PABLO PICASSO | Peintre et modèle

Sale: Tajan, Paris, 22nd June 2000, lot 21
Acquired by the present owner in 2000

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1970, Paris, 1977, vol. XXXII, no. 51, illustrated p. 28

Please note that there is a professional condition report for this work, please contact mariella.salazar@sothebys.com to request a copy.
"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."

The mid-1960s marked a period of great synthesis for Picasso, reflected in the theme of artist and his model of the present work. It proved to be one of his most passionate and energetic projects, inspired by the final and arguably most passionate love of Picasso's life, Jacqueline Roque, whom he married in 1961. As explained by the scholar Marie-Laure Berndac, 'the more Picasso painted this theme, the more he pushed the artist-model relationship towards its ultimate conclusion: the artist embraces his model [...] transforming the artist-model relationship into a man-woman relationship. Painting is an act of love' (Marie-Laure Bernadac, "Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model" in Late Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 77). Pared down to essential forms, the present work exemplifies Picasso's unwavering commitment to artistic evolution. 'Severe restriction of representation not only enabled Picasso to telegraph his subject, it also freed him to explore an aspect of the theme that had previously held in check-the sheer physical activity of wielding paint with a brush. It may seem paradoxical that Picasso did not address this most basic element of pictorial form until the last decade of his career. Yet the course of his involvement with the theme of the studio can be seen as a gradual liberating of his practice from the strictures of the academy that were drilled into him under his father's guidance and he escaped into more progressive approaches, until he arrived at a raw directness: the act of painting itself, as a statement of the studio theme and the creative expression that always underlies it, moored by only the most tentative lines to traditional ground. In changing this trajectory, it should be recognized that the Abstract Expressionists, particularly Willem de Kooning, had arrived at a similar resolution in the previous decade. Picasso's late style is probably a product of both his accumulated art history and his continuing […] attention to contemporary art' (Michael Fitzgerald in Picasso, The Artist's Studio (exhibition catalogue), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford and The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001, p. 154).