Femme aux Bras Croisés
Femme aux Bras Croisés | |
---|---|
Artist | Pablo Picasso |
Year | 1901–02 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Movement | Picasso's Blue Period |
Dimensions | 81.3 cm × 58.4 cm (32 in × 23 in) |
Location | Private collection |
Femme aux Bras Croisés (English: Woman with Folded Arms), is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created between 1901 and 1902 during his Blue Period. The subject of the painting is unknown, but she is considered to be an inmate of the Saint-Lazare hospital-prison in Paris. The painting is listed as one of the most expensive paintings after it achieved a price of $55 million at Christie's auction on 8 November 2000.
Background
This painting is considered to be an important work dating from Picasso's Blue Period. This period began in 1901 and ended in 1904 with the beginning of his Rose Period. The Blue Period represents an important shift in Picasso's approach from his previous work in terms of style and subject matter. In place of the popular scenes of urban leisure, he began to experiment with monochromes and focus on melancholy themes of poverty, loneliness and death. His paintings were now dominated by shades of blue and featured portraits of destitute, sick people and prostitutes. Picasso's friend Pierre Daix commented that this announced Picasso's "...descent into hell...[into] the depths of solitude and despair".[1] This new style was heavily influenced by the death of Picasso's close friend Carles Casagemas, who committed suicide in 1901.[2]
Description
Femme aux Bras Croisés is a portrait of a woman sitting in a prison cell. The image conveys an atmosphere of misery and torment, which is achieved by the woman's body posture and the starkness of her surroundings. Her crossed arms and blank stare illustrate her isolation, while her physical and emotional disconnection reflects her social isolation.
It is believed that the painting was begun in France in the second half of 1901 and then moved to Spain, where Picasso made changes to the composition. This was confirmed by x-ray, which showed that Picasso had repainted the woman's hair over a previous hood.[2]
In her 1957 book Pablo Picasso, Antonina Vallentin discusses the haunting qualities of this painting. She considers the subject to be an inmate who recently attempted suicide and now carries the blank but menacing stare of those unfortunates who found themselves at Saint-Lazare hospital-prison during the early 1900s.[3]
Picasso often visited the Saint-Lazare hospital-prison in Paris in the second half of 1901 to find models for his paintings. John Richardson commented that, "The Saint-Lazare women were victims of society nobody would deny, but they are also to some extent Picasso's victims. There is a hint of eroticism, even sadism, to their portrayal... Years later Picasso would describe women with some relish as 'suffering machines'. No wonder there is more romantic agony than social criticism to Blue period imagery".[4]
Picasso used monochromatic colour to reinforce the sense of isolation and despair in his paintings. The dominant use of blue tones is particularly significant. Juan-Eduardo Cirlot comments that, "It is a blue which makes us think of night, but it is the symbol rather of maternal protection, of rest and forgetful dreams to soothe the sufferings of humble people, than of dark hostile power. Picasso has always been deeply humanitarian... [and] sensitive to human suffering, and he seems to have been strongly impelled to translate it into paint."[5]
Significance and legacy
Christie's describes the significance of Picasso's Blue Period paintings. "The paintings of the Blue period comprise some of Picasso's most concise and compelling portrayals of human emotion. […] Above all, Picasso concentrated on the expressive possibilities of the human form, as exemplified in seminal works such as Femme aux bras croisés."[2]
Ownership history
Gertrude Stein originally bought the painting from Picasso. From 1936 it was in the collection of the family of Chauncey McCormick, who lent it to the Art Institute of Chicago.[6] On 8 November 2000 it sold at auction at Christie's, New York, for $55 million.[7]
See also
- List of most expensive paintings
- The Blue Room
- The Old Guitarist
- La Vie
External links
- Femme aux bras croisés at Christie's
References
- ^ Daix, Pierre (1991). Picasso: Life and Art. New York. p. 30.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c "Femme aux bras croisés". Christie's. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ Vallentin, Antonina (1957). Pablo Picasso. A. Michel. p. 69.
- ^ Richardson, John (1991). A Life of Picasso, 1881-1906, vol. 1. New York. p. 222.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Cirlot, Juan-Eduardo (1972). Picasso: Birth of a Genius. New York. pp. 132–133.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Carol Vogel (November 9, 2000). "Picasso Auction Record: $55 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
- ^ "Picasso for sale - a snip at £16m". BBC News Online. 2000-09-15.
