Pablo Picasso

Estate of the artist

Thence by descent to the present owner

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, supplément aux années 1907-1909, vol. 26, Paris, 1973, no. 390, illustrated pl. 136 (titled Paysanne assise and as dating from 1909)

Pierre Daix, Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907-1916, New York, 1979, no. 323, illustrated p. 250 (titled Seated Peasant Girl; Derain's Italian Girl and dating possibly from winter 1909-1910)

Josep Palau I Fabre, Picasso Cubism (1907-1917), New York, 1990, no. 460, illustrated p. 163 (titled Seated Peasant Woman.  Derain's Italian Maid)

Good condition. The canvas has been strip-lined. Under ultra-violet light there are numerous small specks of inpainting which were addressing minor flaking, most of these are in the background and are not part of the figure's composition. There is a 2 inch horizontal line of inpainting extending in from upper left edge and a 1 ½ inch horizontal line at figure's own left knee. There are a few more larger clusters toward right edge as well as a few small specks in figure's own right check.
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Picasso painted this portrait of a young woman in peasant clothing in the studio of André Derain on the rue Bonaparte.   It is believed that she was probably Derain's Italian maid who sometimes modeled for him (see fig. 1), and Picasso has taken the liberty here to use her in one of his own compositions.  This gesture is not without significance.  When this work was painted in the winter of 1909-10, Derain was at the height of his career following his involvement with the Fauves between 1905 and 1907.  Picasso was notoriously mindful of the work and production of other artists, and he did not shy from competition.  His choice to usurp his fellow artist's model on his own territory was most likely provocative, and it was also a reminder of the credo that would govern Picasso's career -- "If there is something to steal, I steal it!" 

 

Picasso and Derain met through Apollinaire in the summer of 1906, and instantly became friends, often visiting each other's studio.  John Richardson wrote about their relationship during the time La Bonne de Derain was executed:  "Derain became Picasso's yardstick. Until the outbreak of World War I, he would be the norm against which Picasso could measure the progress he was making as a cubist, the ever-increasing distance he was putting between himself and representationalism.  If Picasso forged too far ahead, he could count on Derain to urge restraint - as a rule unavailingly.  Derain would serve as Picasso's link with tradition: a godsend to a painter who was out to cannibalize the art of the past and remake it in his own image.  Derain's shadow can be detected in the eucharistic subtext of Picasso's great 1909 Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table.  Later the same year, Derain would persuade Picasso to try his hand at figuration: a naturalistic painting of Alice's Italian maid [the present work]" (John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, vol. II, New York, 1996, p. 77).

 

Executed in the winter of 1909-10, La Bonne de Derain belongs to one of the most important periods of Picasso's oeuvre, Analytical Cubism, a turning point not only in his own painting, but also a pivotal moment in the development of modern art.  Of all the numerous styles within Picasso's art, Analytical Cubism was by far the most intellectually rigorous.  In the process of expanding and refining the vocabulary of Cubism, Picasso was continuously stimulated by his artistic dialogue with Georges Braque.  By abandoning bright colours and spontaneous brushwork, both artists moved away from any emotionally expressive references within their canvases, and instead turned to the intellectual exercise of breaking down form and representing three-dimensional figures and objects on a flat picture plane.

 

La Bonne de Derain, however, presents a departure from Picasso's art from this period, both in its style and subject matter, and Pierre Daix explained this divergence by the artist's "desire to compete with Derain" (Pierre Daix, op. cit., p. 250).  A large proportion of Picasso's work at the time was dedicated to the genre of still-life, and when executing portraits, he did not base them on actual models posing for him.  It is conceivable, however, that Derain's maid posed for Picasso, rather than being painted from memory.  Stylistically, this work demonstrates a strong influence of Cézanne's painting (see fig. 2) and, like his other Cézannesque portraits (see fig. 3), it is characterized by softer, curved lines, as opposed to the more hard-edged forms of Picasso's Cubist works.  While retaining the subdued Cubist palette, here Picasso used a Cézannesque juxtaposition of cool and warm tones that resulted in a sculptural, three-dimensional effect.  The monumentality and voluminous quality of the woman's figure are reminiscent of his earlier works such as Femme nue assise, les jambes croisées of 1906 (see fig. 4), while at the same time anticipating his neo-Classical portraits of the early 1920s.

 

Fig. 1, André Derain, L'Italienne, 1913, oil on canvas

Fig. 2, Paul Cézanne, Madame Cézanne à la jupe rayée, circa 1877, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Fig. 3, Pablo Picasso, Portrait de Clovis Sagot, 1909, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Fig. 4, Pablo Picasso, Femme nue assise, les jambes croisées, 1906, oil on canvas, Narodni Gallery, Prague