Estate of the artist

Maya Widmaier Picas✱so, Paris (by descent from the abov🅺e)

Acquired from the above by the father of the present owne✤r

Picasso and Portraiture, Representation and Transformation (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Grand Palais, Paris, 1996-97, illustrated p. 46

The sheet is affixed to the mount along the top edge from the verso. The sheet is slightly time-stained, with a few minimal handling creases. There is a restored, horizontal fold running across the sheet, 4 inches from the base, visible in the catalogue illustration. Otherwise this work is in very good condition. Colors: The contrast of shadows and the medium are stronger in reality, and the sheet is more creamy in tone than in the catalogue illustration. Please note that the correct measurements of this work are 19 by 12 5/8 in. Also please note that this work is inscribed with the numbers 14 and 2780 on the recto and stamped with the Maya Picasso edition of the artist's estate stamp and inscribed PP 1426 on the verso.
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.

This exquisite portrait of the artist's wife, Olga, dates from Picasso's Neo-Classical period immediately following World War I.  The term 'Neo-Classical' refers to the artist's conscious affliation with the art of the Greek and Roman period and his attempt to incorporate a similar linear precision and clear draftsmanship into his art.  Picasso's focus on the classical age was a product of a larger movement, or 'call to order,' that dominated the avant-garde after World War I, but his approach to this aesthetic was influenced by more personal factors.    At this point in his life Picasso was already one of the most celebrated artists of Europe, and he sought to align himself with the great artists of the past.  The predecessor for💦 whom he had profound respect was the French Neo-Classical painter Ingres, whose serene and timelessly beautiful odalisques may have inspired the mood of the present work. 

Olga Kokhlova was the Russian ballerina whom Picasso married the year before he completed this drawing.  Olga's sturdy bone structure - her long straight nose, the sweeping arch of her brow and the graceful oval shape of her face - were perfectly suited to the type ꦜof linearity and solidity that characterized Picasso's Neo-Classical undertaking.  In these pictures Olga was the paradigm of Apollonian beauty, and here, Picasso depicts her with a noticeable reverence.   This picture is one of the most serene renderings of Olga from this period, and it captures the relative peace that defined her life with the artist around 1920, which was perhaps the happiest time of their marriage.  After the birth of the couple's son Paulo in 1921, Olga's preference for a stable domestic life began to conflict with her husband's more social predelictions.  By the end of 1922 Picasso's depictions of Olga lost their tenderness and serenity.  Those characteristics, however, are epitomized and preserved in this pictu♏re.