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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Maya Widmaier-Picasso dated Paris le 3 Avril 2005.
Picasso executed this characterful drawing on 27 October, two days after his eighty-ninth birthday. He drew it on the same day as - and probably just prior to - a large oil painting, Nu couché et homme jouant de la guitare (Z., vol. 32, no. 293). As seen elsewhere in this catalogue, Picasso took his inspiration from Orientalist themes in the work of Ingres, in this case, the painting L'odalisque à l'esclave, 1839 (Wildenstein, no. 228; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts). Picasso made numerous modifications in his version; he transformed Ingres' female lute player into a man strumming a Spanish guitar while vigorously vocalizing, and his nude female companion reclines with her hands folded across her stomach, instead of raised behind her head as in Ingres' painting. Picasso's subject also refers to the mediaeval tradition of the aubade, or dawn song, which first appeared in the music and lyrics of the troubadours of Provence and Catalonia during the twelfth century.
Picasso is the soulful singer in this drawing; Jacqueline is his beloved, muse and attentive listener. Numerous features in both heads may be traced to the series of sketches that Picasso drew the day before, 26.10.70, nos. II-VIII (lots 309, 319, 314, 318, 313, 323 and 324 respectively). These motifs are especially noticeable in Jacqueline's visage: the oblique positioning of the eyes, her lips as a figure-of-8. The general outlines of the groom's visage in the 26 October drawings may be detected here as well, although they have been largely diguised by Picasso's extensive use of linear detail and shading. Moreover, there may be a narrative line connecting the drawings from one day to the next. The 26 October sketches record a fictional wedding ceremony; the present drawing depicts the couple on the morning after, Jacqueline in bed, and Picasso at her side, regaling her with song.
Picasso executed this characterful drawing on 27 October, two days after his eighty-ninth birthday. He drew it on the same day as - and probably just prior to - a large oil painting, Nu couché et homme jouant de la guitare (Z., vol. 32, no. 293). As seen elsewhere in this catalogue, Picasso took his inspiration from Orientalist themes in the work of Ingres, in this case, the painting L'odalisque à l'esclave, 1839 (Wildenstein, no. 228; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts). Picasso made numerous modifications in his version; he transformed Ingres' female lute player into a man strumming a Spanish guitar while vigorously vocalizing, and his nude female companion reclines with her hands folded across her stomach, instead of raised behind her head as in Ingres' painting. Picasso's subject also refers to the mediaeval tradition of the aubade, or dawn song, which first appeared in the music and lyrics of the troubadours of Provence and Catalonia during the twelfth century.
Picasso is the soulful singer in this drawing; Jacqueline is his beloved, muse and attentive listener. Numerous features in both heads may be traced to the series of sketches that Picasso drew the day before, 26.10.70, nos. II-VIII (lots 309, 319, 314, 318, 313, 323 and 324 respectively). These motifs are especially noticeable in Jacqueline's visage: the oblique positioning of the eyes, her lips as a figure-of-8. The general outlines of the groom's visage in the 26 October drawings may be detected here as well, although they have been largely diguised by Picasso's extensive use of linear detail and shading. Moreover, there may be a narrative line connecting the drawings from one day to the next. The 26 October sketches record a fictional wedding ceremony; the present drawing depicts the couple on the morning after, Jacqueline in bed, and Picasso at her side, regaling her with song.