Pablo Picasso

Femme nue assise is a quintessential example of the interplay between Matisse and Picasso during the war years.  Picasso, who was barred by the Nazis from exhibiting his works, was maintaining a low profile in Paris while Matisse resided in the south of France for most of the occupation.  Although the two artists had limited physical interaction during this time they kept informed about the other’s work by probing common friends for information and also bartering their paintings.  “In short, Matisse and Picasso are now truly each other’s imaginary addressee.  Pierre Courthion, writing in Switzerland during the war, notes that the first question Matisse asks a visitor from Paris will invariably be: ‘And Picasso? What is he doing?’ And Courthion adds, ‘I have no doubt that…Picasso is similarly curious to know what Matisse has painted’” (Yves–Alain Bois, Matisse and Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1998, p. 133) 

The present drawing was completed by Picasso in Paris in June of 1944.  The nude figure with her large almond shaped eyes, straight nose, and carefully outlined lips was most like influenced by Picasso’s lover, Françoise Gilot.  The image is unusual as the figure is conveyed with sequences of curved lines rather than in the more angular style typical of this period. The figure is seated but rendered in a full length view and the complex curves of the woman’s body are drawn with minimal lines. Leaving his angular and abstracted works behind, Picasso experiments with several Matissean inspired nude drawings during the summer of 1944. 

Matisse turned to drawing as his preferred medium in 1941 and this preoccupation lasted until the end of the war.  He continued to inspire Picasso at times throughout the next decade until Matisse’s death in 1954.