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Lot Essay
Executed in Paris on 15 April 1944, Portrait de femme is one of the very first of Picasso's pictures of his new lover, Françoise Gilot. Only a few pictures of Françoise-- who would come to be the centre of his life for the coming decade as well as the mother of two of his children-- are known from before the 15 April, and Portrait de femme is one of the first that show a confidence in rendering her features, appearing truly accomplished.
A young artist in her own right, Françoise had first met Picasso in 1943, but it was only the following year that they became lovers. In Portrait de femme, Picasso has rendered her features with a beguiling openness that forms a direct contrast with his images of Dora Maar, with whom he was still living (indeed, he was still also seeing Marie-Thérèse Walter, making this a love square rather than a triangle). Where Dora was represented as an angst-ridden woman, a 'suffering machine' ravaged by the carnage of first the Spanish Civil War and then of the Second World War, Françoise is presented instead as full of hope and potential. She is the face of Marianne, of the imminent Liberation. At the same time, the jutting angularity of so many of the Dora pictures has been replaced by the sweeping curves that here delineate Françoise's face, giving the impression that each brushstroke was a tactile caress, a movement by which Picasso was discovering and exploring his new lover's features. These are marked by a freshness and openness, the wide eyes showing an innocence, youth, and hunger for experience.
A young artist in her own right, Françoise had first met Picasso in 1943, but it was only the following year that they became lovers. In Portrait de femme, Picasso has rendered her features with a beguiling openness that forms a direct contrast with his images of Dora Maar, with whom he was still living (indeed, he was still also seeing Marie-Thérèse Walter, making this a love square rather than a triangle). Where Dora was represented as an angst-ridden woman, a 'suffering machine' ravaged by the carnage of first the Spanish Civil War and then of the Second World War, Françoise is presented instead as full of hope and potential. She is the face of Marianne, of the imminent Liberation. At the same time, the jutting angularity of so many of the Dora pictures has been replaced by the sweeping curves that here delineate Françoise's face, giving the impression that each brushstroke was a tactile caress, a movement by which Picasso was discovering and exploring his new lover's features. These are marked by a freshness and openness, the wide eyes showing an innocence, youth, and hunger for experience.