

(Mus?e Picasso, Paris); Torso Belvedere, 1892-93 (Museu Picasso, Barcelona), and

Man seated with his face in his hands, 1893 (Heirs of the artist). 5 Ibid. 6 Three drawings are copied from C. Bargue: Cours de dessin, Paris 1869: Double

study of a bearded man in profile, 1892-93, is copied from plate 3; Torso, 1892-93, is

copied from plate 56; and Torso Belvedere, 1892-93, from plate 63. One drawing, Seated man with head in hands, 1892-93, is copied from plate 39 of Exercises au fusain,

Bargue's volume of 1871. For an account of these first-year drawings, see Staller,

op. cit. (note 1), pp.72?73 and notes 39 and 41. See also I. Lavin: Past and Present.

Essays on Historicism in Art from Donatello to Picasso, Berkeley 1993, pp.257?58. 7 A. Boime: exh. cat. Strictly Academic: Life Drawing in the Nineteenth Century,

Binghamton, NY (University Art Gallery) 1974, p.9. 8 A. Boime: The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, New

Haven and London 1971, pp.24-27. 9 Ibid., p.27 10 See B. Weinberg: The Lure of Paris: 19th-century American painters and their French

Teachers, New York 1991, pp. 189-219 and 221-62. 11 D. Harl?: 'Les cours de dessin grav?s et lithographis du XIX si?cle', Ph.D. diss.

(University of Paris, 1975), p.2.

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE CXLV AUGUST 2003 5^5

PICASSO'S 'TWO VIEWS OF A LEFT EYE'

49. Features of the Pythian Apollo from Les Proportions des corps humain, by Gerard Audran. 1683. Engraving, 18 by 29 cm. (Biblioth?que Nationale, Paris).

dessin, used first by Pierre Lacour in 1826 in his book, Cours com

plet de dessin - Depuis les ?l?ments les plus simple jusqu'aux figures acad?miques, implied that there was a series of lessons through

which the student progressed rather than simply copying a collec tion of images.12 The cours de dessin became popular in France in

the nineteenth century for the teaching of beginners, particularly young students in lyc?es or those preparing to enter the grands ?coles.1* Julien was among the leading authors of cours de dessin

manuals along with G?od?on Fran?ois Reverdin, Henri Guil laume Chatiilon, Josephine Ducollet and Charles Bargue.14

The cours de dessin was modelled after earlier drawing manuals such as Gerard Audran's Les Proportions des corps humain of 1683

(Fig.49), in which the figure was broken down into parts starting with the components of the face, such as the eye. Students copied from the examples, called mod?les de dessin, which were available as

engravings until the nineteenth century and largely as lithographs after 1825.15 The mod?les de dessin, which served as guides to intro

duce beginners to the practice of drawing, were arranged in a

sequential manner and after the parts were mastered, the student

combined them together to form the whole figure. Art historians have often confused Picasso's drawings from the 'flat' with draw

ings after plaster casts, which is easy to do because many of the

mod?les de dessin, such as Julien's Study of eyes, were based on

unidentified antique statuary.16 The case of Two views of a left eye is a perfect example of the confusion that surrounds Picasso's draw

ings because, like the other academic studies from his first year at La Corana, it was believed by some scholars to have been copied

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from a plaster model when, in fact, it is an exact copy of Julien's

Study of eyes.17

The nineteenth-century cours de dessin was distinguished from earlier drawing manuals by its new large size (65 by 50 cm.), its

portfolio format and its loose moveable pages, called pages volantes which could be removed from the portfolio and used individual

ly by the instructor or the student.18 Julien's Cours praeparatoire measures 36 by 157 cm. and includes eighty-four plates. A popu

lar practice for the new student was to tack one of the pages volantes

next to their paper on the drawing board.

Julien's Cours praeparatoire, suivant le programme adoptae par le

Gouvernement pour Venseignment du dessin dans les lycaees. Collection

de nouveaux Modaeles aelementaires, dessinaes d'apr?s VAntique et

Autographer par J., as the full tide informs us, was a cours de dessin first published in Paris in 1857. It was re-issued in 1864 after the

sweeping educational reforms initiated by the French government in the previous year.19 These called for a

complete overhaul in the

teaching of art, a re-organisation in the instruction of drawing and

a higher quality of drawing manuals, especially the improved mod?les de dessin, such as Julien's.20 Bernard-Romain Julien (1802?

71), a painter, draughtsman and lithographer, who had studied under Gros and lived in Paris, exhibited from 1833 to 1850 at the

12 Ibid., pp.13?15.

'3 Ibid., p.2. 14 Ibid., p.17.

^ Ibid., p.2. 16

Aid., p.42. 17 Palau I Fabre, op. cit. (note 1), p.42. 18

Harl?, op. cit. (note 11), p.17. 19 See A. Boime: 'The Teaching Reforms of 1863 and the Origins of Modernism

in France', Art Quarterly 1 (1977), pp. 1-39; see also G. Ackerman: 'The Bargue G?r?me Cours de dessin: Goupil & Cie attacks a national problem', in exh. cat.

