A Day with Picasso

by Billy Klüver and Billy Kluver

Book Overview

In 1978, while collecting documentary photographs of the artists' community in Montparnasse from the first decades of the century, Billy Kl ver discovered that some previously unassociated photographs fell into significant groupings. One group in particular, showing Picasso, Max Jacob, Mo se Kisling, Modigliani, and others at the Caf de la Rotonde and on Boulevard du Montparnasse, all seemed to have been taken on the same day. The people were wearing the same clothes in each shot and had the same accessories. Their ties were knotted the same way and their collars had the same wrinkles. A total of twenty-four photographs--four rolls of film with six photographs each--were eventually found. With the challenge of identifying the date, photographer, and circumstances, Kl ver embarked on an inquiry that would illuminate the minute texture of that time and place.

Biographical research into the subjects' lives led Kl ver to focus on the summer of 1916 as the likely time the photos were taken. He then measured buildings and plotted angles and lengths of shadows in the photographs to narrow the time frame to a spread of three weeks. Further investigation eventually allowed Kl ver to identify the photographer as Jean Cocteau and to determine the day that Cocteau had taken the photographs: August 12, 1916. A computer printout of the sun's positions on that date, obtained from the Bureau des Longitudes, together with the length of the shadows, enabled Klver to calculate the time of day of each photograph, and thus to put them in proper sequence.

In a tour de force of art historical research, Kl ver then reconstructed a scenario of the events of the four hours depicted in the photographs. With evocative attention to detail--noting when Picasso is no longer carrying an envelope or Max Jacob has acquired a decoration in his lapel--Kl ver recreates a single afternoon in the lives of Picasso and friends, a group of remarkable people in early twentieth-century Paris.

Besides the central "portfolio" of photographs by Cocteau, the book contains additional photographs and drawings, short biographies of all the subjects, and a historical section on the events and activities in the Paris art world at the time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262611473
• ISBN13: 9780262611473
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Sunny Paris Afternoon with Picasso, Cocteau & Friends

If you ever wanted to travel back in time and grab a bite and spend the day with Picasso, Cocteau, Modigliani et al., then this is probably the closest you'll ever get. Kluver's book is kind of a miracle, little gem, really. Who would have thought that one day in the life of a group of friends could be so interesting (albeit a very important group of friends). Perhaps they never thought about that day, or those photographs again. The book not only successfully outlines the day itself, but the whole context for the day. What was going on with whom, how so and so knew the other, what important gallery shows were coming at the time, etc. The story also illustrates the marriage of Cocteau's bourgeous/fashion/aristocratic circles with the Montparnasse/Left bank artists...Picasso and Cocteau remained lifelong (though sometimes strained) friends, and this was during the early years of that relationship. The context of the story also brings in couturier of the day Paul Poiret (his home(!!) and adjacent gallery), and patroness Misia Sert, both of whom I loved learning more about after reading this book (Arthur Gold's Misia Sert is a GREAT read). Be sure to read the Notes when you read this book, they hold lots of great little nuggets of information, testament to Kluvers copious and detailed research.

Snapshot of the artist as a boulevardier

Long ago, in a city far, far away, Pablo Picasso and some Montparnasse artist colony friends went cafe-hopping. The future film director Jean Cocteau, on leave from the Western Front, snapped pictures of the group indoors and out. Time passed, the friends went their separate ways, and the pictures were dispersed into different hands. Three-quarters of a century later, a Swiss electrical engineer collecting photos of the Montparnasse scene discovered that several of the photos seemed to have been taken at the same time. This book is the story of how he discovered other photos in the series in different collections around the world, how he discovered the identity of the photographer, and how he pinpointed the day and time the pictures were taken. This is an amazing book, as much for the ten-plus years it took to sleuth this story out as for the fact that anyone did it at all. The author, once he went to extraordinary lengths to collect these photos, even consulted the French Bureau of Longitudes to analyze the shadows in the pictures, in order to fix the time of day. So, what do we have? Pictures of Picasso as a man in his mid-thirties (with a full head of hair!), in cafes and on the street with other artists, notably Modigliani and Kisling, and his then current amour, and other acquaintances. They cheerfully pose and mug for their friend Cocteau. And that's it, really. The text relates the story of how these photos were taken, and how the author discovered when, where, and by whom they were taken. As if that wasn't impressive enough, he then adds chapters which deduce what kind of camera Cocteau used, maps of the area with the camera angles plotted, and selections of drawings, diaries, and correspondence that illustrate one detail or other of the pictures. It's all very interesting, in a headache-inducing way--rather like contemplating a picture painted on a grain of rice. And all this for the sake of recovering a long-ago afternoon of bar-hopping! _Le recouvrement du temp perdu_, indeed.

A excellent book on the artists early life .

I havent ever seen a book like this before. Reading this book and following the complete pictures is the next best thing to having a time machine.This book answers those questions that we never had answered like how was he with his friends? etc. You will enjoy it.