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Tête de femme (Dora Maar)
Details
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Tête de femme (Dora Maar)
signé 'Picasso' (en haut à gauche)
encre de Chine sur papier quadrillé
21.2 x 16.8 cm.
Exécuté en 1939
signed 'Picasso' (upper left)
pen and India ink on graph paper
8 3⁄8 x 6 5⁄8 in.
Executed in 1939
Tête de femme (Dora Maar)
signé 'Picasso' (en haut à gauche)
encre de Chine sur papier quadrillé
21.2 x 16.8 cm.
Exécuté en 1939
signed 'Picasso' (upper left)
pen and India ink on graph paper
8 3⁄8 x 6 5⁄8 in.
Executed in 1939
Provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris.
Fernand Graindorge, Liège (avant 1968).
Collection particulière; sa vente, Sotheby's, New York, 11 mai 1988, lot 168.
Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York.
Vivian Horan Gallery, New York.
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par les propriétaires actuels le 18 janvier 1995.
Fernand Graindorge, Liège (avant 1968).
Collection particulière; sa vente, Sotheby's, New York, 11 mai 1988, lot 168.
Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York.
Vivian Horan Gallery, New York.
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par les propriétaires actuels le 18 janvier 1995.
Exhibited
(probablement) Humblebaek, Louisiana Museum, Collection Graindorge, octobre-novembre 1965.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage, mars-décembre 1968, p. 241, no. 280 (intitulé 'Mai 1940').
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage, mars-décembre 1968, p. 241, no. 280 (intitulé 'Mai 1940').
Further details
Picasso et Dora Maar ont entretenu l’une des relations les plus prolifiques de l’art moderne. La présence de Maar dans la vie de l’artiste, depuis leur rencontre en 1935 jusqu’à la fin de leur relation vers 1945, a inspiré certains des plus grands portraits de la carrière extraordinairement féconde de Picasso. Comme nous pouvons l'observer dans Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (lot 2) et Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis) (lot 3), le visage de Dora fut soumis à d’innombrables distorsions, exagérations et abstractions, alors que Picasso revenait sans cesse au motif du portrait, saisissant toujours de différentes nuances psychologiques et expressions. Dans ces dessins, Picasso adopte une approche à la fois ludique et effrayante, réorganisant les traits qui composent le visage de son modèle et lui conférant une qualité séduisante et quelque peu monstrueuse. En effet, elle est ornée de rayures horizontales qui créent d’emblée une sensation générale de dissection en sousparties, une technique que le peintre utilise à plusieurs reprises à la fin des années 1930. Ici, dans nos deux oeuvres, les yeux hypnotiques et perçants de Dora flottent au-dessus d’un nez allongé et tubulaire, derrière lequel de longues mèches de cheveux bouclés ondulent dans l’espace, évoquant presque la Méduse. Enfin, sa bouche stylisée et mystérieuse se trouve isolée à l’extrémité opposée du long nez. Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis), dans laquelle le modèle porte un chapeau, est réalisée à l’apogée de leur relation, lorsque Pablo Picasso travaille sur une série de peintures représentant le buste de Dora Maar orné de divers chapeaux flamboyants. Cet élément décoratif couronne en effet parfaitement l’énergie frivole et dérobée qui émane de la créature en laquelle Picasso l’a transformée, tout en avançant sa féminité.En effet, Picasso et Dora ont traversé ensemble l’une des décennies les plus turbulentes et tragiques du XXe siècle, témoins de la montée du fascisme, du déclenchement de la guerre civile espagnole et de la seconde guerre mondiale, ainsi que de la sombre réalité d’un Paris occupé. La tension combative, mais aussi la résilience dont le couple fait preuve pour survivre à ces temps difficiles et s’encourager mutuellement à continuer de créer de l’art contre toute attente, se ressent ici. Picasso exprime ici l’angoisse et l’étrangeté de la guerre tout en représentant la beauté et l’esprit libre de Dora.Malgré cette période de terrible turbulence, Dora inspire chez l’artiste une période de créativité stupéfiante, lui servant à la fois de muse et de collaboratrice artistique. Les photographies prises par Dora Maar de l’atelier de Picasso, rue des Grands- Augustins, illustrent cette période de grande productivité, montrant rangées après rangées de toiles empilées dans l’atelier de l’artiste. L’une des plus célèbres, datée de 1939, montre une multitude de peintures de têtes féminines, dont la plupart présentent le visage sombrement caractérisé de Dora, alignées contre un mur de l’atelier. Les oeuvres présentées ici sont deux joyaux intimes qui témoignent de ce moment particulier dans l’oeuvre de Picasso.
