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Lot Essay
Picasso’s monumental portrait from 1952, La Femme à la fenêtre, is one of his largest prints executed entirely in aquatint - a technique he employed with remarkable mastery. Using the sugar-lift aquatint method he had almost single-handedly developed, Picasso brushed the image directly onto the printing plate, producing a painterly effect characterised by soft washes and tonal variation. This particular impression is distinguished by its rich tonal depth and dramatic contrasts, resulting in an image that is both strikingly bold yet beautiful and tender. Dedicated Pour Monsieur Stern, the print was gifted by the artist to the Swedish collector Oscar Stern (1882–1961).
The print depicts Françoise Gilot, Picasso’s lover and muse from 1943 to 1953. Gilot featured prominently in Picasso’s oeuvre during this period, appearing in numerous prints such as the companion piece to the present one, Torse de Femme (L'Egyptienne) (B. 746), as well as Vénus et l'Amour, d'après Cranach (B. 1835) and the lithographic series La Femme au fauteuil (B. 588). In La Femme à la fenêtre, Gilot is portrayed inside a room standing by a window, a motif deeply embedded in art historical tradition. One of the contemporaries of Picasso who explored this theme extensively was Henri Matisse. Gilot and he requently visited Matisse at his villa in Vence, and it was whilst living in nearby Vallauris that Picasso created this print.
The window motif in La Femme à la fenêtre serves as a conceptual device that explores the dynamics of gaze and identity. The viewer assumes the role of voyeur, peering through a metaphorical window at the woman in a reflective, private moment, while she is looking out, seemingly unaware of being observed. In Matisse’s related painting Young Woman at the Window, Sunset (Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore) and La Femme à la fenêtre, the women are depicted with their hands raised to the window; the emotional tenor however differs significantly. In Matisse’s painting, the figure’s hand rests on the handle, as if she is about to open the window. In contrast, Gilot’s hands, inked almost entirely black, are pressed and silhouetted against the bright window pane, a gesture evoking psychological tension, perhaps even confinement.
Created in the penultimate year of their relationship, the print may reflect the emotional estrangement between Picasso and Gilot. By 1950, he had initiated an affair with Geneviève Laporte and Gilot split up with him three years later, famously becoming the only woman to do so. Picasso depicts Gilot with a cool detachment, very different to his portraits of other lovers, which are often charged with intense emotion and physical desire. Gilot later explained her lack of attachment and emotional transparency: 'Even Picasso never really knew me, despite our ten years together, because I closed myself off. I never opened myself up. Why should I?' (quoted in: Utley, 2016, p. 120).
In the portrait, Gilot’s individuality and personal expression is obscured by geometric abstractions that define her hair and body, while the tightly cropped framing of the scene offers little insight into her interior life. Her contemplative gaze is directed at something beyond, away from the viewer, suggesting a psychological withdrawal or daydream - a momentary escape from her own world. She appears absorbed by something outside the window, an unseen and unknowable presence that eludes both the viewer and the artist. The emotional distance Picasso sensed between them and expressed in this print may well have contributed to the dissolution of their relationship. La Femme à la fenêtre thus stands not only as a technical triumph and one of the artist's most startling compositions in the print medium but also as a poignant reflection on intimacy and alienation. It remains one of Picasso’s final portraits of Gilot, created the year before she left him in the autumn of 1953.
The print depicts Françoise Gilot, Picasso’s lover and muse from 1943 to 1953. Gilot featured prominently in Picasso’s oeuvre during this period, appearing in numerous prints such as the companion piece to the present one, Torse de Femme (L'Egyptienne) (B. 746), as well as Vénus et l'Amour, d'après Cranach (B. 1835) and the lithographic series La Femme au fauteuil (B. 588). In La Femme à la fenêtre, Gilot is portrayed inside a room standing by a window, a motif deeply embedded in art historical tradition. One of the contemporaries of Picasso who explored this theme extensively was Henri Matisse. Gilot and he requently visited Matisse at his villa in Vence, and it was whilst living in nearby Vallauris that Picasso created this print.
The window motif in La Femme à la fenêtre serves as a conceptual device that explores the dynamics of gaze and identity. The viewer assumes the role of voyeur, peering through a metaphorical window at the woman in a reflective, private moment, while she is looking out, seemingly unaware of being observed. In Matisse’s related painting Young Woman at the Window, Sunset (Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore) and La Femme à la fenêtre, the women are depicted with their hands raised to the window; the emotional tenor however differs significantly. In Matisse’s painting, the figure’s hand rests on the handle, as if she is about to open the window. In contrast, Gilot’s hands, inked almost entirely black, are pressed and silhouetted against the bright window pane, a gesture evoking psychological tension, perhaps even confinement.
Created in the penultimate year of their relationship, the print may reflect the emotional estrangement between Picasso and Gilot. By 1950, he had initiated an affair with Geneviève Laporte and Gilot split up with him three years later, famously becoming the only woman to do so. Picasso depicts Gilot with a cool detachment, very different to his portraits of other lovers, which are often charged with intense emotion and physical desire. Gilot later explained her lack of attachment and emotional transparency: 'Even Picasso never really knew me, despite our ten years together, because I closed myself off. I never opened myself up. Why should I?' (quoted in: Utley, 2016, p. 120).
In the portrait, Gilot’s individuality and personal expression is obscured by geometric abstractions that define her hair and body, while the tightly cropped framing of the scene offers little insight into her interior life. Her contemplative gaze is directed at something beyond, away from the viewer, suggesting a psychological withdrawal or daydream - a momentary escape from her own world. She appears absorbed by something outside the window, an unseen and unknowable presence that eludes both the viewer and the artist. The emotional distance Picasso sensed between them and expressed in this print may well have contributed to the dissolution of their relationship. La Femme à la fenêtre thus stands not only as a technical triumph and one of the artist's most startling compositions in the print medium but also as a poignant reflection on intimacy and alienation. It remains one of Picasso’s final portraits of Gilot, created the year before she left him in the autumn of 1953.