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43

Property from a European collection PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Peintre et modèle signed

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Property from a European collection PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Peintre et modèle signed
Property from a
European collection
PABLO PICASSO
(1881-1973)
Peintre et modèle
signed "Picasso" (upper right); dated "14, November 1964"
(on the reverse)
oil on canvas
38 5/8 x 5 11/8 in. (98 x 130 cm)
painted on November 14, 1964
Estimate: $1,500,000-2,000,000 <p>provenance
Galerie Louise Leiris, PARIS <p>Exhibited
cologne, Galerie Karsten Greve, Pablo Picasso, May 28-August 27, 1988, no. 62 (illustrated in color) <p>Literature
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1983, vol. 24 (Oeuvres de 1964), no. 267 (illustrated, pl. 101)
The subject of an artist in his studio fascinated Picasso throughout his career. However, from 1963 onwards, the artist embarked upon his largest series of paintings dealing exclusively with this theme. Many of them share a similar motif, the artist seated on the left hand of the composition, which is divided by a canvas on the easel, and the nude female model on the right. These works are not only about artistic creation, but also about the relationship between man and woman. The 1964 series to which the present work belongs is even more erotically charged than the 1963 sequence of paintings. Indeed some of these 1964 works do away with the barrier of the easel entirely, presenting the painter staring directly at the model, as if in a pre-coital state (Zervos vol. 24, nos. 259-266). Consequently, Picasso equates the act of painting with lovemaking.
In addition, by using a relatively simple compositional design, Picasso has freed himself to revel in the sensual act of applying paint to canvas. In the studio paintings of these years, Picasso applied his pigment with enormous virtuosity. He does not merely portray the painter at work, but enacts it. It has often been suggested that his paint application was influenced by the work of the American Abstract Expressionists, who had, by the early 1960s, already been exhibited widely in Europe. Always keen to keep up with the latest developments in contemporary art, Picasso painted with the same gusto as Pollock and De Kooning, without however ever fully abandoning recognizable subject matter.
Indeed, in painting the motif of artist and model, Picasso was referencing his deep knowledge of art historical precedents. In 1957, he had translated Velázquez's great studio painting Las Meninas into his own pictorial language in a whole series of works. His paintings, drawings and graphics, particularly towards the end of his life, make frequent reference to Rembrandt, and at times Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, appears as the great Dutchman's model.
Brigitte Léal wrote of the 1963 and 1964 series as follows: "In analyzing the deeper meaning of the painter and his model theme, Michel Leiris saw two underlying elements: that of the gaze, of voyeurism, the staging of the act of watching, creation's point of departure - 'the eye, the hand' - and that of his irony about the profession, the staging of the act of painting. Across these multiple scenes, Picasso always asked himself the question: What is a painter? A handler of brushes, a dauber, an unrecognised genius, or a demiurge creator...In each new reworking of this scenario, he attempted to grasp the impossible, the secret alchemy that operates between the real model, the vision and feeling of the artist, and the pictorial reality" (Brigitte Léal, et al, The Ultimate Picasso, New York, 2000, p. 442).
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