Herman C. Goldsmith, New York
Acquired from the above in 1982

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Oeuvres de 1953-55, vol. XVI , no. 205, illustrated p. 67
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Fifties I, 1950-1955, San Francisco, 2002, no. 54-105, illustrated p. 197

Very good condition; not laid down; sheet is attached to mat at 4 corners. Mat burn visible at left edge; a few small dots of discolored fibers or possible foxing; sheet is very slightly time darkened
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Writing about Picasso's drawings, Marie-Laurencin Bernadac has observed, "Between 18 November 1953 and 3 February 1954, Picasso shut himself away in the deserted villa and produced, at a dizzying pace, 180 drawings which have as their central theme that of the painter and his model.  Some of them additionally summon up and incorporate themes from the past: the circus, clowns, acrobats and monkeys.  Others anticipate the future: masks, old age, eroticism, jokes at the expense of the painter's trade, the comedy of the art milieu.  Colored crayons, India ink, wash, graphite pencil: all these techniques are enlisted to illustrate this journal of a 'season in Hell' which sums up bitterly, cruelly, sarcastically, implacably, the absurd drama of creativity and the irresoluble duality of art and life, art and love.  Woman is there to be painted but must also be loved, whatever his genius the artist is still a man, subject to age, illness and death" (Late Picasso, Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings and Prints 1953-1972 (exhibition catalogue), The Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 51).

Femme, peintre et modèle is a beautiful example of Picasso's masterly draughtsmanship and the intensity with which he created these drawings. He has elongated the neck of hi🎉s model, a device that recalls Modigliani and Parmigianino, and also adds a note of surreal whimsy.  Picasso was constantly reworking the theme of the artist, his model, her image and his gaze as a means to rectify the barrier between the notion of perception and reflection.   

According to Pierre Daix, the present work is Picasso's first ever nude depiction of Jacqueline.

Fig. 1 Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck (detail), 1534-40, Uffizi Gallery, Florence