"Annabelle" Picasso - renaming the picture

Richard Kering, the owner of the picture, decided to rename “Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom”. Many experts in the field of art consider his act arrogant and discuss the legitimacy of this move.

Is it possible that Richard Kering, the owner of this painting, understands the history of art better than the scholars who criticized him for renaming his Picasso? Kering bought this sparkling masterpiece of 1937 for £ 20-30 million under the name “Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom” with a new, ridiculously self-confident name: “Annabel”.

When Vermeer painted a mysterious portrait of a young woman, he did not call her “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. This is a nickname that has been established for centuries. “Laughing Cavalier”, “Night Watch”, “Menins” - these are all names invented later. Until recently, artists did not bother inventing names for their creations.

The real heroine of this picture is Picasso’s lover, Marie-Teresa Walter. The painting was completed the same year that Pablo painted Guernica. Probably, Kering did not know or ignored the history of the picture. What the owner of Annabel did with ridiculous arrogance is an attempt to eliminate the complex, elusive processes by which works of art acquire their names over the centuries.