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Lot Essay
The female model seated in an armchair was among Picasso's favorite subjects. In every phase of his career he returned to this theme, usually choosing his current mistress or wife for his model.
The present work, painted in 1927-1928, represents Olga Kokhlova, whom Picasso had met in the spring of 1917 and married on 12 July 1918. Figure is one of Picassos's most abstract portraits of Olga. Indeed, so stylized are the forms that initially it is difficult to be certain whom the painting represents, or even that it is a portrait at all. Any doubts on these matters, however, are immediately resolved when we look at another picture from the same period, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge, 1929 (fig. 1). As its title states, Grand nu unequivocally depicts a nude female seated on a large white sheet in a red armchair placed before a wall. The similarities between Grand nu and Figure are unmistakable, and Grand nu thus helps us to read even the most abstract passages of the present picture. The most ambigous component of the present work is the red armchair, whose forms are disguised in the face of the figure (Picasso had used a red chair for portraits of his lovers since at least 1923, and was to go on doing so until the early 1930s). The face of the sitter, however, is difficult to read: Picasso has intentionally left it unclear as to whether the face is seen in profile or rotated ninety degrees to the left (counter-clockwise). A similar situation occurs in the related picture, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge. In the present work, the features of the face, comprised of two holes and a triangle form, are also ambiguous: it is impossible to say exactly what they are intended to represent. What is certain, however, is that the brown segments to the right of the face are meant to depict Olga's short dark hair.
The drive to formal abstraction and purification in the present work is still more radical in the depiction of Olga's body: her torso (or upper torso--one cannot be sure) has been reduced to an inverted pyramid, and her hips (or perhaps lower torso) are rendered as a circle or cylinder. Radical simplification is evident as well in the background of the painting. Whereas in Grand nu the wall is covered with busy, decorative wallpaper in bright acid green, here it is undecorated and represented as a cool gray. Finally, in comparison with Grand nu it is possible to suggest that the dark gray form at the bottom of the present canvas was inspired by white drapery lying underneath the figure.
The parallels between the two pictures are all the more interesting since it is certain that Grand nu au fauteuil rouge depicts Olga Koklova, as indicated by the figure's brown hair and the vagina dentata mouth (a common feature in Picasso's pictures of Olga in the late 1920s). Here are the beginnings of Picasso absorbing his Neoclassical subjects into images that so clearly share the Surrealists' tendency toward agressive sexuality.
In this context, one should recall Picasso's famous statement about abstraction:
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. There's no danger, then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. It is what started the artist off, excited his ideas and stirred up his emotions (quoted in D. Ashton, Picasso on Art, New York, 1970, p. 9).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge, 1929.
Musée Picasso, Paris.
© 2000 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The present work, painted in 1927-1928, represents Olga Kokhlova, whom Picasso had met in the spring of 1917 and married on 12 July 1918. Figure is one of Picassos's most abstract portraits of Olga. Indeed, so stylized are the forms that initially it is difficult to be certain whom the painting represents, or even that it is a portrait at all. Any doubts on these matters, however, are immediately resolved when we look at another picture from the same period, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge, 1929 (fig. 1). As its title states, Grand nu unequivocally depicts a nude female seated on a large white sheet in a red armchair placed before a wall. The similarities between Grand nu and Figure are unmistakable, and Grand nu thus helps us to read even the most abstract passages of the present picture. The most ambigous component of the present work is the red armchair, whose forms are disguised in the face of the figure (Picasso had used a red chair for portraits of his lovers since at least 1923, and was to go on doing so until the early 1930s). The face of the sitter, however, is difficult to read: Picasso has intentionally left it unclear as to whether the face is seen in profile or rotated ninety degrees to the left (counter-clockwise). A similar situation occurs in the related picture, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge. In the present work, the features of the face, comprised of two holes and a triangle form, are also ambiguous: it is impossible to say exactly what they are intended to represent. What is certain, however, is that the brown segments to the right of the face are meant to depict Olga's short dark hair.
The drive to formal abstraction and purification in the present work is still more radical in the depiction of Olga's body: her torso (or upper torso--one cannot be sure) has been reduced to an inverted pyramid, and her hips (or perhaps lower torso) are rendered as a circle or cylinder. Radical simplification is evident as well in the background of the painting. Whereas in Grand nu the wall is covered with busy, decorative wallpaper in bright acid green, here it is undecorated and represented as a cool gray. Finally, in comparison with Grand nu it is possible to suggest that the dark gray form at the bottom of the present canvas was inspired by white drapery lying underneath the figure.
The parallels between the two pictures are all the more interesting since it is certain that Grand nu au fauteuil rouge depicts Olga Koklova, as indicated by the figure's brown hair and the vagina dentata mouth (a common feature in Picasso's pictures of Olga in the late 1920s). Here are the beginnings of Picasso absorbing his Neoclassical subjects into images that so clearly share the Surrealists' tendency toward agressive sexuality.
In this context, one should recall Picasso's famous statement about abstraction:
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. There's no danger, then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. It is what started the artist off, excited his ideas and stirred up his emotions (quoted in D. Ashton, Picasso on Art, New York, 1970, p. 9).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, Grand nu au fauteuil rouge, 1929.
Musée Picasso, Paris.
© 2000 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.