Lot Essay
"I am Picasso. You and I are going to do great things together." With these words in January 1927, Picasso introduced himself to Marie- Thérèse Walter, a seventeen year old girl who lived with her mother and sister. Many years later she recalled, "I knew nothing - neither about life nor about Picasso. Nothing. I had been shopping in the Galeries Lafayette and Picasso saw me coming out of the Metro" (L. Levy, Picasso, London, 1991, p. 88).
The exact opposite of Picasso's wife Olga, Marie-Thérèse was an amiable but somewhat placid girl whose healthy figure and blond nordic looks attracted Picasso. She had a broad oval face with a prominent nose and straight blond hair and blue eyes. She was strikingly beautiful. Her youth, radiance and the sensual, nonchalant way she carried herself obsessed Picasso. According to Roland Penrose in Picasso, His Life and Work, London, 1958, p. 243, Marie-Thérèse "always behaved according to her own inclination, changing her mind or her manner of living in an inconsequential way as though controlled by the influence of the moon or by some even less calculable force. She had a robust coarseness and an unconventionality about her which formed a complete contrast to Olga and the world into which she had drawn him, a world which curtailed his freedom and attempted to inflict on him a life which he found boring and fundamentally despised." Much later, Marie-Thérèse reminisced "We would laugh and joke together all day long, so happy was our secret, living out a love that was totally un-bourgeois, a Bohemian love affair."
In 1932, Picasso took possession of the Château Boisgeloup which he had bought the year before. It was located near Gisors on the border with Normandy, about forty miles north-west of Paris, in pastoral surroundings. Here he spent his time with Marie-Thérèse, retreating from a stifling life with Olga in Paris. He converted a stable on the estate into a sculpture studio where he worked extensively in clay and plaster and also executed a series of welded metal sculptures executed in association with Julio Gonzales. Marie- Thérèse had by then been his mistress for several years. She was the main source of inspiration for many of these sculptures as well as numerous fine oils and drawings. Zervos lists forty-one works executed in 1932 depicting a woman in various poses and who strongly resembles Marie-Thérèse Walter (see Zervos, Vol. VII, pp. 136-411, nos. 331-334, 358-364, 376-388, 390, 394-397 and 399-411).
"Most of these figures painted with flowing curves lie sleeping, their arms folded round their heads...The sleeper's breasts are round and fruitlike and her hands finish like the blades of summer grass. The profile of the face, usually with closed eyes, is drawn with one bold curve uniting forehead and nose above thick sensuous lips." (R. Penrose, op. cit.). Her healthy full body and her natural, clear and symmetrical face may have reminded Picasso of Ingres' "Odalisque". Alfred Barr links Picasso's heavy and sensual sleeping figure with Ingres's "Le Bain Turque" and Fuseli's "Nightmare" of 150 years earlier. (Picasso, Fifty Years of His Art, New York, 1966, p. 175).
In Le Repos Picasso's draughtmanship is swift and boldly assured and the brushstrokes are flowing and sensuous as if caressing the forms. The bright and strong red and green solid colours envelope the head which radiates an air of fulfilment and relaxation. "Marie- Thérèse's full, passive, golden beauty was to preside over Picasso's art for the next four years: most typically she is seen in what appears to be a dreamless sleep. Her heavy pliant limbs are rendered by the same undulating forms that had characterised much of Picasso's work since 1925 but whereas before these had so often seemed predatory or tentacular, their rhythms now become slower, softer, more welcoming and more organic." (P. Eleck (ed.), Picasso 1881-1973, London, 1973, pp. 110-111).
The exact opposite of Picasso's wife Olga, Marie-Thérèse was an amiable but somewhat placid girl whose healthy figure and blond nordic looks attracted Picasso. She had a broad oval face with a prominent nose and straight blond hair and blue eyes. She was strikingly beautiful. Her youth, radiance and the sensual, nonchalant way she carried herself obsessed Picasso. According to Roland Penrose in Picasso, His Life and Work, London, 1958, p. 243, Marie-Thérèse "always behaved according to her own inclination, changing her mind or her manner of living in an inconsequential way as though controlled by the influence of the moon or by some even less calculable force. She had a robust coarseness and an unconventionality about her which formed a complete contrast to Olga and the world into which she had drawn him, a world which curtailed his freedom and attempted to inflict on him a life which he found boring and fundamentally despised." Much later, Marie-Thérèse reminisced "We would laugh and joke together all day long, so happy was our secret, living out a love that was totally un-bourgeois, a Bohemian love affair."
In 1932, Picasso took possession of the Château Boisgeloup which he had bought the year before. It was located near Gisors on the border with Normandy, about forty miles north-west of Paris, in pastoral surroundings. Here he spent his time with Marie-Thérèse, retreating from a stifling life with Olga in Paris. He converted a stable on the estate into a sculpture studio where he worked extensively in clay and plaster and also executed a series of welded metal sculptures executed in association with Julio Gonzales. Marie- Thérèse had by then been his mistress for several years. She was the main source of inspiration for many of these sculptures as well as numerous fine oils and drawings. Zervos lists forty-one works executed in 1932 depicting a woman in various poses and who strongly resembles Marie-Thérèse Walter (see Zervos, Vol. VII, pp. 136-411, nos. 331-334, 358-364, 376-388, 390, 394-397 and 399-411).
"Most of these figures painted with flowing curves lie sleeping, their arms folded round their heads...The sleeper's breasts are round and fruitlike and her hands finish like the blades of summer grass. The profile of the face, usually with closed eyes, is drawn with one bold curve uniting forehead and nose above thick sensuous lips." (R. Penrose, op. cit.). Her healthy full body and her natural, clear and symmetrical face may have reminded Picasso of Ingres' "Odalisque". Alfred Barr links Picasso's heavy and sensual sleeping figure with Ingres's "Le Bain Turque" and Fuseli's "Nightmare" of 150 years earlier. (Picasso, Fifty Years of His Art, New York, 1966, p. 175).
In Le Repos Picasso's draughtmanship is swift and boldly assured and the brushstrokes are flowing and sensuous as if caressing the forms. The bright and strong red and green solid colours envelope the head which radiates an air of fulfilment and relaxation. "Marie- Thérèse's full, passive, golden beauty was to preside over Picasso's art for the next four years: most typically she is seen in what appears to be a dreamless sleep. Her heavy pliant limbs are rendered by the same undulating forms that had characterised much of Picasso's work since 1925 but whereas before these had so often seemed predatory or tentacular, their rhythms now become slower, softer, more welcoming and more organic." (P. Eleck (ed.), Picasso 1881-1973, London, 1973, pp. 110-111).