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Portrait of Françoise with fuzzy hair, Paris, 27.6.1947
Aquatint and cut-out technique on wove paper Arches (with watermark)
61.3 x 45.3 auf 66.2 x 50.2 cm
Signed, dated and inscribed "Épreuve d'artiste"
Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland
Literature:
Georges Bloch, Pablo Picasso: Katalog des graphischen Werkes 1904-1967, Bd. 1, 2. Aufl. Bern 1971, Nr. 457.
Brigitte Baer, Picasso: peintre - graveur. T. 4: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, 1946 - 1958 , Bern 1988, Nr. 791.
Brigitte Baer, Picasso: peintre - graveur. T. 4: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, 1946 - 1958 , Bern 1988, Nr. 791.
"It is almost as if Picasso had been waiting for Françoise Gilot's face, and indeed a special expression, a 'special' mood can be sensed in these portraits from the very beginning." (Erich Franz, 2002)
Pablo Picasso created numerous portraits of Françoise Gilot (1921-2023). In 1943, he met the young, budding painter in Paris at the restaurant Le Catalan and spontaneously invited her to his studio. Gilot, who was studying at the Académie Ranson (Paris) at the time and had just had her first gallery exhibition of paintings and drawings, subsequently visited the artist in his studio several times. At the turn of 1943/44, their love affair began. Gilot, who continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École des beaux-arts in Paris, finally moved in with Picasso in 1946 and lived with him in Paris and on the Côte d'Azur.
Picasso's love affair was a major stimulus to his artistic creativity, and Gilot became his favourite model until her break with the artist in 1953. Picasso explored her physiognomy in numerous variations and series of works, preferring to depict Gilot en face, as shown in the work created in Paris in 1947, a few months after the birth of their son Claude. Although Picasso was more interested in lithography in the 1940s, here he chose the aquatint printmaking technique and thus a soft, painterly form of depiction that concentrates entirely on the soft oval of the young woman's face, surrounded by loose hair, and her expression lost in thought.
Anette Brunner
Pablo Picasso created numerous portraits of Françoise Gilot (1921-2023). In 1943, he met the young, budding painter in Paris at the restaurant Le Catalan and spontaneously invited her to his studio. Gilot, who was studying at the Académie Ranson (Paris) at the time and had just had her first gallery exhibition of paintings and drawings, subsequently visited the artist in his studio several times. At the turn of 1943/44, their love affair began. Gilot, who continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École des beaux-arts in Paris, finally moved in with Picasso in 1946 and lived with him in Paris and on the Côte d'Azur.
Picasso's love affair was a major stimulus to his artistic creativity, and Gilot became his favourite model until her break with the artist in 1953. Picasso explored her physiognomy in numerous variations and series of works, preferring to depict Gilot en face, as shown in the work created in Paris in 1947, a few months after the birth of their son Claude. Although Picasso was more interested in lithography in the 1940s, here he chose the aquatint printmaking technique and thus a soft, painterly form of depiction that concentrates entirely on the soft oval of the young woman's face, surrounded by loose hair, and her expression lost in thought.
Anette Brunner