Pablo Picasso

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris 
International Galleries, Chicago (acquired from the above by 1968)
Acquired from the above

Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Picasso, Dessins, 1968, no. 81
Chicago, International Galleries, Picasso: Drawings 1961-1968, 1968, no. 21, illustrated in the catalogue

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Oeuvres de 1967 et 1968, vol. XXVII, Paris, 1973, no. 515, illustrated pl. 188

Executed on cream wove paper. All four edges are deckled. The sheet is slightly dirty. The medium is bright and fresh. Some minor nicks along the bottom edge have been reinforced. There is a repaired tear extending from the center of the bottom edge to the woman's thigh, approximately 5 1/2 inches long. There are remnants of adhesive from a previous mounting at the upper right, lower right and upper left corners. Otherwise fine. The work is in overall good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Powerfully visceral, Musiciens et femme was executed as Picasso moved towards the end of his astonishingly productive and creative life. Indeed, Picasso’s focus on erotic subjects in his paintings and drawings only increased during his later years, and he executed his chosen subjects with remarkable passion and intensity. “I have less and less time and I have more and more to say,” Picasso commented in his last decade (quoted in Klaus Gallwitz, Picasso Laureatus, Lausanne & Paris, 1971, p. 166). In both style and subject matter, the present work reveals the freedom and spontaneity which Picasso permitted himself to embrace in his later work. Picasso depicts the nude resting languorously against cushions, surrounded by musicians and dancers, devoted entirely to her own pleasure yet meeting the onlooker’s gaze.

Her pose is reminiscent of Édouard Manet’s Olympia (see fig. 1), the watershed piece that challenged traditional representations of female sexuality by depicting the nude Olympia with a direct and challenging gaze back onto the viewer's, an artistic choice that both empowered and celebrated female sexuality. Musiciens et femme serves as a superb illumination of Picasso’s commitment in the later part of his career to revisiting the work of many great masters, particularly the work of Manet, as well as his glorification of female sexuality, a theme which stands as arguably the fundamental cornerstone of his most significant works throughout his career.