.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
On the 26th of May 1944, on two identical sheets of paper, Picasso experimented with the invention of a new female form (Z.13.271.272). Both executed in pencil and later titled Nu debout, the two studies toy with the idea of transforming the female form to a pin-figure, able to nevertheless convey a sensuous silhouette. The pair – to which the present work belongs – may have served Picasso as a study for the large canvas Nu couché et femme se lavant les pieds (Z.13.273), which he would complete almost three months later.
The lying figure in that painting relates, in essence, to the figure in the present drawing: in both works, the head is reduced to a circle, surmounting a long and straight neck, while the breasts seem to hang like heavy fruits from a tree. A month after executing Nu debout, Picasso returned to this idea in a series of further drawings (Z.13.320-322, 324 & 325) in which the female profile, emphasised in its vertical élan, is crowned by rotund, generous breasts.
In one drawing of the series in particular (Z.13.325), Picasso combined studies of figures similar to that illustrated in Nu debout with a figure washing her feet, suggesting that the artist may have first intended to include in the painting a standing figure and not a lying one. The idea that had started to emerge in Nu debout, however, must have seriously interested Picasso, for at the end of June that year, the artist had begun a painting entirely devoted to it (Z.13.305).
Introducing a new female form in Picasso’s work, Nu debout may have been related to the entrance, in the artist’s life, of a new female figure. In 1943 – a year before the execution of the present drawing – Picasso had met Françoise Gilot. Although still involved with Dora Maar, the artist would grow closer and closer to the young woman, eventually moving in with her in 1946. Like he had done time and time before, Picasso strove to distil the essence of his beloved into some significant, truthful form. This time, Françoise’s round face and flowing hair gave birth to the idea of a flower-woman, an image that would find its most direct expression in the 1946 painting La femme fleur (Françoise Gilot Collection). With her feet firmly planted on the ground, hair like a petal and breasts rotund like fruits, Nu debout carries the seeds of an idea that, with the arrival of Françoise in his life, would gain more and more prominence in Picasso’s art.
The lying figure in that painting relates, in essence, to the figure in the present drawing: in both works, the head is reduced to a circle, surmounting a long and straight neck, while the breasts seem to hang like heavy fruits from a tree. A month after executing Nu debout, Picasso returned to this idea in a series of further drawings (Z.13.320-322, 324 & 325) in which the female profile, emphasised in its vertical élan, is crowned by rotund, generous breasts.
In one drawing of the series in particular (Z.13.325), Picasso combined studies of figures similar to that illustrated in Nu debout with a figure washing her feet, suggesting that the artist may have first intended to include in the painting a standing figure and not a lying one. The idea that had started to emerge in Nu debout, however, must have seriously interested Picasso, for at the end of June that year, the artist had begun a painting entirely devoted to it (Z.13.305).
Introducing a new female form in Picasso’s work, Nu debout may have been related to the entrance, in the artist’s life, of a new female figure. In 1943 – a year before the execution of the present drawing – Picasso had met Françoise Gilot. Although still involved with Dora Maar, the artist would grow closer and closer to the young woman, eventually moving in with her in 1946. Like he had done time and time before, Picasso strove to distil the essence of his beloved into some significant, truthful form. This time, Françoise’s round face and flowing hair gave birth to the idea of a flower-woman, an image that would find its most direct expression in the 1946 painting La femme fleur (Françoise Gilot Collection). With her feet firmly planted on the ground, hair like a petal and breasts rotund like fruits, Nu debout carries the seeds of an idea that, with the arrival of Françoise in his life, would gain more and more prominence in Picasso’s art.