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Lot Essay
This Nu couché is a study for Picasso's sequence of paintings based on Delacroix's Les femmes d'Algers, 1833, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. These pictures were the first series in which "Picasso ceaselessly analyzed, decomposed and recomposed other men's masterpieces, digesting them to make them his own...feverishly exploring all the possibilities on offer in the endeavour to validate his own brushwork, to test the power of his painting on given subject matter...It was the heyday of abstract art. Picasso was now the sole representative of a tradition of painting which traced its origin to the Renaissance, which had been revolutionary at the dawn of the twentieth century, and which had thenceforth remained obstinately figurative" (M.-L. Bernadac, in Late Picasso, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp. 54-55).
Françoise Gilot recalled that in 1946 Picasso often took her with him when he visited the Louvre to study Delacroix's painting (in Life with Picasso, New York, 1964, p. 203). Even before they met, Picasso had drawn some studies in a sketchbook that he used in Royan in 1940, shortly after the beginning the war. In 1954 Picasso began his relationship with Jacqueline Roque, and he fondly noted that in profile she resembled one of the Moorish women in Delacroix's painting. Then, on 1 November 1954, the Algerians began their revolt against French colonial rule, and two days later Picasso's friend and rival Henri Matisse died in Nice. Matisse was the only artist among their contemporaries whom Picasso accepted as his peer. "He left his odalisques to me as a legacy, and this is my idea of the Orient though I have never been there," he later told Roland Penrose (quoted in his Picasso: His Life and Work, Berkeley, 1981, p. 396).
This chain of events compelled Picasso to act on his response to Delacroix's painting. On 27 November 1954, he made four studies of a reclining nude in a horizontal format, based very loosely on the left-hand figure in Les femmes d'Alger (Picasso Project, nos. 54-262--54-265; Musée Picasso, Paris). Four days later, on 1 December, Picasso executed the present drawing, which he masterly rendered in pen and ink, without the benefit of a pencil under-drawing. He drew three more studies that day, which are numbered "II" through "IV" (Zervos, vol. 16, nos. 338-341; the last is also in the Musée Picasso). He completed the first of his Les femmes d'Algers paintings on 13 December (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 342; private collection). The series comprises fifteen canvases in all, in versions lettered A-O. Picasso drew almost ninety more studies as he worked on the paintings. The reclining figure with a raised leg first appeared in Les femmes d'Alger (Version "C"), dated 28 December 1954 (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 324; private collection) and then again in versions D-F, H-K, and L-O, which he painted into the new year. The final variation on this theme was completed on 14 February 1955 (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 360; fig. 1).
Susan Grace Galassi has observed, "In the Women of Algiers, various artistic currents are synthesized. Likewise, Picasso's series encompasses multiple modern idioms, while Delacroix is 'altered' to accommodate Velázquez, Ingres, and Matisse. Picasso's own seminal, early masterpiece, Les demoiselles d'Avignon, for which Delacroix's painting served as a source, hovers as a reference throughout the series. Indeed, [as Picasso declared] 'We are all in Delacroix' (in Picasso's Variations on the Masters, New York, 1996, p. 147).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d'Alger (Version "O"), 14 February 1955; formerly in the Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz; sold Christie's New York, 10 November 1997, lot 33).
Françoise Gilot recalled that in 1946 Picasso often took her with him when he visited the Louvre to study Delacroix's painting (in Life with Picasso, New York, 1964, p. 203). Even before they met, Picasso had drawn some studies in a sketchbook that he used in Royan in 1940, shortly after the beginning the war. In 1954 Picasso began his relationship with Jacqueline Roque, and he fondly noted that in profile she resembled one of the Moorish women in Delacroix's painting. Then, on 1 November 1954, the Algerians began their revolt against French colonial rule, and two days later Picasso's friend and rival Henri Matisse died in Nice. Matisse was the only artist among their contemporaries whom Picasso accepted as his peer. "He left his odalisques to me as a legacy, and this is my idea of the Orient though I have never been there," he later told Roland Penrose (quoted in his Picasso: His Life and Work, Berkeley, 1981, p. 396).
This chain of events compelled Picasso to act on his response to Delacroix's painting. On 27 November 1954, he made four studies of a reclining nude in a horizontal format, based very loosely on the left-hand figure in Les femmes d'Alger (Picasso Project, nos. 54-262--54-265; Musée Picasso, Paris). Four days later, on 1 December, Picasso executed the present drawing, which he masterly rendered in pen and ink, without the benefit of a pencil under-drawing. He drew three more studies that day, which are numbered "II" through "IV" (Zervos, vol. 16, nos. 338-341; the last is also in the Musée Picasso). He completed the first of his Les femmes d'Algers paintings on 13 December (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 342; private collection). The series comprises fifteen canvases in all, in versions lettered A-O. Picasso drew almost ninety more studies as he worked on the paintings. The reclining figure with a raised leg first appeared in Les femmes d'Alger (Version "C"), dated 28 December 1954 (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 324; private collection) and then again in versions D-F, H-K, and L-O, which he painted into the new year. The final variation on this theme was completed on 14 February 1955 (Zervos, vol. 16, no. 360; fig. 1).
Susan Grace Galassi has observed, "In the Women of Algiers, various artistic currents are synthesized. Likewise, Picasso's series encompasses multiple modern idioms, while Delacroix is 'altered' to accommodate Velázquez, Ingres, and Matisse. Picasso's own seminal, early masterpiece, Les demoiselles d'Avignon, for which Delacroix's painting served as a source, hovers as a reference throughout the series. Indeed, [as Picasso declared] 'We are all in Delacroix' (in Picasso's Variations on the Masters, New York, 1996, p. 147).
(fig. 1) Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d'Alger (Version "O"), 14 February 1955; formerly in the Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz; sold Christie's New York, 10 November 1997, lot 33).