''Las Meninas'' (English: ''The Maids of Honour'') is a series of 58 paintings that

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

painted in 1957 by performing a comprehensive analysis, reinterpreting and recreating several times ''

Las Meninas ''Las Meninas'' (; ) is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. It has become one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting, due to the way its complex an ...

'' by Diego Velázquez. The suite is fully preserved at the

Museu Picasso The Museu Picasso (, "Picasso Museum") is an art museum in Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It houses an extensive collection of artworks by the twentieth-century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, with a total of 4251 of his works. It is housed in f ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, it is known that he sold the first and second interpretations of the meninas to the American art collector

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down wi ...

, owner of the Art of this century gallery. This is a very extensive survey work which consists of 45 versions of the original picture, nine scenes of a dove, three landscapes and a portrait of Jacqueline. Picasso himself understood this series as a whole and as such donated it to the museum in Barcelona in May 1968 in memory of

Jaime Sabartés Jaume Sabartés i Gual ( ca, Jaume Sabartés i Gual, es, Jaime Sabartés y Gual, born in Barcelona, 10 June 1881 - died in Paris, 12 February 1968), was a Catalan Spanish artist, poet and writer. He was a close friend of Pablo Picasso and later ...

who died the same year. Picasso said to Sabartés in 1950:

The suite

Exhibits

The ''Suite'' has been shown in the following exhibitions: * 1959 - ''Les Menines'',

Galerie Louise Leiris Galerie Louise Leiris was a fine art gallery in Paris established by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in 1920. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Head of a Woman (1909) by Pablo Picasso, provenance notes Initially, the business was known as the Galerie Simon. It ...

, Paris. * 1960 - ''Picasso'',

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London. * 1964 - ''Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964'',

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Japanese art. This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). The museum is known for its collection of 20th-centu ...

, Japan. * 1964 - ''Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964'',

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto The is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan. This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK (Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). History The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK) was initially created as the Annex Museum of the Nationa ...

, Japan. * 1964 - ''Pablo Picasso. Exhibition Japan 1964'',

Nagoya City Art Museum The is located in the city of Nagoya in central Japan. The museum building itself was constructed by Kisho Kurokawa, one of the leading Japanese architects, from 1983 to 1987. Works by the surrealist Kansuke Yamamoto, Sean Scully, and Alexand ...

, Japan. * 1966 - 1967 - ''Hommage à Pablo Picasso'', Grand Palais, Paris. * 1967 - '' Stedelijk Museum''

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. * 1968 - ''

'',

. * 2008 - ''Forgetting Velázquez'': Between 16 May and 28 September 2008, an exhibition at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, which explains the influence of Velázquez and Picasso's work in other contemporary artists, having as central to ''Las Meninas.''The exhibition, divided into two sections, we could see one side works of the seventeenth century Spanish painters such as Velázquez,

Juan Carreño de Miranda Juan Carreño de Miranda (25 March 1614 — 3 October 1685) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period. Biography Born in Avilés in Asturias, son of a painter with the same name, Juan Carreño de Miranda. His family moved to Madrid in 1623, ...

Juan Bautista del Mazo ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish language, Spanish and Manx language, Manx versions of ''John (given name), John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronoun ...

, and some of the ''Las Meninas'' by Picasso next to more contemporary productions, with works by artists such as

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

Michael Craig-Martin Sir Michael Craig-Martin (born 28 August 1941) is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, '' An Oak Tre ...

Josep Maria Sert Josep Maria Sert i Badia (; Barcelona, 21 December 1874 – 27 November 1945, buried in the Vic Cathedral) was a Spanish muralist, the son of an affluent textile industry family, and friend of Salvador Dalí. He was particularly known for his gr ...

