Garçon à la pipe, 1905

Depicting a young Parisian working boy, Garçon à la pipe from 1905 is probably among the most famous canvases from Picasso‘s Rose period. For his model, the artist used an adolescent known as “p’tit Louis,” who was frequently to be found at the Bateau Lavoir along with, in Picasso’s own words, other “local types, actors, ladies, gentlemen, delinquents….”

In preparatory studies, the artist painted his subject in a variety of positions before painting the final one. The subject is depicted as gazing absently into space, holding his pipe in the left hand and pointing the stem away from himself. Crowned with roses and framed with two large bouquets on the wall behind him, “P’tit Louis” has become a mysterious and haunting presence. The work evokes Femme à l’eventail, another painting from the Rose period, concentrating on a single figure, mysterious in gesture and detached from the everyday world.

Pablo Picasso painting price surprised everybody, when it was sold at Sotheby’s New York on May 5th, 2004 for $104.2 million, surpassing its estimate of $70 million.