Pablo Picasso

Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris
Jacques Helft, Paris (acquired from the above circa 1919)
Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York
Dr. & Mrs. Sidney Merians Collection (acquired from the above in 1970 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 5, 2010, lot 3)
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: oeuvres de 1917 à 1919, vol. III, Paris, 1949, no. 253, illustrated p. 88
The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. From Cubism to Neoclassicism, 1917-1919, San Francisco, 1995, no. 19-038, illustrated p. 183

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is affixed to the mount on the reverse on the upper two corners. The sheet is floating in its mount. Left edge is deckled consistent with extraction from a sketchbook. Some light discoloration to the sheet and a few scattered, faint spots of foxing. Two small nicks to the edge of the sheet at center right and another to the upper part of left edge. There is a two-inch sinuous repaired tear running from towards the center of the upper edge, and another tiny repaired tear to the left of center upper edge. Some restoration in each of the lower corners, which is most visible from the verso of the sheet where they have been reinforced with Japan paper. Otherwise fine, this work is in overall good condition.
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.

The present drawing, created during what is known as the artist's Neo-Classical period, evidences Picasso's life-long admiration of the art of Paul Cézanne. This picture is closely modeled after Cézanne's legendary Le Grand baigneur, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which Picasso had no doubt seen either when it was exhibited in Paris in 1910 or when it was in the possession of his dealer, Paul Rosenberg, who also handled the present work. Although Picasso's indebtedness to the example of Cézanne is clear, this drawing of 1919 exemplifies the transformation that had occurred in his style as he abandoned the Cubist techniques that had dominated his art in the years before the war.

Those works which Picasso produced immediately after the Great War are notable for their extreme precision, which was directly related to the "Call to Order" that encouraged the French avant-garde to draw inspiration from their Latinate ancestry and the examples of traditional French masters like Ingres and Poussin. Picasso, as usual, was a pioneer in this new movement, confidently reinterpreting a recognizable Greco-Roman clarity of form into his drawings and paintings of the era, including the present work.