Pablo Picasso

Estate of the artist

Munich, Galerie Thomas, Picasso bei Thomas, 1986, n.n.
Antibes, Musée Picasso, Pablo Picasso 1945-1949 : l'ère du renouveau, 2009, n.n.
Cannes, Centre d'Art La Malmaison, Picasso, Le Nu en liberté, Collection Marina Picasso, 2013, n.n.

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Vol. XIV : Œuvres de 1944 à 1946, Paris, 1963, no. 173, illustrated p. 77 (titré Études)
Michel Anthonioz, L'Album Verve, Paris, 1987, illustrated p. 184

Executed on thick white laid paper, not laid down, floating in the mount, fixed in the corners and in the centre of each edge. The edges are uneven (particularly the upper and lower edges) with associated minor scuffs and nicks. There is some very minor creasing and a few scattered spots of foxing; otherwise this work is in excellent original condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The aftermath of the war was marked by Picasso’s reunion with the Mediterranean. As early as July 1945, the painter returned to Cap-d’Antibes, which he had left in 1939. After the many dark works that he executed during the war, Picasso, by now officially living with Françoise Gilot, began to reconnect with “joie de vivre”, the title of one of his most emblematic paintings from 1946. This period became synonymous with effervescent creativity and the artist energetically explored new techniques (such as lithography, ceramics, etc.). From a stylistic point of view, the art of the Antibes period is characterised by a return to purity and a lightness of touch that are especially visible in Trois femmes nues.

During the month of June 1946, Françoise inspired a series of nudes drawn with coloured pencils. The extreme purity and economical use of lines create great visual strength. Through  the geometrical treatment of shapes, Picasso combines curves and straight lines, creating a dynamical contrast between the roundness of the breasts, the angularity of the lower body and the faces, sometimes reduced to a simple triangle. As Christine Piot notes regarding the drawings from this period, we can observe a “long evolution from the image to the symbol, from initial naturalism to near-abstraction whereby his graphism recalls the rhythm of  prehistoric figures” (Christine Piot, Picasso. La Monographie 1881-1973, Paris, 2000, pp. 361-363).