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Lot Essay
“Painting is stronger than I am; it makes me do whatever it wants”
(Picasso, quoted in M-L. Bernadac, “Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model” in Late Picasso, exh. cat., London, 1988, p. 49)
Languishing on a red divan, a voluptuous nude reclines in Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle, as she poses for the artist who sits, brush in hand, in front of a blank canvas ready to begin painting. Painted on 8th April 1963, Le peintre et son modèle is one of the earliest in a prolific series of works in which Picasso explored, with an indefatigable zeal, the theme of the artist and model, meditating on the powerful, intimate and almost mystical act of painterly creation itself. Painted with a sense of spontaneity and expressive simplicity, Le peintre et son modèle encapsulates the astounding creative vigor that characterizes the great Spanish master’s late work. With bold swathes of vibrant color applied with thick, luxuriant brushstrokes, this painting encompasses the unbridled joy and fervent passion that Picasso found in painting in these final years, serving as a joyous celebration of his identity as an artist.
Picasso had begun this series just a few months earlier in February 1963 with a series of drawings (Zervos, vol. 23, nos. 122-127) that depict an artist in his studio, in the process of painting the nude model that reclines before him. This marked the beginning of an extraordinarily productive phase which saw the artist immerse himself completely in this theme. Hélène Parmelin, a writer and friend of the artist described the conception of this series: “In February 1963 Picasso broke loose. He painted ‘The painter and his model’. And from that moment he painted like a madman. Perhaps he will never paint again with such frenzy” (H. Parmelin, Picasso Says..., London, 1966, p. 85). Paintings endlessly flowed from Picasso’s hand over the following months, depicting myriad variations of the same subject: models in various reposes pictured both alone or in front of the artist, set in detailed interiors, undefined space or within bucolic, pastoral landscapes. “He painted four or five, six or seven canvases a day...”, Parmelin recalled, “He was possessed by a sort of enormous hunger for painting. He painted a huge number because he painted rapidly. And that is by no means an obvious truism” (ibid., p. 21).
Picasso painted Le peintre et son modèle at his home, Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, near Cannes in the South of France. The artist had married his young muse and lover, Jacqueline Roque, two years earlier in 1961 and the couple were living together in blissful contentment and happiness. Throughout this period, termed by John Richardson as “L’Époque Jacqueline”, Jacqueline served as a constant and fertile inspiration for the artist and her image permeated every aspect of his art; she appears as every nude, every portrait, head or artist’s model of this time. The artist did not need to draw her from life, but with her constant presence beside him, her image was indelibly imprinted on his mind. In this context, the protagonists of Le peintre et son modèle become Picasso, pictured in the act of painting, and his wife and last, great muse, Jacqueline.
Though the subject of the artist and model had been a prominent theme weaving through the various strands of Picasso’s multi-faceted oeuvre, never before had the artist explored so closely and with such exuberant vigor this essential artistic relationship of the painter and his subject. Leaving behind the battles he had waged with a selection of lauded masterpieces of the past–Delacroix’s Les Femmes d’Alger, Velazquez’s Las Meninas and Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe–Picasso began to probe the very nature of artistic practice itself, immersing the viewer into the realm of the studio to witness the private, haloed world of artistic inspiration and creation, or, as Marie-Laure Bernadac described, capturing “the impossible, the secret alchemy that takes place between the real model, the artist’s vision and feeling, and the reality of paint” (M-L. Bernadac, op. cit., exh. cat., 1988, p. 76).
With this theme, Picasso was able to push the boundaries of invention and representation to an extreme, examining the act of looking and the act of painting itself. Executed with an exuberant spontaneity and with the simplest of means, Le peintre et son modèle is composed of loose, gestural brushstrokes, and roughly applied color which contrast with the planes of white, empty canvas that constitute the composition. The nude’s breasts and stomach consist of simple, sensual green circles, while the figure of the male painter is depicted with an impressive economy of bold black lines, the antithesis of the voluptuous curves of the model in front of him. The spontaneity and arresting vitality of Le peintre et son modèle is a reflection of the complete sense of freedom that governed Picasso’s painting during this immensely fruitful period. Playing with various modes and techniques of representation, Picasso, with Le peintre et son modèle and the other works in this late, defining series, was relishing not only in his limitless capacity as a painter but also in his unique position as one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.
Figs:
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Bridgestone Museum, Toyko.
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Sold, Christie's, London, 4 February 2014, lot 31.
Pablo Picasso, L'artiste et son modèle, 1914. Picasso Museum, Paris.
Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 1927-1928. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
(Picasso, quoted in M-L. Bernadac, “Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model” in Late Picasso, exh. cat., London, 1988, p. 49)
Languishing on a red divan, a voluptuous nude reclines in Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle, as she poses for the artist who sits, brush in hand, in front of a blank canvas ready to begin painting. Painted on 8th April 1963, Le peintre et son modèle is one of the earliest in a prolific series of works in which Picasso explored, with an indefatigable zeal, the theme of the artist and model, meditating on the powerful, intimate and almost mystical act of painterly creation itself. Painted with a sense of spontaneity and expressive simplicity, Le peintre et son modèle encapsulates the astounding creative vigor that characterizes the great Spanish master’s late work. With bold swathes of vibrant color applied with thick, luxuriant brushstrokes, this painting encompasses the unbridled joy and fervent passion that Picasso found in painting in these final years, serving as a joyous celebration of his identity as an artist.
Picasso had begun this series just a few months earlier in February 1963 with a series of drawings (Zervos, vol. 23, nos. 122-127) that depict an artist in his studio, in the process of painting the nude model that reclines before him. This marked the beginning of an extraordinarily productive phase which saw the artist immerse himself completely in this theme. Hélène Parmelin, a writer and friend of the artist described the conception of this series: “In February 1963 Picasso broke loose. He painted ‘The painter and his model’. And from that moment he painted like a madman. Perhaps he will never paint again with such frenzy” (H. Parmelin, Picasso Says..., London, 1966, p. 85). Paintings endlessly flowed from Picasso’s hand over the following months, depicting myriad variations of the same subject: models in various reposes pictured both alone or in front of the artist, set in detailed interiors, undefined space or within bucolic, pastoral landscapes. “He painted four or five, six or seven canvases a day...”, Parmelin recalled, “He was possessed by a sort of enormous hunger for painting. He painted a huge number because he painted rapidly. And that is by no means an obvious truism” (ibid., p. 21).
Picasso painted Le peintre et son modèle at his home, Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, near Cannes in the South of France. The artist had married his young muse and lover, Jacqueline Roque, two years earlier in 1961 and the couple were living together in blissful contentment and happiness. Throughout this period, termed by John Richardson as “L’Époque Jacqueline”, Jacqueline served as a constant and fertile inspiration for the artist and her image permeated every aspect of his art; she appears as every nude, every portrait, head or artist’s model of this time. The artist did not need to draw her from life, but with her constant presence beside him, her image was indelibly imprinted on his mind. In this context, the protagonists of Le peintre et son modèle become Picasso, pictured in the act of painting, and his wife and last, great muse, Jacqueline.
Though the subject of the artist and model had been a prominent theme weaving through the various strands of Picasso’s multi-faceted oeuvre, never before had the artist explored so closely and with such exuberant vigor this essential artistic relationship of the painter and his subject. Leaving behind the battles he had waged with a selection of lauded masterpieces of the past–Delacroix’s Les Femmes d’Alger, Velazquez’s Las Meninas and Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe–Picasso began to probe the very nature of artistic practice itself, immersing the viewer into the realm of the studio to witness the private, haloed world of artistic inspiration and creation, or, as Marie-Laure Bernadac described, capturing “the impossible, the secret alchemy that takes place between the real model, the artist’s vision and feeling, and the reality of paint” (M-L. Bernadac, op. cit., exh. cat., 1988, p. 76).
With this theme, Picasso was able to push the boundaries of invention and representation to an extreme, examining the act of looking and the act of painting itself. Executed with an exuberant spontaneity and with the simplest of means, Le peintre et son modèle is composed of loose, gestural brushstrokes, and roughly applied color which contrast with the planes of white, empty canvas that constitute the composition. The nude’s breasts and stomach consist of simple, sensual green circles, while the figure of the male painter is depicted with an impressive economy of bold black lines, the antithesis of the voluptuous curves of the model in front of him. The spontaneity and arresting vitality of Le peintre et son modèle is a reflection of the complete sense of freedom that governed Picasso’s painting during this immensely fruitful period. Playing with various modes and techniques of representation, Picasso, with Le peintre et son modèle and the other works in this late, defining series, was relishing not only in his limitless capacity as a painter but also in his unique position as one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.
Figs:
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Bridgestone Museum, Toyko.
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Sold, Christie's, London, 4 February 2014, lot 31.
Pablo Picasso, L'artiste et son modèle, 1914. Picasso Museum, Paris.
Pablo Picasso, L'atelier, 1927-1928. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.