LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART PART I  / 

31

Property from a Japanese Private Collection PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Buste de femme souriante si...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000,000.00 - 7,000,000.00 USD
Property from a Japanese Private Collection PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Buste de femme souriante si...
Property from a Japanese Private Collection
PABLO PICASSO
(1881-1973)
Buste de femme souriante
signed "Picasso" (lower left)
oil on board laid down on panel
30 1/4 x 22 1/2 in. (77 x 57 cm)
painted in Spring, 1901
Estimate: $5,000,000-7,000,000 <p>Provenance
Georges Bernheim, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
George C. Lee (acquired from the above in September 1929)
Gertrude C. Lee (by descent from the above; estate sale: Christie's, New York, May 16, 1977, lot 38)
Belle Linsky, New York (acquired at the above sale; estate sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 10, 1988, lot 24)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner <p>Literature
Pierre Daix, La Vie de peintre de Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1977, no. 118 (illustrated; under unpublished works)
According to Pierre Daix, the present work was painted in Barcelona or Paris in Spring, 1901. This resplendent painting belongs to an important group of works executed in a Post-Impressionist manner, all of which capture Picasso's excitement at his discovery of avant-garde art in Paris at the turn of the century. Three other masterpieces of the same year share stylistic features and similar subject matter with Buste de Femme Souriante: L'Attente (FIG. 1), La Nana and vieille femme parée (FIG. 2).
John Richardson suggests that some of these were started in Madrid and completed shortly after Picasso's return to Paris in May 1901. He describes the vigor of the paintings of this period: "There is no denying the brilliance, energy, and originality of the best paintings: for instance Old Harlot, Harlot with Hand on her Shoulder, or Dwarf Dancer (since these look back at Van Gogh and Signac and ahead to Vlaminck and Derain, they are sometimes described as 'proto-fauve')" (John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, London, 1991, vol. 1, p. 194).
"Proto-Fauve" provides an apt description of these pictures. The highly animated brushwork evident here anticipates several of the most memorable Fauve portraits by Vlaminck and Derain. The subject matter and overall painterly treatment predates Matisse's scandalous portrait of his wife, femme avec chapeau, 1905, and much of Van Dongen's work before 1910. More importantly, the confident and riveting gaze of the sitter reminds the viewer of the posture that Picasso strikes in the celebrated self-portrait, Yo Picasso (Zervos vol. 21, no. 192), which was also painted during the Spring of 1901.
What distinguishes this striking series of early Picassos from Fauve art is their technical mastery based on Picasso's knowledge of earlier artists such as Goya and Velázquez. Picasso's training as a portraitist was considerable, unmatched by any of the Fauves, who tended to create more generalized images of human features. During the late 1890s, Picasso strove to outshine his artistic rival, the Spanish artist Ramon Casas. As a result, he produced dozens of portraits at lightning speed bearing the influence of Casas. Picasso's innate virtuosity would attract him to other prodigiously gifted draftsmen like Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec when he came to Paris. This heady mix of artistic influences on the dynamic young Picasso, barely out of his teens when he painted Buste de Femme Souriante, would become positively explosive once he encountered Van Gogh's exalted art. As a consequence, his 1901 portraits and scenes of both Parisian and Spanish nightlife provide a vital historical bridge between the late works of the Post-Impressionists and the next great radical movement that would follow, Fauvism.
When Picasso arrived in Paris from Spain in May 1901, he had between 15 and 25 paintings and a few pastels with him. His exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery was due to open on June 24, barely a month later. When the exhibition opened, it included at least 64 paintings, pastels and watercolors, quite apart from the drawings. This highly prolific Spring provides a remarkable testament to the pace of Picasso's creative energy, something that would always distinguish him from other artists. That energy is enacted in the brilliance and spontaneity of Buste de Femme Souriante.
Viewers of the Vollard exhibition, Picasso's Parisian début, were carried away by the sheer force of his artistic will, which served to unify all the diverse stylistic elements that entered his work at this fertile exploratory time. Keen to point out the Spanish roots of Picasso's work, the critic Félicien Fagus reviewed the exhibition in Revue Blanche on July 15, 1901, noting several of the crucial influences on the young master: "Goya. The bitter, mournful genius. His influence is seen in Picasso, the brilliant newcomer... He is the painter, utterly and beautifully the painter; he has the power of divining the essence of things...Like all pure painters he adores color for its own sake...he is enamoured of all subjects and every subject is his...Besides the great ancestral masters, many likely influences can be distinguished - Delacroix, Manet (everything points to him, whose painting is a little Spanish), Monet, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Forain, Rops. Each one a passing phase, taking flight as soon as caught...we are in the presence of such brilliant virility" (quoted in ibid., p. 199).
Sign In to Bookmark Lot