Pablo Picasso

Bibi Dudensing, New York (a gift from the artist in 1933)

Private Collection (by descent from the above)

Private Collection

A recumbent Marie-Thérèse is the subject of this intimate canvas from 1933.   This theme dominated the artist's most successful pictures of the 1930s, when he was swept up in a romance with a much younger woman who satisfied his every physical desire.  In paintings, sculpture, etchings and drawings Picasso celebrated his lover's body, even sharing her form with his friends in his art.

Picasso presented this picture as a gift to Bibi Dudensing, the co-owner, along with her husband Valentine Dudensing, of the Valentine Gallery in New York.  In partnership with Pierre Matisse, the Dudensings sponsored some of the first exhibitions of the 20th century Parisian avant-garde in America in the 1930s. Matisse enabled contact with these artists through his famous father Henri, and among those receptive to the Dudensings' charm was Picasso, who exhibited Guernica for the first time in America at their gallery in 1939.  Bibi Dudensing seemed to attract particular attention among the artists of the day, and modeled for Man Ray, Jules Pascin and Carl Van Vechten.  Picasso dedicated this painting to her in the summer in 1933, while at his country chateau in Boisgeloup.