Picasso 1940-1960
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 Picasso Sculpture by painters Bust Groups Nude Animals Cats Music and dance Orientalism
Calendar : 20th century 1940-1949 1941 1948 1950-1959 1950 1954 1955 1959
See also : Top 10 Picasso Sculpture by painters Bust Groups Nude Animals Cats Music and dance Orientalism
Calendar : 20th century 1940-1949 1941 1948 1950-1959 1950 1954 1955 1959
1941 Femme dans un Fauteuil by PICASSO
Intro
Pablo Picasso once said that Dora Maar had personified the war. This is certainly an exaggeration following their breakup. It remains true that Pablo was reading the evolution of the horrors of war in the attitude and expression of the hypersensitive Dora.
From Guernica to the Nazi Occupation, Dora Maar is indeed a Cassandra for Picasso. He chose in 1940 to refuse the exile and stay working in his studio of the rue des Grands Augustins but he knew that he was threatened by the new authorities. He lives in lockdown with his muse, whom he adores physically but who once again becomes the symbol of resistance to horror, or even quite simply the symbol of horror.
Dora inevitably becomes his only model and his main theme. A drawing 27 x 22 cm sold for € 52K by Sotheby's on December 7, 2016 is typical of this morbid drift. Dora's face is a double blister where nose and mouth take divergent directions. The time when the cubist use of a double angle of view provided another vigor to the image is over.
Picasso marks his instability in an unusual way by changing the date of the drawing by an erasure, from May 7, 1941 to June 7, 1941. He no longer controls time. We will not know if Dora Maar au Chat, featuring the animal which symbolizes the dangers of the outside world, was painted before or after this anxious frenzy of June 1941.
From Guernica to the Nazi Occupation, Dora Maar is indeed a Cassandra for Picasso. He chose in 1940 to refuse the exile and stay working in his studio of the rue des Grands Augustins but he knew that he was threatened by the new authorities. He lives in lockdown with his muse, whom he adores physically but who once again becomes the symbol of resistance to horror, or even quite simply the symbol of horror.
Dora inevitably becomes his only model and his main theme. A drawing 27 x 22 cm sold for € 52K by Sotheby's on December 7, 2016 is typical of this morbid drift. Dora's face is a double blister where nose and mouth take divergent directions. The time when the cubist use of a double angle of view provided another vigor to the image is over.
Picasso marks his instability in an unusual way by changing the date of the drawing by an erasure, from May 7, 1941 to June 7, 1941. He no longer controls time. We will not know if Dora Maar au Chat, featuring the animal which symbolizes the dangers of the outside world, was painted before or after this anxious frenzy of June 1941.
1
Dora Maar au Chat
2006 SOLD for $ 95M by Sotheby's
Dora Maar au Chat is an oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted by Picasso in 1941. Among the many portraits that Picasso made of his mistress, it is one of the most meticulous, with vibrant colors.
Contrary to the artist's usual practice, it is dated by the year without indication of the day, thus appearing beside the rest of the work. Picasso gathered here his admiration and emotion in front of Dora. He emotionally departed from Dora in 1943 and from this specific painting before 1947.
Throughout Picasso's career, the excessively abundant work is dotted with some dazzling illuminations in which he expresses his deep feelings. Dora Maar au Chat is one of these masterpieces, alongside for example Le Garçon à la pipe, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, La Minotauromachie, La Femme qui pleure and Les Femmes d'Alger.
It is war time. The armchair is a space that might seem open but is in fact an obstacle to freedom, like the throne of Innocent X by Velazquez. Dora is willing to react, with her elegant clothes and her big hat as for going out. She smiles.
And then there is the cat. It is very small. Perched on the back of the chair, it walks towards the woman who does not care at all about it. Black in the least contrasted part of the image, it is sneaky. Pablo and Dora did not like cats, these pets that scratch for a simple change of mood. They preferred dogs. For these reasons this tiny cat cannot be a personification of the artist. It is at best an unsolicited visitor, at worst the danger of the outside world.
The amalgamation between human and animal interested Picasso. In the same phase, he paints portraits of Dora with the muzzle of their Afghan hound. Here Dora's very long nails are in some way the claws of the cat.
Dora Maar au Chat was sold for $ 95M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2006, lot 14.
Contrary to the artist's usual practice, it is dated by the year without indication of the day, thus appearing beside the rest of the work. Picasso gathered here his admiration and emotion in front of Dora. He emotionally departed from Dora in 1943 and from this specific painting before 1947.
