Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Nu allongé

Details

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Nu allongé
signed 'Picasso' (lower right)
colored wax crayons, pen and brown ink on card
3½ x 5¼ in. (9 x 13.3 cm.)
Drawn in Barcelona, 1902

Provenance

Sebastián and Carlos Junyer-Vidal, Barcelona.
M. Knoedler, & Co., Inc., New York (1957).
Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills (1962).
Billy Wilder, Beverly Hills; sale, Christie's, New York, 13 November 1989, lot 9.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1932, vol. I, no. 125 (illustrated, pl. LXII).
J. Merli, Picasso, Buenos Aires, 1948, p. 85 (illustrated).
M. N. Carter, "Great Private Collections: The Obsessions of Billy Wilder," Saturday Review, December 1980, p. 63 (illustrated in color).

Exhibited

Los Angeles, University of California Art Galleries, "Bonne Fête" Monsieur Picasso, October-November 1961, no. 54.
Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Picassos in Southern California, A Tribute to the Artist at 90, October-November 1971, no. 12.

Lot Essay

Picasso returned from his first stay in Paris to Barcelona in December 1910. As described by Jaime Sabartés, "There he was a frequent visitor of the Junyer brothers, and it was there that he amused himself in drawing on the back of billheads and trade cards of their hosiery factory anything that came to mind in order his distract his ennui" (J. Sabartés, Picasso Documents Iconographiques, Geneva, 1954, p. 310).

Some of these drawings were included by Pierre Daix in the original compendium of Blue and Rose period works published in 1966; others were left out of the publication because of their subject matter. Picasso agreed with this decision but told Daix that he did not regret having executed these drawings.

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