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PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Femme-fleur signed and dated “2.10.48. I-IV Picasso” (upper left) cray...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:120,000.00 - 150,000.00 USD
PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Femme-fleur signed and dated “2.10.48. I-IV Picasso” (upper left) cray...

PABLO PICASSO

(1881-1973)

Femme-fleur

signed and dated “2.10.48. I-IV Picasso” (upper left)

crayon and pencil on paper

65.7 x 50.8 cm (25 7⁄8 x 20 in.)

executed in October 1948

Estimate: £80,000–100,000

$120,000–150,000





Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (acquired from the artist)

Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner on September 16, 1973




Literature

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1983, vol. 15 (Oeuvres de 1946 à 1953), no. 89 (illustrated, pl. 51)

The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue: Liberation and Post-War Years, 1944-1949, San Francisco, 2000, p. 200, no. 48-021 (illustrated)

<p>
In the period immediately after World War II Picasso’s work shifted away from the austere subjects and palette that had dominated his oeuvre from the late 1930s until the defeat of the Nazis. A new optimism, fed by his love for Françoise Gilot, comes to the fore. One
of the themes he explored during this decisive time was the notion of the human form interpreted as a plant or flower. Whilst these works are generally a celebration of the youth and liveliness of his young mistress, they are also metaphors for the sense of hope and optimism that marked the immediate post-war period. In several ways the Femme-Fleur works (in particular the celebrated painting of May 1946 of that title, Zervos vol. 14, no. 167) can be seen as images of rebirth. In their simplicity they bear the influence of Henri Matisse, whilst thematically they can be said to reflect the manner in which Picasso’s close friend Igor Stravinsky pursued themes of rebirth and spring in his music.
In the present work, Picasso has abstracted the human features of the Femme-fleur to a remarkable degree. A visual equivalence is made between the breasts of the woman and blossoms. The head of the woman has become little more than a small disc atop a plant burgeoning with life. Closely related sheets from the same period include Zervos vol. 15, nos. 86-88.