Throughout Picasso's career, the excessively abundant work is dotted with some dazzling illuminations in which he expresses his deep feelings. Dora Maar au Chat is one of these masterpieces, alongside for example Le Garçon à la pipe, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, La Minotauromachie, La Femme qui pleure and Les Femmes d'Alger.
It is war time. The armchair is a space that might seem open but is in fact an obstacle to freedom, like the throne of Innocent X by Velazquez. Dora is willing to react, with her elegant clothes and her big hat as for going out. She smiles.
And then there is the cat. It is very small. Perched on the back of the chair, it walks towards the woman who does not care at all about it. Black in the least contrasted part of the image, it is sneaky. Pablo and Dora did not like cats, these pets that scratch for a simple change of mood. They preferred dogs. For these reasons this tiny cat cannot be a personification of the artist. It is at best an unsolicited visitor, at worst the danger of the outside world.
The amalgamation between human and animal interested Picasso. In the same phase, he paints portraits of Dora with the muzzle of their Afghan hound. Here Dora's very long nails are in some way the claws of the cat.
Dora Maar au Chat was sold for $ 95M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2006, lot 14.
2
June 19
2020 SOLD for $ 29.6M by Christie's
Dora Maar au Chat was not dated to the month and day by the artist. It is regrettable because the sequence of events of the German occupation and of the Vichy regime generates an increasing anxiety. Picasso's dealer in Paris, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, is a Jew who had lost the French nationality by the decrees of July 1940. On June 13, 1941 the French government begins the deportation of the Jews. On July 1, as a precaution, Kahnweiler sells his gallery to the daughter of his wife, Louise Leiris.
On November 20, 2019, Heffel sold at lot 136 for $ 9.2M CAD a Tête later titled Femme au Chapeau. oil on canvas 61 x 38 cm dated in that bad June 13, 1941, Her expression, difficult to read within Picasso's multi-perspective style, seems rigid. The bleak white of the chair's structure dominates the composition. The article shared by CTV News includes a video with the participation of David Heffel.
The new configuration of Dora's face responds to the anxieties of Picasso, who has decidedly little respect for Dora. He begins a series of oils on canvas on which Dora's other usual attributes are maintained : the long black hair, the extravagant hat, the smile despite adversity.
He locks her up in an armchair which will symbolize freedom if one day she manages to escape and which anticipates the powerless Popes of Bacon. The nose, which takes its autonomy in this disaster, has been compared to a dog's muzzle or an elephant's trunk.
Another sign of the hard times is the ordinary style of the seat, making bringing the assumption that the comfortable armchair of the smiling Femme au chat had been painted before that dark phase of June 1941.
That series may be viewed as a counter-attack by Picasso against Matisse's Femme au chapeau of 1905, featuring Mme Matisse, which had been an excuse for an explosion of colors.
Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted on June 19, 1941, was sold for $ 29.6M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on October 6, 2020, lot 8.
June 19, 1941, just over a year into the Nazi Occupation of Paris, was a prolific day for Pablo Picasso. In addition to the Femme assise dans un fauteuil sold by Christie's for $ 19.6M, he also painted an oil on canvas of smaller size, 100 x 81 cm, featuring the same woman in the same armchair, seated in profile instead of full front. The smile disappeared and the hands are torn in the anxiety and restrictions of the Occupation. This Femme dans un fauteuil was sold for $ 17.2M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 32 B.
On November 20, 2019, Heffel sold at lot 136 for $ 9.2M CAD a Tête later titled Femme au Chapeau. oil on canvas 61 x 38 cm dated in that bad June 13, 1941, Her expression, difficult to read within Picasso's multi-perspective style, seems rigid. The bleak white of the chair's structure dominates the composition. The article shared by CTV News includes a video with the participation of David Heffel.
The new configuration of Dora's face responds to the anxieties of Picasso, who has decidedly little respect for Dora. He begins a series of oils on canvas on which Dora's other usual attributes are maintained : the long black hair, the extravagant hat, the smile despite adversity.
He locks her up in an armchair which will symbolize freedom if one day she manages to escape and which anticipates the powerless Popes of Bacon. The nose, which takes its autonomy in this disaster, has been compared to a dog's muzzle or an elephant's trunk.
Another sign of the hard times is the ordinary style of the seat, making bringing the assumption that the comfortable armchair of the smiling Femme au chat had been painted before that dark phase of June 1941.
