Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Picasso Arts (Margaret Silberstein), New York
Dione Guffey Kenzer, New York (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Oeuvres de 1961 et 1962, vol. 20, Paris, 1968, no. 14, illustrated pl. 8 
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Sixties I, 1960-1963, San Francisco, 2002, no. 61-078, illustrated 🤡p. 🎐139

Work is in very good condition, on a cradled panel. Minor surface dirt and several studio stains at upper center are visible. Artist pinholes at all four corners. There are a number of very thin hairline cracks which radiate from the right and left sides of the work. Most are several inches in length and the longest extends from left center edge to roughly the center of the work. There is a minor loss to the panel at lower left corner, which seems to be intrinsic to the work, as well as minor indentations along the edges likely from when the board was cut and before it was painted.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in the summer of 1961, Deux nus et enfant provides a brilliant convergence of several important themes which dominated Picasso's late oeuvre. These later works are marked by a magnificent and intense expressiveness that belies the emotional undercurrents that drove Picasso as he confronted his waning virility. The work is the first of a series based on the same compositional structure with a seated nude and child in the foreground and a reclining nude in the background (see: Christian Zervos, op. cit., pls. 8-14). This series provided a significant stage in the development of the artist's masterful revisionings of Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, a theme which he returned to repeatedly between 1959 and 1962. The figure at left in Deux nus et enfant bears a strong resemblance to the figure🌠 in the background of many of his musings on Manet's masterpiece (fig. 1). Other masters of the 19th Century play an influential role during these years, such as Delacroix, Ingres and Jean-Léon Gérome (fig. 2).

As with other works from these years, Picasso here strips down these art historical precedents from their dependence on color and carefully mapped perspective. With boldly individual and modern gestures, Picasso is able to reify an atmosphere and emotional intensity with the simplest forms of color and line. He employs a grey scale in this work which he often utilized during these years to great effect, as in his series on Velazquez's Las Meninas. The subtlety of this color scale allows him, and subsequently his viewer, to isolate the human element in these paintings and the figural story thus beco🌌mes the focal point.

This work was formerly in the esteemed collection of Myron and Dione Guffey Kenzer, some of New York City's most prominent collectors from the 1950s to the 1970s.  After attending𝕴 the Chicago Art Institute, Dione came to New York in 1950 and quickly became the first Art Editor for the prominent advertising firm of J. Walter Thompson. Along with then firm president, Norman Strouse, she was responsible for amassing the firm's art collection as well as commissioning works from prominent artists to be given as Christmas gifts to the firm's top 300 clients each year. In 1956, she married Myron. The couple became close friends with many collectors and artists, including Margaret Silberstein and Andy Warhol, while simultaneously amassing an intelligent and important personal collection that revealed an uncanny sense for artistic value. Works by Picasso were a particular passion for Dione and this work undoubtedly held a prominent position in their collection.   

Fig. 1  Pablo Picasso, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, 1961, oil on canvas, sold: Sotheby's, Ne🤡w York, May 7, ♎2008, lot 42

Fig. 2  Jean-Léon Gérome, Le Bain des femmes, circa 1889, oil on canvas, Private Collection