Lot 36
  • 36

Pablo Picasso

Estimate
1,500,000 - 2,000,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Pablo Picasso
  • Nu aux bras levés
  • Signed Picasso and dated1907 (lower right)
  • Pastel, black chalk and pencil on paper (recto)

    Pen and red ink on paper (verso)

  • 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 in.
  • 24 by 19 cm

Provenance

Albert E. Gallatin, New York

George L. K. Morris, New York

Walter P. Chrysler Jr., New York

Private Collection, New York

Private Collection (acquired by the present owner in June 1998 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 3, 2006, lot 28)

Acquired at the above sale

Exhibited

Chicago, The Arts Club, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Collection, 1937, no. 27

Detroit, Institute of Arts, Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Collection, 1937, no. 98

New York, Perls Galleries, Picasso Before 1910, 1939, no. 24

Richmond, Virginia, Museum of Fine Arts; Philadelphia, Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., 1941, no. 212 (titled Les Demoiselles d'Avignon)

Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Pablo Picasso, 1988-89, no. 151

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum & Barcelona, Museu Picasso, Picasso in Paris, 1900-1907, 2011

Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2011, on temporary loan

Literature

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, oeuvres de 1906 à 1912, vol. 2*, Paris, 1942, no. 5, illustrated pl. 3 (verso drawing not mentioned)

Pierre Daix & Jean Rosselet, Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907-1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works, Boston, 1979, no. 79, illustrated p. 206 (titled Nu aux bras levés and verso drawing not mentioned)

Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Cubism 1907-1917, New York, 1990, no. 36, illustrated p. 42 (verso drawing not mentioned)

Paolo Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, L'Opera Completa di Picasso cubista, Milan, no. 77, illustrated p. 92

Condition

Excellent condition over all. The double-sided sheet is affixed a window-mount at the four corners. The recto of the sheet very slightly time-stained, and bears a deckled edge at the top. The verso of the sheet bears residual adhesive at the two top corners from a previous mount.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Picasso executed this colorful pastel of a standing nude at the same time as his landmark composition, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.  This work is one of at least six full figure drawings that Picasso completed during the spring and summer of 1907.  According to Daix and Rosselet, the present work is believed to be the first incarnation, although a mirror image pose of the figure in the large oil, Nu à la draperie, now at the Hermitage. 

This period for Picasso was marked by an enthusiastic reaction to the African tribal sculptures that began to flood the museums and private collections in Paris after the turn of the twentieth century. These objects encouraged an entire generation of artists in Paris to expand the boundaries of representation. Artists such as Constantin Brancusi, Henri Matisse and Andre Derain invoked the forms of tribal sculpture as they sought out a new visual language. Picasso's reaction to these works was particularly resonant in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and related studies such as the present work. The dramatic simplification of form and shamanistic presence of these works appealed to Picasso and ignited a course that would lead to him to Cubism.

In his catalogue raisonné, Christian Zervos titled this work Jeune garçon nu, believing the figure to be male.  Recent scholars have been more ambiguous about the gender of the figure, titling the work Nu aux bras levés, or, in the case of Josep Palau i Fabre, Androgyne with Upraised Arms.  In his consideration of this work, he writes: "The magnificent Androgyne with Upraised Arms, which some do not think is a male figure since it is obviously quite androgynous, seems to claim a place in the remote origins of the projects that culminated in the aforementioned Nude with Drapery.  Its ambiguity might have been forced on Picasso by his own eagerness to do away with relief.  The absence of a female breast on the one hand, and the non-existence of male genitals on the other, make it possible for the artist to describe a body in complete harmony with the drapery, while nothing stands out from the flatness of the space.  The fact that it is a drawing could be an excuse to avoid the use of paint and the problems that are inherent to it.  How can one possibly paint an eye or nose or a mouth and not be trapped into using some of the atavisms of the language of painting?  How can they be sketched without the paint looking like a caricature of itself or a banality?  Surely it is better to blatantly draw them.  A drawing, its lines, can afford to express a naïveté that is more difficult to obtain and justify with a paintbrush, as this instrument carries connotations of undeniable wisdom.  Pastel introduces color and places us halfway between drawing and painting" (J. Palau i Fabre, Picasso Cubism 1907-1917, New York, 1990, p. 42).