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Lot Essay
A bearded figure is seen in the foreground, a naked woman in the background in Pablo Picasso's Tête d'homme et nu assis, painted in December 1964. This picture is one of a group of variations upon the theme that Picasso created during this period. In these works, he often took various elements and pushed them to extremes of stylisation, deliberately teetering on the brink of abstraction, using glyph-like ciphers to convey such elements as the man's face or the woman's body.
Looking at Tête d'homme et nu assis, it appears that this work derives from one of the themes that most occupied Picasso, that of the artist and his model. In a sense, Picasso was using this subject of the interior of the artist's studio as a pretext for an exploration of painting itself. In Tête d'homme et nu assis, he has thrust the viewer into the romanticised world of the artist, with his model, in this case seemingly derived from other images of Picasso's wife Jacqueline, shown relaxing in the background.
In Tête d'homme et nu assis, the male in the foreground can be seen as a substitute for Picasso himself. At the same time, the presence of the beard implies that this artist is modelled on some of the painters of the past whose shadows were cast long over Picasso's own. 'Every time I draw a man, I find myself thinking of my father,' Picasso would confess. 'To me, a man means "Don José", and it will always be so, all my life... He wore a beard... All the men I draw I see more or less with his features' (Picasso, quoted in M.L. Bernadec, 'Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model', pp. 49-94, in Late Picasso: Paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints 1953-1972, exh. cat., London & Paris, 1988, p. 94n). He was constantly vying against the legacy of his artist-father; at the same time, the bearded figure also recalls Rembrandt. After all, as Picasso himself said, 'Every painter takes himself for Rembrandt' (Picasso, quoted in F. Gilot & C. Lake, Life with Picasso, New York, Toronto & London, 1964, p. 51).
The theme of the artist and his model had appeared in Picasso's works as early as the Blue Period, not least in his enigmatic early masterpiece La vie, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It would return again and again, sometimes as a springboard for romantic musings on his lovers, sometimes as a reflection upon the nature of art, and often as both. After all, creativity and inspiration were Picasso's lifeblood. In Tête d'homme et nu assis, he has revealed his tireless thirst for innovation by combining the theme with a deconstruction of painting, in which he has distilled the scene down to the barest calligraphic minimum, the man's head painted with dots, dashes and a green zig-zag; meanwhile, the black line may represent the edge of the canvas. This contrasts with the swirling mass of paint that he has used to depict the model, adding a play of textures to the composition which itself introduces a certain sensuality.
Looking at Tête d'homme et nu assis, it appears that this work derives from one of the themes that most occupied Picasso, that of the artist and his model. In a sense, Picasso was using this subject of the interior of the artist's studio as a pretext for an exploration of painting itself. In Tête d'homme et nu assis, he has thrust the viewer into the romanticised world of the artist, with his model, in this case seemingly derived from other images of Picasso's wife Jacqueline, shown relaxing in the background.
In Tête d'homme et nu assis, the male in the foreground can be seen as a substitute for Picasso himself. At the same time, the presence of the beard implies that this artist is modelled on some of the painters of the past whose shadows were cast long over Picasso's own. 'Every time I draw a man, I find myself thinking of my father,' Picasso would confess. 'To me, a man means "Don José", and it will always be so, all my life... He wore a beard... All the men I draw I see more or less with his features' (Picasso, quoted in M.L. Bernadec, 'Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model', pp. 49-94, in Late Picasso: Paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints 1953-1972, exh. cat., London & Paris, 1988, p. 94n). He was constantly vying against the legacy of his artist-father; at the same time, the bearded figure also recalls Rembrandt. After all, as Picasso himself said, 'Every painter takes himself for Rembrandt' (Picasso, quoted in F. Gilot & C. Lake, Life with Picasso, New York, Toronto & London, 1964, p. 51).
The theme of the artist and his model had appeared in Picasso's works as early as the Blue Period, not least in his enigmatic early masterpiece La vie, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It would return again and again, sometimes as a springboard for romantic musings on his lovers, sometimes as a reflection upon the nature of art, and often as both. After all, creativity and inspiration were Picasso's lifeblood. In Tête d'homme et nu assis, he has revealed his tireless thirst for innovation by combining the theme with a deconstruction of painting, in which he has distilled the scene down to the barest calligraphic minimum, the man's head painted with dots, dashes and a green zig-zag; meanwhile, the black line may represent the edge of the canvas. This contrasts with the swirling mass of paint that he has used to depict the model, adding a play of textures to the composition which itself introduces a certain sensuality.