- v
- t
- e
- Le petit picador jaune (1889)
- Science and Charity (1897)
- Le Moulin de la Galette (1900)
- The Appointment (1901)
- Child with a Dove (1901)
- La Gommeuse (1901)
- Yo, Picasso (1901)
- Portrait of Jaime Sabartés (1901)
- The Blue Room (1901)
- Femme aux Bras Croisés (1901-02)
- Old Jewish Man with a Boy (1903)
- The Old Guitarist (1903)
- La Vie (1903)
- Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto (1903)
- Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904)
- The Actor (1904-1905)
- Woman Ironing (1904)
- Girl in a Chemise (c. 1905)
- Acrobat and Young Harlequin (1905)
- Family of Saltimbanques (1905)
- Garçon à la pipe (1905)
- Girl on a Ball (1905)
- Les Noces de Pierrette (1905)
- Au Lapin Agile (1905)
- Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905)
- Famille d'acrobates avec singe (1905)
- Boy Leading a Horse (1905–06)
- Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905–06)
- Head of a Young Woman (1906)
- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
- Woman with a Fan (1908)
- Brick Factory at Tortosa (1909)
- Woman with a Fan (1909)
- Femme et pot de moutarde (1910)
- Girl with a Mandolin (1910)
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910)
- Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910)
- The Accordionist (1911)
- Le pigeon aux petits pois (1911)
- La Coiffeuse (1911)
- Violon et Raisins (1912)
- Bottle, Glass, Fork (1912)
- Ma Jolie (1912)
- Arlequin (1913)
- Ma Jolie (1914)
- Three Musicians (1921)
- Reading the Letter (c. 1921)
- The Pipes of Pan (1923)
- The Three Dancers (1925)
- Woman in a Red Armchair (1929)
- Le Repos (1932)
- Girl before a Mirror (1932)
- La Lecture (1932)
- Le Rêve (1932)
- Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)
- Nude in a Black Armchair (1932)
- Femme à la montre (1932)
- Two Girls Reading (1934)
- Jeune Fille Endormie (1935)
- Guernica (1937)
- Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)
- Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937)
- The Weeping Woman (1937)
- Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom (1937)
- Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937)
- Maya with Doll (1938)
- Woman's Head (1939)
- Dora Maar au Chat (1941)
- The Charnel House (1944–1945)
- Nature morte au poron (1948)
- Massacre in Korea (1951)
- Les Femmes d'Alger series (1955)
- Las Meninas (1957)
- The Fall of Icarus (1958)
- Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) (1960)
- Jacqueline (1961)
- Femme au Chien (1962)
- Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse) (1931)
- Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (1941)
- Bull's Head (1942)
- Baboon and Young (1951)
- Figure découpée (1963, 1964, 1965)
- Chicago Picasso (1967)
- Sylvette (1970)
- Vollard Suite (1930–1937)
- Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl (1933)
- Minotauromachy (1935)
- The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937)
- 347 Series (1968)
- Girl from Majorca (1905)
- Don Quixote (1955)
- Toros y toreros (1961)
- Le Taureau (1945-1946)
- Dove (1949)
- Desire Caught by the Tail (c. 1941)
- The Four Little Girls (c. 1947–48)
- Picasso and the Ballets Russes
- Parade
- The Three-Cornered Hat
- Pulcinella
- Le Train Bleu
- Mercure
- Musée Picasso (Paris)
- Musée Picasso (Antibes)
- Museu Picasso (Barcelona)
- Museo Picasso Málaga (Malaga)
- Museo Casa Natal (Malaga)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Normandy)
- Olga Khokhlova (first wife)
- Jacqueline Roque (second wife)
- Maya Widmaier-Picasso (daughter)
- Claude Picasso (son)
- Paloma Picasso (daughter)
- Diana Widmaier Picasso (granddaughter)
- Marina Picasso (granddaughter)
- Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (grandson)
- José Ruiz y Blasco (father)
(France)
- Bateau-Lavoir (Montmartre Paris)
- Villa La Vigie (Juan-les-Pins, Summer 1924)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Gisors, 1930-1937)
- Château of Vauvenargues (Vauvenargues, 1958-1962)
- Villa La Californie (Cannes, 1955-1961)
- Château de Vie (Mougins, 1961-1973)
television about
- Visit to Picasso (1949)
- Guernica (1950)
- The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
- The Adventures of Picasso (1978)
- Surviving Picasso (1996)
- Picasso: Magic, Sex & Death (2001)
- Modigliani (2004)
- Genius (2018 TV series)
- Carles Casagemas
- Carl Nesjar
- Lydia Corbett
- Lump (dog)
- Fundación Picasso
- Picasso. In the heart of darkness (1939-1945) (2019-2020 exhibition)
- Picasso & Lump (2006 book)
- Picasso referendum of Basel
- Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria
- Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1915 painting)
- "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1924 poem)
- Woman, Bird, Star (Homage to Pablo Picasso) (1973 painting)
- "Pablo Picasso" (1976 song)
- The Blue Guitar (1977 etchings)
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993 play)
- Picasso (crater)