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Lot Essay
Marie-Thérèse Walter was still in her late teens when, in January 1927, Picasso walked up to her outside the Galeries Lafayette where she had been shopping. He had one of the most memorable pick-up lines of all time: "Miss, you have an interesting face. I would like to do your portrait. I have a feeling we will do great things together. I am Picasso" (quoted in M. FitzGerald, Picasso's Marie-Thérèse, exh. cat., Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, 2008). Picasso pulled off this moment of seduction as if he were Zeus descending from Olympus and carrying off a young nymph who had caught his fancy. They walked off together; Marie-Thérèse came to his studio the next day, posed for the artist, and soon afterwards they became lovers. This all had to be managed with strict discretion and the utmost secrecy—Picasso had a wife, Olga, whom he married in 1918. She was the mother of his young son, Paulo, whom he adored. He was not yet prepared to upset a marriage which had provided him with all the trappings of an haute-bourgeois domesticity he had come to enjoy. But at the same time, Picasso in his mid-forties, was desperate for an outlet, an escape into a sexual adventure that would rejuvenate his life and stimulate his art. The beautiful and acquiescently sensual Marie-Thérèse filled both these needs to perfection.
Picasso purchased Boisgeloup in 1930. The odd name of this property derives from bois-jaloux—it was in a hidden wooded area, as if screened off by a jalousie. The old house had neither electricity nor central heating, and Picasso did not undertake to modernize it. He prized Boisgeloup for its seclusion, and it was only about 40 miles from Paris, a quick jaunt in his chauffeured Hispano-Suiza motorcar. He set up a sculpture studio in his new country retreat, and there were large rooms in which to paint. Best of all, Boisgeloup was the perfect location for his trysts with Marie-Thérèse. Picasso would bring her to the chateau during the week, and she could easily slip away to nearby Gisors or back to Paris when Olga and Paulo showed up for the weekends.
It is not clear when Olga learned about Marie-Thérèse, but she could not help noticing the frequent appearance of a young blonde woman in Picasso’s paintings by the spring of 1934. In March and April 1934 Picasso painted several versions of Marie-Thérèse and her sister Jeanne reading from a book (Zervos, vol. VIII, nos. 190-194). In mid-September 1934, after a summer in which Picasso’s interest in bullfighting provoked a particularly fierce and violent series of works, Picasso returned to sensual portraits of Marie-Thérèse and the theme of a woman in an interior. At Boisgeloup on September 18 and 19 a series of drawings (Zervos, vol. VIII, nos. 235-237), of which the present lot is the first, reveals a continued development of this subject matter. In Femme assise, Marie-Thérèse is seated on a chair looking to the right and leaning on a bolster with a plant in the background while in a variation (Zervos, vol. VII, no. 236) she is reclining on a divan. The next day Picasso made four separate studies on one sheet (Zervos, vol. VII, no. 237), in which a jaunty hat appears for the first time. Rejecting the reclining version, but maintaining some of the momentum of the pose, Picasso gave to his pensive sitter not only a bouquet of flowers but what appears to be an open book on her lap. Shortly after in Seated Woman (Zervos, vol. VIII, 241) Picasso simplified the format of his work, eliminating the accoutrements but retaining the hat and open book.
Picasso purchased Boisgeloup in 1930. The odd name of this property derives from bois-jaloux—it was in a hidden wooded area, as if screened off by a jalousie. The old house had neither electricity nor central heating, and Picasso did not undertake to modernize it. He prized Boisgeloup for its seclusion, and it was only about 40 miles from Paris, a quick jaunt in his chauffeured Hispano-Suiza motorcar. He set up a sculpture studio in his new country retreat, and there were large rooms in which to paint. Best of all, Boisgeloup was the perfect location for his trysts with Marie-Thérèse. Picasso would bring her to the chateau during the week, and she could easily slip away to nearby Gisors or back to Paris when Olga and Paulo showed up for the weekends.
It is not clear when Olga learned about Marie-Thérèse, but she could not help noticing the frequent appearance of a young blonde woman in Picasso’s paintings by the spring of 1934. In March and April 1934 Picasso painted several versions of Marie-Thérèse and her sister Jeanne reading from a book (Zervos, vol. VIII, nos. 190-194). In mid-September 1934, after a summer in which Picasso’s interest in bullfighting provoked a particularly fierce and violent series of works, Picasso returned to sensual portraits of Marie-Thérèse and the theme of a woman in an interior. At Boisgeloup on September 18 and 19 a series of drawings (Zervos, vol. VIII, nos. 235-237), of which the present lot is the first, reveals a continued development of this subject matter. In Femme assise, Marie-Thérèse is seated on a chair looking to the right and leaning on a bolster with a plant in the background while in a variation (Zervos, vol. VII, no. 236) she is reclining on a divan. The next day Picasso made four separate studies on one sheet (Zervos, vol. VII, no. 237), in which a jaunty hat appears for the first time. Rejecting the reclining version, but maintaining some of the momentum of the pose, Picasso gave to his pensive sitter not only a bouquet of flowers but what appears to be an open book on her lap. Shortly after in Seated Woman (Zervos, vol. VIII, 241) Picasso simplified the format of his work, eliminating the accoutrements but retaining the hat and open book.