That series may be viewed as a counter-attack by Picasso against Matisse's Femme au chapeau of 1905, featuring Mme Matisse, which had been an excuse for an explosion of colors.
Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted on June 19, 1941, was sold for $ 29.6M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on October 6, 2020, lot 8.
June 19, 1941, just over a year into the Nazi Occupation of Paris, was a prolific day for Pablo Picasso. In addition to the Femme assise dans un fauteuil sold by Christie's for $ 19.6M, he also painted an oil on canvas of smaller size, 100 x 81 cm, featuring the same woman in the same armchair, seated in profile instead of full front. The smile disappeared and the hands are torn in the anxiety and restrictions of the Occupation. This Femme dans un fauteuil was sold for $ 17.2M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 32 B.
3
October 23
2012 SOLD for $ 29M by Sotheby's
Painted on October 23, 1941 in a stylized geometry of head and body with saturated colors, Femme assise dans un fauteuil is clearly the same woman as Dora au chat although she is not named. The hat is exuberant.
This oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 4.
A few hours before the sale, the specialized press announced that the painting had been damaged some years ago, and that the conflict between the parties was still open. Sotheby's confirmed the story, indicating that the repair was made with the utmost professionalism. That story was narrated by Bloomberg.
In the fall of 1941 the series of the Femme assise dans un fauteuil loses the identification of the details of woman and seat, and the psychology disappears. An example painted on November 3 was sold for £ 9.4M by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021, lot 120.
This oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 4.
A few hours before the sale, the specialized press announced that the painting had been damaged some years ago, and that the conflict between the parties was still open. Sotheby's confirmed the story, indicating that the repair was made with the utmost professionalism. That story was narrated by Bloomberg.
In the fall of 1941 the series of the Femme assise dans un fauteuil loses the identification of the details of woman and seat, and the psychology disappears. An example painted on November 3 was sold for £ 9.4M by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021, lot 120.
1948 Femme au Chignon dans un Fauteuil
2015 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
Once again in the search of another love partner and muse, Picasso, aged 61, met Françoise Gilot, aged 21, in 1943. They moved to Antibes in 1946. A son, Claude, was born in 1947.
In the opposite of his unfair representation of Dora in distress, Françoise was the Femme fleur worthy of his admiration. He attributed to her a saturated emerald green color which is also a symbol of rebirth after the war.
In the summer of 1948 Picasso, who was since 1944 a member of the Parti Communiste Français, attended a peace congress in Wroclaw while Françoise was just becoming pregnant again. She went angry for that abandonment. Picasso, who desired to maintain peace in their couple, gifted to her a Polish peasant coat brightly embroidered in red, blue and yellow.
The next period was happy. Picasso, who had been busy in ceramics and lithography, resumed painting by a small series of portraits of Françoise seated in an armchair, wearing the Polish garment. Every muse of Picasso is different from her predecessors. The strong headed Françoise, a skilled artist in her own right, is proud with a gentle smile.
Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on November 1, 1948, was
sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015, lot 21. It had been acquired in 1956 the Warsaw born Samuel Goldwyn, arguably impressed by the unexpected Polish element in Picasso's composition.
Within the series of portraits of the pregnant Françoise in an armchair with the Polish coat, Femme dans un fauteuil was begun and left unfinished on October 30, 1948, and completed on Christmas day. Picasso did not part of it. This oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm was sold for HK $ 93M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2023, lot 1032. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the opposite of his unfair representation of Dora in distress, Françoise was the Femme fleur worthy of his admiration. He attributed to her a saturated emerald green color which is also a symbol of rebirth after the war.
In the summer of 1948 Picasso, who was since 1944 a member of the Parti Communiste Français, attended a peace congress in Wroclaw while Françoise was just becoming pregnant again. She went angry for that abandonment. Picasso, who desired to maintain peace in their couple, gifted to her a Polish peasant coat brightly embroidered in red, blue and yellow.
The next period was happy. Picasso, who had been busy in ceramics and lithography, resumed painting by a small series of portraits of Françoise seated in an armchair, wearing the Polish garment. Every muse of Picasso is different from her predecessors. The strong headed Françoise, a skilled artist in her own right, is proud with a gentle smile.
Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on November 1, 1948, was
sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015, lot 21. It had been acquired in 1956 the Warsaw born Samuel Goldwyn, arguably impressed by the unexpected Polish element in Picasso's composition.
