Estate of the artist
Galerie Malingue, Paris
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 26th March 1985, lot 57
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, œuvres de 1967 et 1968, Paris, 1973, vol. 27, no. 145, illustrated pl. 46
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. The Sixties II, 1964-1967, San Francisco, 2002, no. 67-397, illustrated p. 398

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly stronger in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Throughout the 1960s Picasso was mainly preoccupied with the theme of artist and model, and executed a number of variations on this subject. It proved to be one of his most passionate and energetic projects, inspired by the final love of the artist's life, Jacqueline Roque. The artist first explored this subject intensively in the spring of 1963, dividing the pictorial space equally between the painter and his model (fig. 1). As Picasso continued to return to this subject, the painter depicted in his compositions gradually occupied less of the canvas. In some works, such as the present Nu couché of 1967, the figure of the artist has been entirely eliminated, and the large figure of the nude femalꦕe model becomes the sole subject of the composition.

 

The image of Jacqueline, whom Picasso married in 1961, first appeared in his works in May 1954, and would dominate his art until the end of his career. Picasso's renderings of Jacqueline constitute the largest group of images of any of the women in his life. The artist first met Roque in 1952 at Vallauris during one of his visits to the Madoura pottery studio, where his ceramics were created and where Jacqueline had recently started working. Unlike his previous partner Françoise Gilot, Jacqueline was ever-accepting of the notoriously temperamental artist and his blind obsession with his art, and doted 🔯on him ceaselessly in his old age. Picasso experienced a calm and peace with this woman that he had not felt since his days with Marie-Thérèse, and, like his golden mistress, Jacqueline became his muse for some of his most imaginative compositions.

 

Although in Nu couché the model's appearance does not reveal a direct likeness to Picasso's wife, she bears the features - such as strong nose and long jet-black hair - that the ღartist always used to portray Jacqueline. With her voluptuous curves and a pose of unrestrained abandon, the model represents the object of the artist's desire. Picasso's waning sexual potency is countered by his power of vision and creativity, by the swift, confident application of paint, and the remarkably bold free-flowing treatment of colour. The love that Picasso felt for his wife is reflected in the passionate vitalitဣy and excitement radiating from the present work. Positioned directly in front of the painter – and the viewer - her pose conveys a universality and eternal presence, identifying Jacqueline as the ultimate feminine representation.

 

Discussing Picasso's works from the late 1960s, Marie-Laure Bernadac wrote: 'Picasso now chose to work with isolated figures, archetypes, and concentrated on the essential: the nude, the couple, man in disguise or stripped bare: it was his way of dealing with the subject of women, love, and the human comedy. After isolating the painter in a series of portraits, it was logical that Picasso should now paint the model alone: that is to say a nude woman [...] offered up to the painter's eyes and to the man's desire. It is characteristic of Picasso, in contrast to Matisse and many other twentieth-century painters, that he takes as his model – or as his Muse – the woman he loves and who lives with him, not a professional model. So what his paintings show is never a 'model' of a woman, but woman as model. This has its consequences for his emotional as well as his artistic life: for the beloved woman stands for 'painting', and the painted woman is the beloved: detachment is an impossibility. Picasso never paints from life: Jacqueline never poses for him; but she is there always, everywhere' (M.-L. Bernadac, 'Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model', in Late Picasso (exhibition catalogཧue), The Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 78).

 

 

 

Fig. 1, Pablo Picasso, Le Peintre et son modèle, 1963, oil on canvas, Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Mu꧃nich

Fig. 2, Pablo Picasso, Vénus et Amour, 1967, oil on canvas, Kunstmuseum, Basel

Fig. 3, Pablo Picasso, April 196♔5. Photograph by André Gomès