50 Years New in Asia: Picasso's Femme dans un fauteuil

Completed on Christmas Day of 1948, Femme dans un fauteuil (Lot 1032) is a richly colored and joyful portrait of one of the most significant figures in Pablo Picasso’s life, his lover and muse Françoise Gilot. Forty years his junior, the 21-year-old Gilot first met Picasso in May 1943, whilst Picasso was still entangled in a turbulent relationship with the Surrealist artist Dora Maar. In the years that followed, until 1953, they developed a romantic attachment that exerted insurmountable influence upon Picasso’s artistic output. In the summer of 1946, Picasso and Gilot left Paris for the south of France and together the couple would have two children: Claude and Paloma. Picasso experienced immeasurable joy and contentment in his new familial life and this optimism is reflected in his canvases from this time, resulting in an impressive body of works featuring Gilot and their children. These works are characterized by a heightened sense of vitality and artistic freedom following the turbulence of the war years and it is this spontaneity of line and dynamic energy that can be felt in Femme dans un fauteuil.

As was often the case when a new muse entered Picasso’s life, his style underwent a radical change. Having left behind the sensual, oneiric portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter, as well as the distorted depictions of Dora Maar as the Weeping Woman, Picasso adopted a new style influenced by Gilot’s presence, as Picasso scholar Frank Elgar has pointed out:

Gilot’s youth and creative energy inspired Picasso and he employed imagery in his paintings of her that draw associations with themes of rebirth and renewal. In Femme dans un fauteuil, Picasso applies painterly tropes that are often found within his depictions of Gilot: the primacy of line and the colour green. Here, Picasso renders Gilot in a highly stylised manner characteristic of his avant-garde distortion of form. The calligraphic black lines and extensive presence of green allude to Picasso’s idea of Gilot as the Femme-fleur reflective of his view of Gilot as being inherently linked with the natural world:

The present portrait belongs to a small series of works that Picasso created depicting Gilot wearing a distinctive Polish jacket. At the time that this work was painted, Gilot was pregnant with the couple’s second child and Picasso had had to leave her alone for several weeks to attend the first World Peace Congress in Wroclaw in 1948. As a gift of appeasement, he returned from Poland with a beautifully embroidered red jacket, which Françoise was seen wearing on occasions. This brightly colored garment not only inspired portraits of Gilot during these months, such as the present painting, but also acted as a catalyst for a related series of prints that the artist completed in the year after. Examples from this series of lithographs are found in notable museum collections, including the Yale University Art Gallery, Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster, and Musée Picasso Paris. The present painting is testament to the influence that Picasso drew from Gilot during this pivotal moment in his personal life and artistic career.

In addition to the narrative attached to Picasso’s depictions of the Polish jacket, the clothing also plays a key visual role in the present composition. The rich red of the jacket complements the deep green of the armchair and the warm expanse of yellow orange hues offsets the cooler blue tones. Having abandoned the monochrome palettes that dominated his output during the early 1940s, Picasso embraced a brighter and livelier colour scheme, inspired by the happiness he was experiencing at the time as well as inspired by the light of the Côte d’Azur. This bold application of colour is further elevated by the application of white paint which amplifies the strength of the palette whilst allowing for the interplay of light across the canvas.

Gilot was already a successful artist in her own right before she met Picasso and she continued to work in her own distinct style throughout their relationship and after their separation. Gilot is also widely known as the only woman who left Picasso and it is her strength of character that is evident in the present portrait. Seated in an armchair that bears a resemblance to a throne, Picasso attributes Gilot with a regal quality that is heightened by the extravagance of her outfit, the full frontal way that the sitter looks out at the viewer and the strength of line with which Picasso delineates her. The armchair is a recurring symbol in Picasso's portraits of his muses, and a vital element that constitutes most of the portraits of Gilot. Although Gilot has written that Picasso once said to her:

He often depicted her in a seated position, but one that exuded power. The iconography of the seated woman expressed the artist’s lifelong interest in classical portraiture, whilst offering a framing device within which Picasso could convey the individual character of his sitters. In the present work the armchair is simplified and abstracted, allowing Picasso to separate his sitter from the geometric planes of colour in the background. This flattening of the picture plane and eschewing of traditional pictorial perspective in Femme dans un fauteuil dates to the artist’s early Cubist works, whilst demonstrating his tireless search to continue to break pictorial boundaries in new ways.

Picasso’s portraits of Gilot can be found in notable museum collections, some of which include the Museo Picasso Málaga, Musée National Picasso Paris, and The Israel Museum Jerusalem. Femme dans un fauteuil boasts exceptional provenance having remained with the artist for the rest of his life before passing from his estate into the collection of the artist’s granddaughter Marina Ruiz Picasso. It comes to auction now from a distinguished private collection.

