Pablo Picasso

Marie-Thérèse Walter (a gift from the artist)
Galerie Krugier, Geneva

Geneva, Galerie Krugier, Une collection Picasso, œuvres de 1937 à 1946, 1973, no. 23, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, œuvres de 1943 et 1944, Paris, vol. 13, no. 188, illustrated pl. 93
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: Nazi Occupation 1940-1944, San Francisco, 1999, no. 43-318, illustrated p. 293

Couple sur un banc belongs to a series of works depicting figures on a park bench that Picasso executed during the Second World War. The initial concept portrayed a mother and child, but during the course of 1943 the works developed to show a couple embracing. In the present image, the man and woman are fragmented into brightly coloured planes that merge together to emphasise their kiss. Marie-Laure Bernadec analyses this subject in the artist's work: 'Picasso brings two beings into one, expressing the physical blending that takes place at the moment of the kiss. Never has erotic force been suggested with such realism' (M.-L. Bernadec, Late Picasso: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, 1953-72, (exhibition catalogue), London, 1988, pp. 80-81).