Torse de Femme (B. 746; Ba. 906)

Françoise Gilot provided Pablo Picasso with the inspiration for some of his most eloquent and tormented portraits of his paramours. They first met in 1943. At the time, Picasso was 62, and Gilot was 21. By 1946, she had moved in with the master artist, and between 1947 and 1949, Gilot gave birth to Claude and Paloma. For Picasso, this time was one of his most fruitful periods. He executed numerous ambitious projects in a variety of mediums. In many of these endeavors, he used Gilot as the subject. His handling of her image ranged from two-dimensional linear compositions to studies in form and volume (see Françoise sur Fond gris, lot 103). By 1953 though, their relationship had begun to dissolve. This is evident in his treatment of Gilot's image. At the time, Gilot was despondent from raising her children and trying to hold together her family, while Picasso continued his amorous affairs with other women. To exacerbate matters, the artist responded by acting increasingly callous toward her. In Torse de Femme, also given the title L'Egyptienne by his printers, Picasso reflected his anger at his lover by depicting her as a monstrous creature. Instead of soft curves as before, she had hard geometric angles. Her face no longer appeares pleasant and youthful; in contrast, her features are asymmetrical and disproportional giving a garish quality. Most prominently, he transformed her hair into something suggestive of a Nemes Headdress (hence the given title) and locks resembling spikes. Despite his attempts to portray her harshly, the work still conveyed a sense of tortured beauty found in many of Picasso's images of women and lovers. The relationship ultimately ended in September of 1953, but not before he completed many of his best prints of the period: Femme à la Fenêtre, Vénus et l'Amour, d'après Cranach, and the series of lithographs titled La Femme au fauteuil.