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Lot Essay
Picasso first met the beautiful Jacqueline Roque in August 1953 at the Madoura ceramic studios in the south of France. He saw more and more of this striking woman for the next two years, and in early 1954, Picasso ended his relationship with Françoise Gilot to begin his new life with Jacqueline. From this point onward, Jacqueline or her likeness dominated a high proportion of Picasso's work for the remainder of his life. He would eventually marry her in March 1958.
"As always, when the mistress of the house changed, everything else in the artist's life changed: not just the house but the poet laureate, the circle of friends, the dog, and last but not least, the style... The only trouble was that increased fame meant that the house was often under a state of seige. Fortunately Jacqueline provided rock-like security and support" (J. Richardson, "L'Epoque Jacqueline", in Late Picasso, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 19).
The present work was painted with a minimum of lines and vigorously painted flat tones. Sharp cuts of primary colors replace the effects of diffused light, and the whites convey what chiaroscuro entrusts to shade. At the same time, Femme dans un rocking-chair is cubist and sculptural, a masterpiece of draughtsmanship. It is a recollection of Picasso's own revolutionary break seen in the subject matter and style of the series Les Femmes d'Alger (Zervos 16, 342-357), which the artist completed on 14 February 1955 as an elegiac tribute to Matisse. Femme dans un rocking-chair embraces the major currents of modernism, and interprets Delacroix through a network of tangential references: Ingres, Velázquez, Cézanne and Matisse.
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso in his rocking chair, circa 1955.
"As always, when the mistress of the house changed, everything else in the artist's life changed: not just the house but the poet laureate, the circle of friends, the dog, and last but not least, the style... The only trouble was that increased fame meant that the house was often under a state of seige. Fortunately Jacqueline provided rock-like security and support" (J. Richardson, "L'Epoque Jacqueline", in Late Picasso, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 19).
The present work was painted with a minimum of lines and vigorously painted flat tones. Sharp cuts of primary colors replace the effects of diffused light, and the whites convey what chiaroscuro entrusts to shade. At the same time, Femme dans un rocking-chair is cubist and sculptural, a masterpiece of draughtsmanship. It is a recollection of Picasso's own revolutionary break seen in the subject matter and style of the series Les Femmes d'Alger (Zervos 16, 342-357), which the artist completed on 14 February 1955 as an elegiac tribute to Matisse. Femme dans un rocking-chair embraces the major currents of modernism, and interprets Delacroix through a network of tangential references: Ingres, Velázquez, Cézanne and Matisse.
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso in his rocking chair, circa 1955.