Pablo Picasso's The Actor Damaged at
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| Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973). The Actor (1904-05). Oil on canvas. 196.2 x 115.1 cm (77 1/4 x 44 3/8 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
By STAN PARCHIN
January 24, 2010
The Actor (1904-05), a large oil on canvas composition by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), was damaged on the afternoon of January 22, 2010 at New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art when an adult visitor attending a class lost her balance in a second-floor gallery and fell onto the painting. The woman was uninjured. The work sustained an irregular tear of about six inches in length in its lower right-hand corner.
Taken immediately to The Met's Paintings Conservation Studio for assessment and treatment, curators and other experts expect that The Actor will be ready for display in the upcoming special exhibition Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 27 to August 1, 2010.
The Actor, which has another painting beneath it, was executed at the beginning of Picasso's Rose Period, when he chose to focus on itinerant costumed acrobats from the commedia dell'arte. This was a distinct departure from the indigent beggars and blind musicians from the artist's previous and introspective Blue Period.