The wrought iron sculptures of his childhood friend Julio Gonzalez encourage him to assemble forms featuring human organs. Watching from various angles creates the composition of his paintings as Matisse had done in his early days. When a rocky architecture posed on a beach evokes a woman whose hollows appeal for eroticism, it is unclear between Picasso and Dali who influenced the other.
Picasso defined this ephemeral surrealist period as the series of Bones, supported by some craze for the skeletons. Do not believe what artists say.
In fact Pablo is frustrated. He had chosen Marie-Thérèse as a muse but she is still a minor and he hides her in an apartment close to his. Olga certainly has doubts about Pablo's loyalty, and acrimony begins to settle in the couple.
Picasso's Bones are indeed women. The painter will later say that they are showing Olga, perhaps because he can no longer accept his frustration at not being legally able to display Marie-Thérèse.
On January 18, 1930 he was still painting L'Acrobate, a poor imitation of La Musique by Matisse, 162 x 130 cm. At the end of January in the same size the Baigneuse is Olga seated at the seaside. In a surrealist construction she has the overall morphology of a naked woman.
On February 1 Femme is a hollowed head that has retained the triangular beak and vertical jaws of the previous Baigneuse. This 64 x 47 cm oil on panel was sold for $ 8M including premium by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011 over a lower estimate of $ 3M.
On February 2, 1930 in the same technique and size, 'Figure' foils the attempts to interpret the organic features, even in comparison with the Femme from the day before, as if Picasso had wanted to ensure an abstract jump of his fantasies from Olga to Marie-Thérèse. This oil and charcoal is estimated £ 3M for sale by Christie's in London on February 27, lot 106.
SOLD for £ 8.3M including premium
#AuctionUpdate #PabloPicasso’s ‘Figure’ sells for £8,333,750. The artist created this oil painting depicting totemic, monumental female figures towering against a pale blue sky during his so-called ‘bone period’. pic.twitter.com/wK6ACQxf6m
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) February 27, 2018