《坐椅女子》（拍品編號1032）在1948年的聖誕節完成，是一幅色彩斑斕、歡樂明快的肖像，畫中人是畢加索的愛人兼繆斯弗蘭索娃・吉洛。吉洛比畢加索年輕40歲。1943年5月，21歲的她初與畢加索相遇，當時的畢加索仍然與超現實主義藝術家多拉・瑪爾分分合合，關係糾纏不清。在接下來的十年間，畢加索和吉洛互生情愫，墮入愛河，關係一直維持到1953年為止，這段戀情對畢加索的藝術風格產生的巨大影響。1946年夏天，畢加索和吉洛從巴黎移居法國南部昂蒂布角，期間二人的愛情結晶克勞德和帕洛瑪誕生。畢加索在新的家庭生活中嚐到無比的快樂和幸福，這些豐沛的情感大量傾瀉到他的畫布上，催生出一系列精彩作品，而這些描繪妻兒的作品風格，與以往其他系列大為不同，展現這位已經走過戰爭歲月深淵的藝術巨人那日益澎湃的創作能量，以及更自由奔放的藝術風格，而且作品主題與其私人生活更密切，與他較早前富有政治暗喻的作品大相徑庭。

畢加索精彩的創作生涯，以其眾多女伴的肖像作品最爲經典，從其筆尖的柔情與狂野，可以觀察到藝術家於不同時代所經歷的思緒、風格轉變以至人生觀。畢加索在揮別瑪莉‧德雷莎‧沃特肖像的純真夢幻風格，以及多拉・瑪爾畫作的戲劇化扭曲形態後，畢加索為吉洛的肖像找到嶄新風格，在他筆下的吉洛總是展現出優雅淡然和神態自若的一面。在畫面中央的吉洛正面凝視觀眾以至畫外之處。弗蘭克・艾加指出：

吉洛的青春氣息及其充滿創意觀點，啓發畢加索將她的形象以新生、重生的自然形態作爲隱喻。畢加索曾在畫作中將吉洛比喻為「女人花」（Femme-fleur），而本作與該時期藝術家描繪吉洛的風格特色亦緊緊呼應，如當中的墨黑線條與深綠的運用，均在同類系列中可見，因畢翁曾表達過他認爲吉洛與自然世界有著內在聯繫的觀點：

畢加索在1948年12月25日聖誕日完成這幅肖像，他在畫中為吉洛披上充滿節慶色彩的宮廷服裝。當時，吉洛正懷著畢加索的孩子，但由於畢加索需出席在波蘭樂斯拉夫召開的1948年第一屆世界保衛和平大會，所以不得不離開她幾個星期。作為補償，畢加索在波蘭歸來時帶了一件精緻的紅色刺繡外套作為禮物，吉洛偶然會穿上它；自1948年秋天起，這件色彩鮮豔的衣服更成為了畢加索為吉洛繪畫肖像的靈感，而且還促使畢加索在翌年完成一系列相關版畫。在這個版畫系列當中，有部分由著名博物館收藏，包括耶魯大學美術館、德國明斯特巴布羅畢加索藝術博物館和巴黎畢加索博物館。《坐椅女子》和同一時期的相關作品都見證了吉洛在藝術上為畢加索帶來的無盡靈感——她年輕活潑，既是熱情如火的戀人，也散發著如女王般的風範。

畢加索一生有過許多女伴，而吉洛是唯一敢愛而且主動離開他的女人。今年吉洛已經102歲高壽，常被畢加索以非寫實風格呈現的她從來不止是他的繆斯女神，她本身就是一位極具天賦的藝術家。在遇到畢加索之前，她已經是一位積極奮進的出色畫家，作品亦屢受邀展出，並涉獵版畫和寫作。吉洛的藝術生涯碩果豐滿，1990年更獲頒法國榮譽軍團勳章，而能夠獲此榮譽的女性在當年屈指可數。本幅肖像中的吉洛坐在猶如王座的扶手椅上，姿態迷人又如此理所當然，不僅散發著魅力和自信，同時展現出敢作敢為的個性。在畢加索為愛人繪畫的肖像中，她們幾乎總是坐在扶手椅上，以吉洛為主題的肖像畫亦不例外。儘管畢加索對吉洛有以下的觀察：

他通常仍將吉洛描繪成坐在扶手椅上的樣子，一如本作所見。女主角和家具組成的豐富構圖，創造出猶如文藝復興時期女王的形象，反映畫中人作為獨立女性那份巍然自信的情態。

創作《坐椅女子》時，畢加索已經逐漸摒棄在戰爭年代主導其創作的灰階單色調，在樂觀的新氣象和蔚藍海岸的日光濡染下，他擁抱更明亮、更活潑的色調選擇，這種轉變在此作可見一斑。本作背景鮮明地劃分為兩片區域：亮黃色和柔和的天藍色，與吉洛衣服的猩紅色和扶手椅的翠綠色互相襯托，在視覺上平衡得恰到好處。畢加索大膽地採用三原色調，塑造豐富生動的構圖；畢翁在畫中廣泛地使用白色顔料，不僅將人物的輪廓突顯而出，更帶出構圖中繽紛鮮艷的色澤，以及明亮的光線。畢加索以幾何分割的手法為人物塑型，又將多重視點結合於平面化的畫面之上，反映其抛棄傳統繪畫的視覺與手法。充滿棱角的形狀一概都以粗黑色線條勾邊。這幅肖像讓立體主義得到整合拓展，標誌著畢加索從早期最著名的立體主義風格向前邁進一大步。

畢加索為吉洛繪畫的肖像作品，獲全球各地著名博物館收藏，包括馬拉加畢加索博物館、國立巴黎畢加索博物館及耶路撒冷的以色列博物館等。至於畢加索的其他坐扶手椅的女子肖像在世界各地的館藏數量更大，足見這幅《坐椅女子》絕對是達至博物館級數的作品。這幅畫作最初由藝術家本人收藏至離世，後來由孫女瑪麗娜・魯伊斯・畢加索繼承，引證此作在家族珍藏的重要性。這次上拍是本作首度在亞洲公開亮相，可謂空前難得。