G?r?me & Goupil, Art and Enterprise, New York (Dahesh Museum of Art) 2000, p. 5 5. 20 Anon: Des mod?les de Dessin, Paris 1868, pp.3-5. 21

J. Adh?mar andj. Lethevel: L'Inventaire du fonds fran?ais apr?s 1800, Paris i960, 11

(inv. nos. 1-321 ), pp. 5 3 2-5 3. 22 Ibid. Julien's drawing books, all issued in Paris, include ?tude ? l'estompe, 1843;

Cours de dessin, 1843?50; Cours de dessin, 1846; Cours ?l?mentaire, 1847; Nouvelles

Acad?mies, 1849; Etudes aux deux crayons, 1848-53; Cours de dessin d'apr?s les ma?tres,

1857; Cours pr?paratoire, 1857; and Cours praeparatoire, 1864. 23 For Spanish drawing books, see F. Gallardo Otero: 'El Cuadrado en los m?to

dos de ense?anza del dibujo 1848-1936', Ph.D. diss. (Universidad Complutense de

586 AUGUST 2OO3 . CXLV THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE

PICASSO'S 'TWO VIEWS OF A LEFT EYE'

Salon, but was best known for his lithographs.21 He was a com

mercial portraitist until 1840, but thereafter concentrated on the

many editions of his cours de dessin.22 He was an accomplished

draughtsman, making his own drawings for his manuals, and Study

of eyes is characteristic of his subtle transitions from light to dark

and of his exquisite and exacting style. Picasso was fortunate to have had access to Julien's new mod?les

de dessin. While Spain had undergone curricular reform in the

nineteenth century, the drawing books, or cartillas, used in schools

had remained largely unchanged.23 The cartillas were aimed at

teaching mechanical drawing (dibujo line) until 1884 when reforms

introduced figure drawing (dibujo de figura).24 The pedagogical approach used in the cartillas was similar to the French method of

copying the human figure from the mod?les de dessin, but the exam

ples in Spain did not consist of high quality drawings. For exam

ple, those found in Estudios Preliminares de Dibujo en sus aplicaciones ? las artes industriales en una s?rie de cartillas, destinadas a las clases

preparatorias de la Escuela Central de Artes y oficios de Madrid (1880)

by Manuel Antonio Capo (Fig. 50) are crude in comparison with

Julien's.25 The Instituto da Guarda, a small art school in the north-west

ern province of Galicia, had started out as part of the Instituto da

Guarda, a secondary school founded by Eusebio Guarda.26 Like

most nineteenth-century Spanish secondary schools, it focused on

teaching practical drawing skills for careers in professions such as

engineering and architecture.27 Drawing concentrated on dibujo

lineal, principles of construction and architectural drawing.28

Archival documents in La Corana indicate that educational

reforms brought significant changes.29 The secondary school's

curriculum expanded to include physics, chemistry, singing,

French and German, night courses for adults and a Superior

School for young students.30 More important, the drawing

component of the secondary school was given its own status in a

separate art school and its curriculum was enlarged in the direction

of the fine arts.31 Chapter VI, articles 35?49 of the art school

charter, divided the curriculum into two levels.32 The younger

students' curriculum consisted of the drawing of figures, decora

tive drawing, the mechanics of drawing, modelling and the

making of casts ?

vavado de adornos.^ The older students' curricu

lum consisted of drawing from the antique and del natural, paint

ing, sculpting with the chisel and modelling by hand.34 Once

this foundation was completed the students could go on to

specialise in painting or sculpture. In 1890 the Instituto da Guarda

appealed to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in

Madrid for first-division status as a school of fine arts, and changed

its name to Escuela de Bellas Artes.35

The curricular changes at the Instituto da Guarda brought a

new programme of sequential instruction for art students from

which Picasso benefited. His father taught three courses: 'orna

51. Study for Three women at the fountain, by Pablo Picasso. 1921. Pastel on paper, 62.6 by 47 cm. (Mus?e Picasso, Paris).

mental drawing', 'figure drawing' and 'figure drawing from the

cast', and he continued to teach from cartillas just as he had in his

previous post in M?laga.36 Two views of a left eye is further evidence

that, instead of using Spanish manuals, Jos? Ruiz preferred the more progressive French cours de dessin, thus bringing the higher standards of the French educational reforms to teaching in Spain.

The training that Picasso received at this early stage of his life

became the foundation on which he relied throughout his career.

To take a single example, no one familiar with Picasso's uvre

could fail to note the remarkable resemblance between the juve

nile 'eyes' illustrated here and those in his neo-classical work of the

1920s, of which the study for Three women at the fountain provides a striking example (Fig. 51).

Madrid, 1988), pp.45-125; JJ. G?mez Molina, ed.: Fortuny-Picasso y los modelos

acad?micos de ense?anza, Valladolid 1989, pp. 176?211. 24 See epilogue by F. Calbo Serralier: 'Las academias art?sticas en Espa?a', in N.

Pevsner: Academias de arte: Pasado y presente, Madrid 1982, pp.209-39. 25 The mod?les de dessin used in the manual by Capo are reproduced in Gallardo

Otero, op. cit. (note 23), pp.204?70. 26 Palau I Fabre, op. cit. (note 1), p.39. 27 M. Borrell: Tratado te?rico y pr?ctico de Dibujo con applicaci?n ? las artes y ala Indus

tria, Madrid 1881, pp.24-25. 28

Ibid., pp.34-37.

29 La Coru?a, Archivo Municipal, Real Decreto dando una nueva organizaci?n: Las

Academias y Estudios de las Bellas Artes, Coru?a, Imprenta de Don Domingo Fuga, articles 35?40. 3? Ibid., chapters II-IV. 31 Aid., articles 35-40. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid., chapter VI, article 42. 34 Ibid., chapter IV, articles 35-40. 35 Ibid., chapter IV, article 43. 36 Staller, op. cit. (note 1), p.71.

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE CXLV AUGUST 2003 5^7