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Lot Essay
‘[Jacqueline] peoples Notre-Dame-de-Vie with a hundred thousand possibilities… She takes the place of all the models of all the painters on all the canvases. All the portraits are like her, even if they are not like each other. All the heads are hers and there are a thousand different ones…
Hélène Parmelin
(H. Parmelin, Picasso Says…, London, 1966, p. 68)
With her dark, almond-shaped eyes and mesmerising gaze, high cheek bones and regal poise, the arresting and unmistakable profile of Pablo Picasso’s final great love, muse and later wife, Jacqueline Roque adorns this unique hand painted ceramic plate. Conceived and executed on 10 February 1956, Portrait de Jacqueline is both a masterful example of Picasso’s innovative ceramic practice, as well as a poignant tribute to his beautiful new paramour, Jacqueline, made in the earliest years of their relationship. Embodying the quintessential visual iconography that Picasso used for the depiction of his lover in this so-called ‘Époque Jacqueline’, Portrait de Jacqueline has a unique provenance, first owned by the artist’s grandson, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, a reflection of the personal importance this piece held for the Picasso family.
Picasso’s journey into the world of ceramics is closely intertwined with his relationship with Jacqueline. In 1947, Picasso was invited to return to the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris in the south of France by its owners, Georges and Suzanne Ramié. Though he had visited the previous year, it was during this summer that the artist became truly enamoured by this practice as he experimented with a host of ceramic objects and techniques, revelling in the diverse artistic possibilities that the medium of clay offered. From this point onwards, Picasso fell under the spell of this practice, moving permanently to Vallauris with his lover of the time, Françoise Gilot and their young family the year after.
A few years later, Picasso was introduced to a young sales assistant in the Madoura studio, Jacqueline Roque, who was living in Vallauris with her young daughter following her divorce. When, in 1953, Françoise left the artist, returning to Paris with their two young children, Picasso began to see Jacqueline, and by 1954, the pair were a couple, with her unmistakable features appearing in his painting in the summer of this year. Just as the playful and evermore inventive designs of Picasso’s ceramic objects poured unceasingly from his studio, so the image of Jacqueline flowered in every aspect of his artmaking, her presence dominating his painting, drawing, printing, sculpture and ceramics throughout this prolific and joy-filled period of his career.
Hélène Parmelin
(H. Parmelin, Picasso Says…, London, 1966, p. 68)
With her dark, almond-shaped eyes and mesmerising gaze, high cheek bones and regal poise, the arresting and unmistakable profile of Pablo Picasso’s final great love, muse and later wife, Jacqueline Roque adorns this unique hand painted ceramic plate. Conceived and executed on 10 February 1956, Portrait de Jacqueline is both a masterful example of Picasso’s innovative ceramic practice, as well as a poignant tribute to his beautiful new paramour, Jacqueline, made in the earliest years of their relationship. Embodying the quintessential visual iconography that Picasso used for the depiction of his lover in this so-called ‘Époque Jacqueline’, Portrait de Jacqueline has a unique provenance, first owned by the artist’s grandson, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, a reflection of the personal importance this piece held for the Picasso family.
Picasso’s journey into the world of ceramics is closely intertwined with his relationship with Jacqueline. In 1947, Picasso was invited to return to the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris in the south of France by its owners, Georges and Suzanne Ramié. Though he had visited the previous year, it was during this summer that the artist became truly enamoured by this practice as he experimented with a host of ceramic objects and techniques, revelling in the diverse artistic possibilities that the medium of clay offered. From this point onwards, Picasso fell under the spell of this practice, moving permanently to Vallauris with his lover of the time, Françoise Gilot and their young family the year after.
A few years later, Picasso was introduced to a young sales assistant in the Madoura studio, Jacqueline Roque, who was living in Vallauris with her young daughter following her divorce. When, in 1953, Françoise left the artist, returning to Paris with their two young children, Picasso began to see Jacqueline, and by 1954, the pair were a couple, with her unmistakable features appearing in his painting in the summer of this year. Just as the playful and evermore inventive designs of Picasso’s ceramic objects poured unceasingly from his studio, so the image of Jacqueline flowered in every aspect of his artmaking, her presence dominating his painting, drawing, printing, sculpture and ceramics throughout this prolific and joy-filled period of his career.