, Richard Hamilton or Thomas Struth, among others. It was curated by Gertje Utley and Malén Gual. However, there are several works from the ''Suite'' that have been part of other exhibitions. Here you will find the most relevant: * 1980 - ''Picasso: A Retrospective'', MoMA, New York. * 1981 - ''Picasso 1881-1973. Exposición Antológica'', Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid. * 1985 - ''La peinture après 1940''. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam * 1988 - ''Picasso in the Soviet Union''. Pushkin Museum,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

* 2006 - ''Picasso. Tradición y vanguardia''. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid * 2008 - ''Picasso et les Maîtres''. Grand Palais, Paris * 2009 - ''Picasso: Challenging the past''.

National Gallery of London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

* 2010 - ''Picasso: Peace and Freedom''.

Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development C ...

Other versions

Velázquez's ''Las Meninas'' has served as inspiration not only to Picasso. The first follower of Velázquez was certainly his son-in-law

, appointed court painter to

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered ...

in 1661. In the ''portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Spain'', 1666, in the backplane, one can see the placement of ''Charles II'' and the dwarf Mari Bárbola in a scene similar to ''Las Meninas'' by Velázquez.MacLaren, Neil. The Spanisch School, National Gallery.. Londres: Catalogues Rev. Allan Braham. National Gallery, 1970, 52-53. Here is a list of works by artists who also have versioned ''Las Meninas'' throughout art history. *

Claudio Bravo Claudio Andrés Bravo Muñoz (; born 13 April 1983) is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Real Betis and captains the Chile national team. He started playing with Colo-Colo and moved to Real Sociedad ...

, ''La vista'' * Louis Cane, ''Meninas squatting'' (1982), private collection *

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, ''A Friendly Call'' (1895), National Gallery of Art * Philippe Comar, ''Las Meninas'' (1978), Centre Georges Pompidou * Nicola Costantino, ''Prince Aquiles, after Velázquez'' (2010) * Equipo Crónica, ''El recinte'' (1971) private collection *

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

, ''Velázquez pintant la infanta Margarida amb les llums i les ombres de la seva pròpia glòria'' (1958),

Salvador Dalí Museum The Salvador Dalí Museum is an art museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, dedicated to the works of Salvador Dalí. It is located on the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront by 5th Avenue Southeast, Bay Shore Drive, and Dan Wheldon Wa ...

* Edgar Degas, ''Variation on Velázquez's Las Meninas'' (1857), Neue Pinakothek * Antonio de Felipe, ''In-Fanta de llimona II'' (1992), Iria Souto Catoira collection *

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

, ''Hommage to Velázquez'',

* Alberto Gironella, ''Cambra Oscura'' (1975), private collection *

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

, ''Las Meninas'' (1780–85) Biblioteca Nacional de España * Richard Hamilton, ''Interior II'' (1964) Tate * Richard Hamilton, ''Las Meninas of Picasso'' (1973) Tate * Yasumasa Morimura, ''Daughter of Art History (Princess A)'', private collection * Vik Muniz, ''Las Meninas by Velázquez (the chocolate paintings)(2002) * Jorge Oteiza, ''Hommage to Las Meninas'' (1958), Fundació Juan March * Giulio Paolini, ''Contemplator Enim VI (fuori l'autore)'' (1991) * Antonio Saura, ''Infanta'' i ''Saba'' (1962) *

, ''Figurí per a Las Meninas'' (1916), Fundación Juan March * Soledad Sevilla, ''Las Meninas Núm. IX'' (1981-1983) * John Singer Sargent, ''The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit'' (1882), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. * Thomas Struth, ''Museo del Prado 6'' (2005), private collection * Franz von Stuck, ''Family group'' (1909), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium * Eve Sussman, ''89 segons at the Alcázar'' (2004), private collection * Manolo Valdés, ''Reina Marianna'' (1989), private collection * Jeff Wall, ''Picture for Women'' (1979), Centre Georges Pompidou * James Abbott McNeill Whistler, ''Whistler in his studio'' (1865) * Joel-Peter Witkin, ''Las Meninas. New Mexico'' (1987)

References

Bibliography

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External links

''Las Meninas'' commented at Museu Picasso website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meninas Paintings by Pablo Picasso 1957 paintings Dogs in art Paintings about painting