Le peintre et son modèle

Le peintre et son modèle belongs to a series of paintings that Picasso executed in March 1965, depicting a female model posing for an artist. Picasso plays with our ususal expectations of such a scene by including the canvas that is being worked on and, in many cases, the present work included, the artist himself. The viewer is watching a work in progress rather than the finished product, creating a voyeuristic sense of intrusion into the creative process. In the present work this uncomfortable feeling of privacy invaded is magnified by the obvious erotic content of the pose. We do not know whether the artist's finished painting will be erotic but the life-modelling scene we are presented with certainly is, particularly when one considers that the viewer has a different viewpoint than the fictive artist. Interestingly, the canvas on which the artist is working is blank, although his outstretched arm seems just about to render the first brushstroke. Picasso often used his depictions of 'the artist' in his paintings to poke fun at himself; perhaps the blank canvas is more self-mocking than it first appears. Although at this stage both figures are unrecognizable, it is only a month later that the artist starts looking more like Picasso and the model begins to resemble Jacqueline; clearly, even in March, this series is self-referential.