Pablo Picasso

Galerie René Drouin, Paris
René Herscher, Paris (acquired from the above circa 1947)
Thence by descent to the present owners

The figure in the present work is undoubtedly based on the Venus Anadyomene, the iconic representation of the Goddess of Love emerging on a conch shell from the sea from where she was born. Throughout his career, Picasso constantly made references in his work to all kinds of historical and mythical sources. The present work is no exception, for Picasso was no doubt aware of the most famous depictions of this subject, including Botticelli's Birth of Venus (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) and Ingres' Vénus Anadyomène.

The theme reappears in Picasso's work in 1907, when he recasts the image of the Venus Anadyomene as the central figure of his groundbreaking painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The present work, executed with brush and watercolour, displays the artist's authority as an accomplished while delicate draughtsman.

Like other artists before him, Picasso shows Venus wringing the water from her hair as she rises from the sea. However, he seems to introduce a new element to the traditional composition, for it is not water that falls from her hair, but rather what appears to be fruit falling from a basket, a symbol perhaps of the fertility of the goddess.