- 171
Pablo Picasso
Description
- Pablo Picasso
- CHAISE
dated 6 D 42 (upper left)
- pen and ink on paper
- 65.8 by 50.9 cm., 25 7/8 by 20in.
Provenance
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1942 à 1943, Paris, 1961, vol. 12, no. 174, illustrated pl. 88
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: Nazi Occupation 1940-1944, San Francisco, 1999, no. 42-183, illustrated p. 172
Catalogue Note
The present work is probably a study of a kitchen chair from the house at Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre where Picasso spent time with Marie-Thérèse until the outbreak of war. Although the house was then occupied by the Germans, Picasso slipped back during the war to rescue some doves he had kept there.
This work also certainly pays homage to Vincent van Gogh's depiction of the chair in his bedroom (fig. 1). Like for van Gogh, the chair becomes a symbol of lonliness and loss for Picasso. It may also symbolise the waiting for the end of the war.
Fig. 1 Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh's Chair, 1888, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London