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拍品专文
Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
During the mid-1940s, while Paris was still under the burden of the Occupation, Pablo Picasso began a relationship with a young woman, Françoise Gilot. This would bring about an incredible, joyous liberation in his work. Drawn in 1946, just after the end of the Second World War, Portrait de femme is filled with a sense of celebration. The sensuous flowing curves with which Picasso has so caressingly depicted Françoise's face, hair and upper body speak of new-found freedoms, both with her and with the world at large. After the austerity of so much of Picasso's wartime output, for instance his melancholy, angular still life compositions and his tormented images of his lover Dora Maar, the lyrical, sensual form of Françoise made a bright, marked contrast.
Picasso met Françoise Gilot in the restaurant 'Le Catalan' on the Rue des Grands-Augustins, down the street from the artist's studio, in May 1943. Picasso, who had been dining with Dora Maar, had clearly been intrigued by the two young women sitting with his friend and engineered an introduction. When he asked about them, and the two girls explained that they were artists, Picasso replied: "Well...I'm a painter too. You must come to my studio and see some of my paintings" (quoted in F. Gilot and C. Lake, Life with Picasso, New York, 1964, p. 15). Françoise in turn became a frequent visitor to Picasso's studio and soon was the artist's lover.
Françoise recounted in her memoir of her years with Picasso how he made some drawings of her from life: "'I almost never work from a model, but since you're here, maybe I ought to try,' he said to me one afternoon" (ibid., p. 115). Disappointed with the results, Picasso tore them up. During a second session he studied her carefully, but drew nothing. Thereafter he drew and painted her purely from memory.
Beginning in late April 1946, Picasso began making close-up portraits of Françoise seen head-on, using pencil in a crisp linear manner. The present Portrait de femme is a particularly striking example of the series where Picasso has forcefully rendered his companion's facial features and abundant hair. The photographer Brassaï, a close friend of the artist, remembered Françoise: "I was struck by the vitality of this girl, by her tenacity to triumph over obstacles. Her entire personality radiated an impression of freshness and restless vitality" (quoted in Conversations avec Picasso, Paris, 1964, p. 124). Michael C. FitzGerald wrote: "Throughout their years together, Picasso tapped this energy and channeled it into his art" (Picasso and Portraiture, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996, p. 415).
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
During the mid-1940s, while Paris was still under the burden of the Occupation, Pablo Picasso began a relationship with a young woman, Françoise Gilot. This would bring about an incredible, joyous liberation in his work. Drawn in 1946, just after the end of the Second World War, Portrait de femme is filled with a sense of celebration. The sensuous flowing curves with which Picasso has so caressingly depicted Françoise's face, hair and upper body speak of new-found freedoms, both with her and with the world at large. After the austerity of so much of Picasso's wartime output, for instance his melancholy, angular still life compositions and his tormented images of his lover Dora Maar, the lyrical, sensual form of Françoise made a bright, marked contrast.
Picasso met Françoise Gilot in the restaurant 'Le Catalan' on the Rue des Grands-Augustins, down the street from the artist's studio, in May 1943. Picasso, who had been dining with Dora Maar, had clearly been intrigued by the two young women sitting with his friend and engineered an introduction. When he asked about them, and the two girls explained that they were artists, Picasso replied: "Well...I'm a painter too. You must come to my studio and see some of my paintings" (quoted in F. Gilot and C. Lake, Life with Picasso, New York, 1964, p. 15). Françoise in turn became a frequent visitor to Picasso's studio and soon was the artist's lover.
Françoise recounted in her memoir of her years with Picasso how he made some drawings of her from life: "'I almost never work from a model, but since you're here, maybe I ought to try,' he said to me one afternoon" (ibid., p. 115). Disappointed with the results, Picasso tore them up. During a second session he studied her carefully, but drew nothing. Thereafter he drew and painted her purely from memory.
Beginning in late April 1946, Picasso began making close-up portraits of Françoise seen head-on, using pencil in a crisp linear manner. The present Portrait de femme is a particularly striking example of the series where Picasso has forcefully rendered his companion's facial features and abundant hair. The photographer Brassaï, a close friend of the artist, remembered Françoise: "I was struck by the vitality of this girl, by her tenacity to triumph over obstacles. Her entire personality radiated an impression of freshness and restless vitality" (quoted in Conversations avec Picasso, Paris, 1964, p. 124). Michael C. FitzGerald wrote: "Throughout their years together, Picasso tapped this energy and channeled it into his art" (Picasso and Portraiture, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996, p. 415).