Within the series of portraits of the pregnant Françoise in an armchair with the Polish coat, Femme dans un fauteuil was begun and left unfinished on October 30, 1948, and completed on Christmas day. Picasso did not part of it. This oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm was sold for HK $ 93M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2023, lot 1032. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1950 Claude et Paloma
2013 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
After the war, Picasso needs a change of life. He promotes peace, alongside Aragon and the Communistes, and draws the Colombe in 1949. Beyond painting, he begins to bring a personal artistic style to pottery. After several extended stays on the Côte d'Azur, he settles permanently in 1948 with Françoise in Vallauris, near the Atelier Madoura.
He takes a new interest in children, who had symbolized the future in 1905 during the Période Rose. They are no longer future adults but human beings in their own right, with their sensitivity, curiosity and creativity. He creates a new family circle with Françoise : Claude was born in May 1947 and Paloma in April 1949.
On November 4, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 9M a portrait of Claude and Paloma, oil and ripolin on panel 116 x 89 cm painted in Vallauris on January 20, 1950, lot 17.
The baby is in a high chair, and her brother is sitting next to her. The perspective is taken from a child's height to enter their own world. Well lit, Paloma is the main focus of the image. Her young face is realistic and confident, in an oval head. The left hand is active, with fingers spread. Claude is half in the shade, in the signature double perspective style of Picasso.
This family happiness is transient. In 1953 an exasperated Françoise leaves, taking with her the two children. Picasso will succeed in building his peace of mind in 1961 in Mougins, with Jacqueline.
He takes a new interest in children, who had symbolized the future in 1905 during the Période Rose. They are no longer future adults but human beings in their own right, with their sensitivity, curiosity and creativity. He creates a new family circle with Françoise : Claude was born in May 1947 and Paloma in April 1949.
On November 4, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 9M a portrait of Claude and Paloma, oil and ripolin on panel 116 x 89 cm painted in Vallauris on January 20, 1950, lot 17.
The baby is in a high chair, and her brother is sitting next to her. The perspective is taken from a child's height to enter their own world. Well lit, Paloma is the main focus of the image. Her young face is realistic and confident, in an oval head. The left hand is active, with fingers spread. Claude is half in the shade, in the signature double perspective style of Picasso.
This family happiness is transient. In 1953 an exasperated Françoise leaves, taking with her the two children. Picasso will succeed in building his peace of mind in 1961 in Mougins, with Jacqueline.
1954 Femme Accroupie by Picasso
2017 SOLD for $ 37M by Christie's
Françoise left in September 1953 with the two children, Claude and Paloma. A distraught Picasso is looking for a new muse in Vallauris. In April 1954 he sees Sylvette with her long blonde ponytail. The shy 19 year old agrees to meet the artist but fears his flirtation.
Pablo already knew the brunette Jacqueline who has a job at Madoura. She accepts to live with him. In June Pablo paints his first portraits of Jacqueline. She is 28 years old and Picasso 45 more. They will not leave each other and will marry in Vallauris in 1961.
A quarter century before, Picasso sorted the blonde Marie-Thérèse from the the street for her physical features thet could help him in his career. It is not by chance that his new muse Jacqueline looks like one of the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix with her black hair, dark eyes and straight nose.
On October 8, 1954 Pablo paints three oils on canvas in a single size, 146 x 114 cm. Jacqueline in long dress is crouched on the floor in an interior, hands clasped around her raised knees.
In this new series painted shortly before the death of Matisse, Pablo wants to demonstrate his skill as a colorist. It is sunny in Vallauris and the blue sky behind the window provides a bright atmosphere. Realism and proportions are not considered : the artist uses his signature style of simultaneous vision of two profile faces of the sitter and the limbs are too frail. The lozenges and half lozenges of the skirt provide a geometric element.
One of these paintings was sold for $ 37M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 39 A. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Another opus, kept at the Museo Picasso Malaga, is similar, with less bold face lines and a less composed background. The third one was sold for £ 7.4M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 55.
Pablo already knew the brunette Jacqueline who has a job at Madoura. She accepts to live with him. In June Pablo paints his first portraits of Jacqueline. She is 28 years old and Picasso 45 more. They will not leave each other and will marry in Vallauris in 1961.
A quarter century before, Picasso sorted the blonde Marie-Thérèse from the the street for her physical features thet could help him in his career. It is not by chance that his new muse Jacqueline looks like one of the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix with her black hair, dark eyes and straight nose.
On October 8, 1954 Pablo paints three oils on canvas in a single size, 146 x 114 cm. Jacqueline in long dress is crouched on the floor in an interior, hands clasped around her raised knees.
