Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private collection
Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art-Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Glancing at the Century, 28 June – 20 September 1998, pp. 52-53, ill. p. 53
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, vol. 32 (XXXII), oeuvres de 1970, Paris, Cahiers d’Arts, Paris, 1977, no. 74, p. 34
Alan Wofsy (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings & Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885-1973, 28 volumes, San Francisco, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1995-2016
Enrique Mallen (ed.), Online Picasso Project, Sam Houston State University, 1997-2022
The painter and his model, as a subject, concerned Picasso for the first time in 1914. Since then, he returned to it at different times in his creative process, resulting in approximately 430 works - canvases, drawings and engravings – dedicated to the said theme.
By depicting the painter and his model in every way possible and in all possible points of view, he applauded their privileged relationship, based on understanding and trust. Their exchange, mostly silent, is ultimately the basis of Picasso’s artistic fruitfulness. The artist, who had for many years almost exclusively his partner Jacqueline as a model, honours his muse in this way, placing her at the same level as himself in the creative realm. Furthermore, the theme enlightens the artist’s perception of his work. Choosing to recall the most traditional way of portraying - which had already inspired many of his masters - he defended his devotion to representation, automatically dissociating himself from many artistic movements that were developed at the time and founded on the primacy of abstraction.
As a matter of fact, on the 21st of May 1970, Picasso created five drawings. The four out of five depict the painter with his model, while the fifth one shows the painter alone. The version we see here stands out from the rest because the model is not behind the easel but, through a perceptive optical illusion seems embraced by the painter, who is absorbed in his work. Despite their physical proximity, they both look distant, as if something else is bothering them. Picasso insists mainly on two details of the composition. The first one is the artist’s hand being disproportionate compared to the rest of his body. The second one is the model’s size, which is surrounded by intense smudges emphasizing its refinement. Interestingly, we realize that the line implying the canvas is interrupted by the brush that the painter holds at his right hand, as if this harmless tool pierces him. The stereotypical presentation of an artist of another era, with an elaborate turban wrapped around his head and elegant clothing, as well as the obedient model, cannot conceal the fact that creation, the very reason of their union, has no other purpose except transcendence, namely the transfer to the canvas of an image with a far more complicated meaning than the mere scene of some “kind”.
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