StageView: Picasso at the Lapin Agile

Cast of Characters

In the intellectual swirl of the early 20^th century, many writers, artists, scientists and thinkers played parts.  Some, such as Henri Matisse, Marie Curie and Max Planck are mentioned is Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Others, equally influential, are not.  Here are a few worth noting, plus some whose connections are merely personal to the artist and scientist.  

Max Planck taught at the University of Berlin and was the doyen of German physicists in the early 20^th century.  Planck’s radiation law violated radiation theory as it was understood at the time and was politely ignored by most physicists.  Einstein was an exception.  He accepted Planck’s theory and drove it to a “very revolutionary” result.  Before publishing Einstein’s “special relativity” paper, Annalin der Physik’s editor Paul Drude sent it to Planck for review.  Planck recognized the paper’s possibilities.  Eventually, Planck recruited Einstein for the University of Berlin.

Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903 and for chemistry in 1911.  She was the first woman to receive the honor and the first person to win it twice for different scientific disciplines.  She is most noted for her work with radioactivity, a term she coined, and especially for the discovery of the radioactive elements radium and polonium.  Her work with radioactivity influenced Einstein’s thinking about the relationship between matter and energy.

H.A. Lorentz was a Dutch physicist whose theory of electromagnetic phenomena profoundly influenced Einstein. “I admire this man like no other; I might say, I love him,” Einstein once wrote.  Lorentz and his former student Pieter Zeeman shared the 1902 Nobel Prize for physics for their investigations of the influence of magnetic fields on radiation.

Henri Poincaré wasone of the greatest mathematicians in history.  In the early 20^th century he was at the apex of French intellectual life, serving as President of the Académie des Sciences (1906) and Director of the Académie Francaise (1912).  Widely regarded as having completed Newtonian mechanics, Poincaré’s calculations are still used to launch space craft.  Poincaré’s writings on non-Euclidean geometries influenced both Einstein and Picasso.  He once remarked, “It is only through science an art that civilization is of value.”

The Olympia Academy wasan informal think-tank in Bern, Switzerland, consisting of Einstein and three friends—Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine and later Michele Besso.  This group met regularly at Einstein’s cramped apartment to discuss the latest ideas in physics and math.  Besso is the only person credited in Picasso’s special relativity paper.

Mileva Marić and Einstein were married in 1903.  During their days together as students at the Swiss Polytechnic, Mileva regularly served as Einstein’s trusted sounding board, a role later assumed by the members of the Olympia Academy even though Einstein continually relied on her to check his math.  Einstein and Mileva had a child out of wedlock, a daughter, given up for adoption. Einstein never saw the child named Lieserl.  Two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard, followed but Mileva and Einstein had been drifting apart almost since the earliest days of their marriage.  A couple of extra-marital affairs on Einstein’s part proved more than Mileva could bear.  Divorce proceedings were long and acrimonious and concluded in 1919 with Mileva, as part of the settlement, receiving 8000 Swiss francs per year against payment of a Nobel Prize Einstein had not yet won.  As Miller writes, “His confidence . . . knew no bounds.”  

Paul Cezanne, deemed “my one and only master” by Picasso, was a pivotal figure in Post-Impressionism.  As Cezanne matured as a painter, he moved from Impressionism to an investigation of how to express visually the basic structure of the world.  Cezanne abandoned traditional conventions of spatial representation, perspective and color in favor of search for underlying structure and form by using geometric forms.  He once wrote: “The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.  We must not, however, be satisfied with retaining the beautiful formulas of our illustrious predecessors.”

Henri Matisse was considered the most talented of a loose affiliation of artists known as Les Fauves (the Wild Beasts).  His work was characterized by intense color, vivid form and nonillusionistic imagery.  Picasso once described his friend and rival as having “sun in his belly,” a reference to the life-affirming and uplifting nature of Matisse’s art.  Picasso biographer John Richardson makes this comparison: “Matisse wanted to soothe, comfort and delight, whereas Picasso wanted to challenge, excite and shock.”

Andre Derain was another of the Fauvists and a friend of Picasso’s.  His Effects of Sunlight on Water, part of a series of views of The Thames, successfully breaks down the relationship between foreground and background in a way that reveals a Fauvist goal of presenting unfocused images. Derain was an avid collector of African art and he urged Picasso to make closer study of this so-called “primitive” work.  The influence is clearly evident in Les Demoiselles de Avignon.

Ambroise Vollard was a gallery owner and dealer of avant-garde art who arranged Picasso’s first Paris exhibition in 1901 showing thecolorful work that preceded the Blue Period.  In 1907, while Picasso struggled with Les Demoiselles de Avignon, Vollard bought out Picasso’s studio, which, along with patronage from Gertrude and Leo Stein, afforded the painter relief from perpetual monetary worries.

Gertrude and Leo Stein were the famed American expatriates whose salons attracted the leading artists, writers and thinkers in Paris.  Picasso painted a famous portrait of Gertrude that reportedly took ninety sittings to complete.  She was an early champion of his work and became a close friend and mentor and educated him in art history and aesthetic theory.  She and Leo paid for a second studio space for Picasso to concentrate on Les Demoiselles de Avignon.  Picasso also found this private space convenient for conducting multiple affairs.

Guillaume Apollinaire was a leading French poet and an opponent of the “symbolist” school of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. Along with the writers Max Jacob and Andre Salmon, Apollinaire was a member of la bande á Picasso, an elite and closed group that met daily at Picasso’s studio to discuss literature, politics, philosophy, mathematics, technology, and science.  As the recognized impresario of the avant-garde, Apollinaire introduced Picasso to many internationally known writers and artists and broadened Picasso’s intellectual horizons. 

Fernande Olivier was Picasso’s lover from 1905 to 1912.  Of course, he had many affairs during their time together, as did Fernande, and they both were capable of erupting into fits of jealously.  Nonetheless, she was Picasso’s first great love and may have helped him overcome the moroseness of his Blue Period.  About the time he fell in love with her he began to paint the circus and Harlequin inspired paintings of the Rose Period.

-Joseph Whelan, Publications Director at Syracuse Stage