Pablo Picasso

Private Collection, France
Sale: Tajan, Paris, 24th June 2015, lot 35
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Executed in white clay, partially glazed; the ceramic is sound. There are two original clay rectangular elements on the reverse to allow the plate to be hung. There are two very fine hairline firing cracks on the reverse to the right of the left hand clay element. The raised elements of the empreinte are all in very good condition. There are some small nicks and inconsistencies in the dark slip of the background to the right of the figure's nose and below her chin, probably inherent to the process. This work is in overall very 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Picasso’s work produced in the South of France was characterised by his enthusiastic engagement with clay and a playful aesthetic inspired by the light-infused atmosphere of the region. Picasso was 65 when he left Paris at the end of the war in 1946 for the Côte d’Azur. While staying with the printer Louis Fort in Golfe-Juan, Picasso was introduced to Suzanne and Georges Ramié who owned the Madoura pottery. Their association inspired the artist’s engagement with the pottery traditions of the area and it was at their behest that Picasso first experimented with the medium of ceramic. It was at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris that the artist met his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, who was working for the Ramiés. Jacqueline, the last love of Picasso’s life, inspired many of the masterpieces created in the last two decades of his career.

Depicted in the present work as a modern deity, Jacqueline’s strong features, her prominent profile, dark hair and eyes feature in much of the art Picasso made during these joyful years. Earlier portrayals often depict Jacqueline with her abundant hair covered by a colourful headscarf. The present work is painted by Picasso over an empreinte, a process invented by Picasso himself in which he would carve and model a plaster mould that would then be pressed into clay to create vibrant textures and colours.  In many of the works executed by Picasso over this period, Jacqueline is not named as the subject, although she is immediately recognisable from her raven-black hair and striking features.

Jacqueline becomes part of the dialogue between artist and muse, a particular feature of Picasso’s later work. As Marie-Laure Bernadac explains: ‘It is characteristic of Picasso, in contrast to Matisse and many other twentieth-century painters, that he takes as his model – or as his Muse – the woman he loves and who lives with him, not a professional model. So what his paintings show is never a ‘model’ of a woman, but woman as model. This has its consequences for his emotional as well as artistic life: for the beloved woman stands for ‘painting’, and the painted woman is the beloved: detachment is an impossibility. Picasso never paints from life: Jacqueline never poses for him; but she is there always, everywhere. All the women of these years are Jacqueline, and yet they are rarely portraits. The image of the woman he loves is a model imprinted deep within him, and it emerges every time he paints a woman’ (M.-L. Bernadac in Late Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris & Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 78).