PABLO PICASSO | Baigneuse et cabine de bains

Private Collection, Spain (acquired directly from the artist)
Ronald Emmanuel, London (by 1938)
Charles B. Fry, London
H. Batsford, London
Harry Lewis Winston, Birmingham, Michigan (acquired from the above in 1948)
Lydia Winston Malbin (by descent from the above)
Private Collection (by descent from the above and until at least 2004)
Russeck Gallery, Palm Beach (acquired in 2004)
Private Collection, United States (acquired from the above in November 2006; sale: Christie's, London, 11th February 2011, lot 23)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Bloomfield Hills, Museum of Cranbrook Academy of Art, Winston Collection, 1951, no. 73
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 20th Century Painting and Sculpture from the Winston Collection, 1955, no. 55
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts; Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Art; San Francisco, The San Francisco Museum of Art & Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Art Institute, Collecting Modern Art: Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawing from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Harry Lewis Winston, 1957-1958, no. 85
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Varied Works of Picasso, 1962
Bloomington, The University of Indiana & Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin, Reflection Thru a Collector's Eye, A Selection of Drawings from the Collection of Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston, 1971, no. 112, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Portrait of a Woman Seated Under a Light)
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Selections from the Lydia and Harry L. Winston Collection (on loan, 1972-73)
New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Futurism: A Modern Focus; The Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection, Dr and Mrs Barnett Malbin, 1973-74, no. 83, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Wildenstein & Co, Paintings from Midwestern University Collections, 1973-75, no. 83

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1937 à 1939, Paris, 1958, vol. IX, no. 222, illustrated p. 107
Douglas Cooper, Great Private Collections, New York, 1963, illustrated in a photograph p. 303
Gene Baro, 'Collector: Lydia Winston', in Art in America, New York, September-October 1967, illustrated p. 72
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso. From the Minotaur to Guernica 1927-1939, Barcelona, 2011, no. 1227, illustrated p. 396

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down and attached to the backing board at the upper two corners. The edges are deckled. The sheet is slightly time-stained and there are some minor spots of foxing in places, not visually distracting. This work is in overall very 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

Imagery of Dora Maar dominates Picasso’s art from the late 1930s. The present work, executed in 1938, is a powerful example of Picasso’s quasi-obsessive focus on her physique and presence – her rebellious nature, strong profile and black hair are evoked in strong angular lines. A Surrealist photographer herself, Maar became the subject of a series of works executed during the late summer of 1938 depicting a bather on the beach. Reminiscent of Picasso’s works executed a decade earlier featuring his blonde lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, the present work attests to Picasso’s practice of referencing multiple lovers within the same image. In Baigneuse et cabine de bains, the figure is both voluptuous and angular - possessing the features of both Dora Maar and Marie-Thérèse Walter - and it is this conflation of their characteristics which is central to the artist’s work. According to Françoise Gilot, during the creation of Guernica, and unable to endure the situation any longer, Marie-Thérèse confronted Dora in the artist's Grands-Augustins studio. Claiming her right to him as the mother of his child, Marie-Thérèse demanded that Dora leave. Dora refused and they continued to argue while Picasso painted on, undisturbed. Eventually Marie-Thérèse appealed to Picasso to decide, but he could not, later commenting: ‘It was a hard decision to make. I liked them both, for different reasons: Marie-Thérèse because she was sweet and gentle and did whatever I wanted her to, and Dora because she was intelligent… I told them they have to fight it out themselves. So they began to wrestle’ (quoted in Mary Anne Caws, Dora Maar With & Without Picasso – A Biography, London, 2000, p. 113). Picasso later claimed that this incident was ‘one of [his] choicest memories’. This struggle continued in Picasso's dynamic representations of the female figure in which the features of both his lovers are combine in expressive lines.

The present work belonged to Lydia Winston Malbin, who was well known for her active support of the arts and her own extraordinary collection of Modern European art. Together with the Guggenheim’s first director Hella Rebay, Malbin organised Detroit’s first ever exhibition of Abstract art in 1940 and at the time of her death in 1989 was a member of the acquisitions committee of the Whitney Museum, New York. Lydia was married to her first husband Harry Lewis Winston and living in Michigan when she acquired the present work; she would keep it for the rest of her life.