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Lot Essay
The classicizing profile of the figure in Buste de femme is one that Picasso explored repeatedly in 1902 and 1903, inspired in part by his study of the neo-classical masters Puvis de Chavannes and possibly Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (see lot 17). Yet the heavy, expressionist shading of the present drawing, particularly around the eyes, and the slightly androgynous cast of the figure's features lend the work an edge that is decidedly unclassical. Although the drawing was certainly made before Picasso left Barcelona for his definitive move to Paris in the spring of 1904, it is most closely comparable to works executed several months after his arrival in the French capital, as the Blue Period began to give way to the Rose Period. In particular, it seems to anticipate a sepia drawing from 1905 that depicts one of Picasso's mistresses at the Bateau-Lavoir, Alice Princet, who would later marry the painter André Derain (Zervos, vol. 1, no. 251; note the sharply pointed nose and chin, slight pout, attenuated neck, and heavy cross-hatching). John Richardson has written about Picasso's images of Alice:
"Although she is the subject of a very few drawings, her Madonna-like looks left their mark on Picasso's work. He grafted her features onto those of Madeleine and Margot and came up with the image that characterizes the final phase of the Blue Period--a foretaste of how he would later juggle and integrate the physiognomies and identities of his various mistresses. During the next year or so he would also blur sexual characteristics. Alice's pout--her bouderie--which figures on the faces of many other girls, will look equally at home on the sulky faces of Rose Period youths. Hence increasing confusion as to the gender of Picasso's figures. This trend toward unisexuality ceases only when Fernande Olivier finally emerges in all her voluptuousness, an event that will not occur until the beginning of 1906" (A Life of Picasso, New York, 1996, vol. I, p. 307).
"Although she is the subject of a very few drawings, her Madonna-like looks left their mark on Picasso's work. He grafted her features onto those of Madeleine and Margot and came up with the image that characterizes the final phase of the Blue Period--a foretaste of how he would later juggle and integrate the physiognomies and identities of his various mistresses. During the next year or so he would also blur sexual characteristics. Alice's pout--her bouderie--which figures on the faces of many other girls, will look equally at home on the sulky faces of Rose Period youths. Hence increasing confusion as to the gender of Picasso's figures. This trend toward unisexuality ceases only when Fernande Olivier finally emerges in all her voluptuousness, an event that will not occur until the beginning of 1906" (A Life of Picasso, New York, 1996, vol. I, p. 307).