In this new series painted shortly before the death of Matisse, Pablo wants to demonstrate his skill as a colorist. It is sunny in Vallauris and the blue sky behind the window provides a bright atmosphere. Realism and proportions are not considered : the artist uses his signature style of simultaneous vision of two profile faces of the sitter and the limbs are too frail. The lozenges and half lozenges of the skirt provide a geometric element.
One of these paintings was sold for $ 37M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 39 A. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Another opus, kept at the Museo Picasso Malaga, is similar, with less bold face lines and a less composed background. The third one was sold for £ 7.4M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 55.
1955 Les Femmes d'Alger
Intro
The Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix, by inspiring Picasso, had a role in the genesis of modern painting. Executed in Paris in 1907, the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon shows a group of women. Unlike in Delacroix, they are naked. They are not in the hot atmosphere of a harem but their offering is venal.
It is difficult to recognize the influence of Delacroix upon the Demoiselles because the tribal art that inspired the deconstruction of forms is the real origin of Cubism. Other influences have also been identified for this painting which is one of the most important breakthroughs of Western art : el Greco, Cézanne, Gauguin.
Matisse's death in November 1954 deprives Picasso of a friend with whom he liked to compare his ideas about the essentials of art. Matisse's Odalisques were famous. Picasso had been little interested so far by Orientalism but he was somehow jealous of his late friend.
To overcome Matisse in the history of art, Picasso resuscitates the Femmes d'Alger in a series of fifteen paintings numbered A to O in the chronological order of their execution. This project is unique in the history of art as the artist carefully imitated several styles used by himself starting from his invention of Cubism.
Picasso leaves no doubt about his real intention by acknowledging not without humor that he got the legacy of Matisse's odalisques. His new muse, Jacqueline, resembles one of the odalisques by Delacroix. Matisse's Nu bleu is another influence.
It is difficult to recognize the influence of Delacroix upon the Demoiselles because the tribal art that inspired the deconstruction of forms is the real origin of Cubism. Other influences have also been identified for this painting which is one of the most important breakthroughs of Western art : el Greco, Cézanne, Gauguin.
Matisse's death in November 1954 deprives Picasso of a friend with whom he liked to compare his ideas about the essentials of art. Matisse's Odalisques were famous. Picasso had been little interested so far by Orientalism but he was somehow jealous of his late friend.
To overcome Matisse in the history of art, Picasso resuscitates the Femmes d'Alger in a series of fifteen paintings numbered A to O in the chronological order of their execution. This project is unique in the history of art as the artist carefully imitated several styles used by himself starting from his invention of Cubism.
Picasso leaves no doubt about his real intention by acknowledging not without humor that he got the legacy of Matisse's odalisques. His new muse, Jacqueline, resembles one of the odalisques by Delacroix. Matisse's Nu bleu is another influence.
1
January 17,Version F
2020 SOLD for $ 29M by Christie's
From December 13, 1954 to January 18, 1955, Picasso painted six sketches 46 x 55 cm, sometimes limited to one detail. The day before the end of this first phase, he made an oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm which foreshadows the final work by its overall composition, its brilliant colors and the post-Cubist interweaving of forms.
That F version was sold for $ 29M by Christie's on July 10, 2020, lot 52. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
That F version was sold for $ 29M by Christie's on July 10, 2020, lot 52. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
February 14, Version O
2015 SOLD for $ 180M by Christie's
The next phase is devoted to larger formats, including grisaille paintings which allow the details of the drawing to be worked out. The result meets what was undoubtedly Picasso's main objective : making a modern following to the Demoiselles d'Avignon.
The Version J, painted on January 26, 1955, is the tenth opus in the series. It features the four women of the full compositions, one seated, one reclining, one smoking a narghile and one serving tea. This oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm was sold for $ 18.6M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2005, lot 12.
The Version L is a grisaille, 130 x 97 cm, dated February 9, 1955. The topic, centered on a figure of dominatrix woman, is executed in the manner of the experimental years of Cubism before the First World War. The cumulated experience of Picasso makes this painting a luminous work that exceeds in this respect many early Cubist paintings of the master. It was sold for $ 21.3M by Christie's on May 4, 2011.
The final iteration, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm achieved on 14 February 1955, appears as a synthesis of this rather disparate set, like the ultimate completion of Pablo's art on that date.
It takes much imagination to see Delacroix's influence in the Version O, but the comparison with the Demoiselles is obvious. The women are naked or half dressed but in a later cubism style that excites the imagination by blurring the vision. The standing woman on the left displays a much better readability that joins the then recent art of Pablo.
