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Lot Essay
Executed in January 1954, this drawing represents one of the central themes of Picasso's art: man's attraction to woman. Picasso depicted this subject in a vast variety of different ways during his artistic career. In this particular work, he represents himself, not untypically, attracted to a significantly younger woman.
1954 marks a period of transition in the artist's life. Recently separated from Françoise, he was to invite Jacqueline Roque to move in with him later that year. As so often in his art, Picasso's new lover brought new reflections on his own situation, on life itself and his increasing sense of mortality. The masks in the present drawing suggest that there is a need for him to cover himself, to simulate youth and to hide behind a facade. Picasso was fond of the trick of recurring to his alter-ego, and ofetn hid behind the mask of the harlequin, minotaure, clown or musquetaire. Numerous works of this period revolve around the subject matter of the artist and his model, and display the figures of the artist and Jacqueline.
With the onset of age, Picasso's interest in the old masters grew stronger. Here, the female figure is similar to Eva in Lucas Cranach's painting of the same name, a work that had been copied by Picasso before. In this work, the elongated female nude body and the style of the hat are a direct reference to Cranach's interpretation of the eternal feminine, naked as created by god, but wearing a hat, clearly a fantasy which was to Picasso's taste.
1954 marks a period of transition in the artist's life. Recently separated from Françoise, he was to invite Jacqueline Roque to move in with him later that year. As so often in his art, Picasso's new lover brought new reflections on his own situation, on life itself and his increasing sense of mortality. The masks in the present drawing suggest that there is a need for him to cover himself, to simulate youth and to hide behind a facade. Picasso was fond of the trick of recurring to his alter-ego, and ofetn hid behind the mask of the harlequin, minotaure, clown or musquetaire. Numerous works of this period revolve around the subject matter of the artist and his model, and display the figures of the artist and Jacqueline.
With the onset of age, Picasso's interest in the old masters grew stronger. Here, the female figure is similar to Eva in Lucas Cranach's painting of the same name, a work that had been copied by Picasso before. In this work, the elongated female nude body and the style of the hat are a direct reference to Cranach's interpretation of the eternal feminine, naked as created by god, but wearing a hat, clearly a fantasy which was to Picasso's taste.