Picasso and Dora Maar had one of the most prolific relationships in modern art. Maar’s presence in the artist’s life, from the time that they met in 1935 until their relationship ended around 1945, inspired some of the greatest portraits of Picasso’s prolific career. As visible in Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (lot 2) and Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis) (lot 3), her face became the site of myriad distortions, exaggerations and abstractions as he returned again and again to the motif of portraiture, capturing different psychological nuances and expressions. In the present drawings, Picasso takes on an at once playful and somber approach to the reordering of parts which make up his sitter’s face, giving her an attractive yet somewhat monstruous quality. She is covered in horizontal stripes which create an initial, overall sensation of dissection into parts, a technique which the painter used repeatedly in the late 1930s. Here, in both works, Dora’s hypnotizing, piercing eyes float above an elongated, tubular nose from behind which long strains of curly hair undulate in space, bearing something of the Medusa. Finally, her stylized, mysterious mouth finds itself isolated on the opposite end of the long nose. Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis), in which the model wears a hat, dates from the height of their relationship, when Picasso was working on a series of paintings showing Dora’s bust, adorned with various flamboyant hats. This element of decoration perfectly complements the frivolous, masquerading energy emanating from the creature which he has turned her into, while keeping her femininity obvious.Indeed, together, Picasso and Dora lived through one of the most turbulent and tragic decades of the 20th Century, witnessing the rise of Fascism, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, and the bleak realities of living in Occupied Paris. The battling tension yet resilience which the pair exercised to survive these times and encourage each other to continue creating art against all odds is palpable here, as Picasso draws out the angst and strangeness of war while representing Dora’s beauty and free-spirit.
Despite this time of terrible turbulence, Dora inspired an astounding period of creativity in the artist, serving as his muse as well as his artistic collaborator. The photographs taken by Dora Maar of Picasso’s studio on the rue des Grands Augustins illustrate this period of great productivity, showing rows and rows of canvases stacked up in the artist’s studio. One of the most famous of these from 1939 shows a multitude of paintings of female heads, most of which feature the dark featured visage of Dora, lined up against a wall of the studio. The present works are two intimate jewels attesting to this special time in Picasso’s oeuvre.
Picasso and Dora Maar had one of the most prolific relationships in modern art. Maar’s presence in the artist’s life, from the time that they met in 1935 until their relationship ended around 1945, inspired some of the greatest portraits of Picasso’s prolific career. As visible in Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (lot 2) and Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis) (lot 3), her face became the site of myriad distortions, exaggerations and abstractions as he returned again and again to the motif of portraiture, capturing different psychological nuances and expressions. In the present drawings, Picasso takes on an at once playful and somber approach to the reordering of parts which make up his sitter’s face, giving her an attractive yet somewhat monstruous quality. She is covered in horizontal stripes which create an initial, overall sensation of dissection into parts, a technique which the painter used repeatedly in the late 1930s. Here, in both works, Dora’s hypnotizing, piercing eyes float above an elongated, tubular nose from behind which long strains of curly hair undulate in space, bearing something of the Medusa. Finally, her stylized, mysterious mouth finds itself isolated on the opposite end of the long nose. Tête de Dora Maar (Dora pro nobis), in which the model wears a hat, dates from the height of their relationship, when Picasso was working on a series of paintings showing Dora’s bust, adorned with various flamboyant hats. This element of decoration perfectly complements the frivolous, masquerading energy emanating from the creature which he has turned her into, while keeping her femininity obvious.Indeed, together, Picasso and Dora lived through one of the most turbulent and tragic decades of the 20th Century, witnessing the rise of Fascism, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, and the bleak realities of living in Occupied Paris. The battling tension yet resilience which the pair exercised to survive these times and encourage each other to continue creating art against all odds is palpable here, as Picasso draws out the angst and strangeness of war while representing Dora’s beauty and free-spirit.
Despite this time of terrible turbulence, Dora inspired an astounding period of creativity in the artist, serving as his muse as well as his artistic collaborator. The photographs taken by Dora Maar of Picasso’s studio on the rue des Grands Augustins illustrate this period of great productivity, showing rows and rows of canvases stacked up in the artist’s studio. One of the most famous of these from 1939 shows a multitude of paintings of female heads, most of which feature the dark featured visage of Dora, lined up against a wall of the studio. The present works are two intimate jewels attesting to this special time in Picasso’s oeuvre.
Brought to you by
Antoine Lebouteiller
International Specialist