Pablo has always enjoyed to confront himself with the great masters. The large mirror anticipates his series of Las Meninas painted two years later.
The fifteen paintings are exhibited together to be sold as a batch. For that purpose, they should not be considered as fourteen sketches and a final painting but as fifteen versions on the same theme.
Thus the dispersion will not be made under the control of the artist or his dealers but by the Ganz couple who bought the set in 1956 for owning the final version (O). The Ganzs will also keep for their collection one of the most complete sketches (C), a style typical of the time of Marie-Thérèse (H) and two grisailles of the final phase (K and M).
The selection of the Ganzs is much judicious. It does not include the 54 x 65 cm complete version of the first phase (F), probably because it does not bring much beside the O version.
The Version O of Les Femmes d'Alger was sold by Christie's for $ 32M on 10 November 10, 1997 and for $ 180M on May 11, 2015, lot 8A.
The Version J, painted on January 26, 1955, is the tenth opus in the series. It features the four women of the full compositions, one seated, one reclining, one smoking a narghile and one serving tea. This oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm was sold for $ 18.6M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2005, lot 12.
The Version L is a grisaille, 130 x 97 cm, dated February 9, 1955. The topic, centered on a figure of dominatrix woman, is executed in the manner of the experimental years of Cubism before the First World War. The cumulated experience of Picasso makes this painting a luminous work that exceeds in this respect many early Cubist paintings of the master. It was sold for $ 21.3M by Christie's on May 4, 2011.
The final iteration, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm achieved on 14 February 1955, appears as a synthesis of this rather disparate set, like the ultimate completion of Pablo's art on that date.
It takes much imagination to see Delacroix's influence in the Version O, but the comparison with the Demoiselles is obvious. The women are naked or half dressed but in a later cubism style that excites the imagination by blurring the vision. The standing woman on the left displays a much better readability that joins the then recent art of Pablo.
Pablo has always enjoyed to confront himself with the great masters. The large mirror anticipates his series of Las Meninas painted two years later.
The fifteen paintings are exhibited together to be sold as a batch. For that purpose, they should not be considered as fourteen sketches and a final painting but as fifteen versions on the same theme.
Thus the dispersion will not be made under the control of the artist or his dealers but by the Ganz couple who bought the set in 1956 for owning the final version (O). The Ganzs will also keep for their collection one of the most complete sketches (C), a style typical of the time of Marie-Thérèse (H) and two grisailles of the final phase (K and M).
The selection of the Ganzs is much judicious. It does not include the 54 x 65 cm complete version of the first phase (F), probably because it does not bring much beside the O version.
The Version O of Les Femmes d'Alger was sold by Christie's for $ 32M on 10 November 10, 1997 and for $ 180M on May 11, 2015, lot 8A.
1955 Femme accroupie au Costume Turc
2007 SOLD for $ 31M by Christie's
A new series of paintings beginning on November 19, 1955 combines this orientalist fancy with the exploration of the face and body of his new muse Jacqueline Roque, shown in clothes and attitudes of a Turkish harem from Pablo's imagination. The style resumes the normal course of evolution of Picasso's art.
On February 4, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 17M the half length portrait in an armchair, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on 20 November 1955, where Jacqueline is adorned with multicolored turban and vest. Her face is almost realistic.
Another oil on canvas of the same series, 116 x 89 cm, dated 26 November 1955 is titled Femme accroupie au costume turc (Jacqueline). It was sold for $ 31M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 73. Drawing attention to the body rather than to the face, this figure is more erotic.
On February 4, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 17M the half length portrait in an armchair, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm painted on 20 November 1955, where Jacqueline is adorned with multicolored turban and vest. Her face is almost realistic.
Another oil on canvas of the same series, 116 x 89 cm, dated 26 November 1955 is titled Femme accroupie au costume turc (Jacqueline). It was sold for $ 31M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 73. Drawing attention to the body rather than to the face, this figure is more erotic.
1959 Tête Sculptée de Dora Maar
2007 SOLD for $ 29M by Sotheby's
At the beginning of 1941 Picasso relocates his series of busts of Marie-Thérèse, made ten years earlier at Boisgeloup, to his studio on rue des Grands Augustins. In the same year, he makes a plaster head of Dora Maar, 80 cm high. This domineering work, larger than life, is in an idealized style which is in total opposition to the dramatic or allegorical portraits of Dora that he was painting at the same period.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
