Pablo Picasso

Paloma Picasso 
Acquired from the above in 1980 

Executed on thick cream wove paper, not laid down, fixed to the mount at three points along the upper and right edge. The lower and left edges are uneven with some minor losses (not visible when framed). There is a very faint diagonal flattened crease near the lower left corner and some traces of foxing on the reverse, otherwise this work is in excellent overall condition.
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Exploring the relationship between the artist and his model, a subject which would preoccupy Picasso during his entire life, this beautiful drawing belongs to a series on this theme realised between 1927 and 1937.

Executed with a very fine line, this work is a perfect example of Picasso’s Neoclassical style, which he had abandoned in his paintings a few years earlier. In this piece, the artist manages to capture the intimacy of the scene, representing it with a rare delicacy and a remarkable economy of lines. Giving the the illusion of simplicity, this drawing is constructed with an audacious lightness of touch. Picasso is able to suggest his figures’ strength while conferring this composition with an ethereal effect.

This work deals with the classical theme of the painter and his model in an original manner: the two protagonists are not represented during the artistic process, but in a static pose, observing the artwork that the sculptor seems to have recently finished. As John Elderfiel notes, “the innovation and tradition consists in one of Picasso’s over-determinated motives, convening since the beginning in his art a Neoclassical ideal, renewed in a sexual version, susceptible of symbolising the artist’s own fecundity” (John Elderfield, Matisse Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Musée national d’art moderne, 2002-03, p. 236). Indeed, Picasso's exploration of the relationship between the artist and his model is indicative of a philosophical investigation, as well as an erotic and sensual quest.