GALERIA MAYORAL

Mayoral, founded in 1989, is a gallery located in Barcelona and Paris. The gallery articulates an intergenerational exhibition programme focused on the best of post-war and contemporary Spanish art, promoting artists such as Tàpies, Chillida, Millares, Saura, Zóbel, Francés and Chordà, alongside works by key twentieth-century avant-garde artists such as Miró and Picasso, and the best of today’s generation with names such as Macarrón, Oliver, Pratts and Barriga.

The gallery develops projects that are rigorously curated and grow out of an exhaustive process of research. The gallery relies upon the support of the artists’ families, foundations and other institutions as well as collectors and museums, both public and private, when it comes to accomplishing its mission.

The gallery participates in art fairs such as Art|Basel Miami Beach, Art|Basel Hong Kong, TEFAF Maastricht, TEFAF New York and ARCOmadrid.

Provenance
Private Collection, France
Sale: Tajan, Paris, 22nd June 2000, lot 21
Galeria Mayoral, Barcelona
Private Collection, Barcelona
Acquired from the above

Exhibition
Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Pablo Picasso – 15/12/69 Dessins récents 11/1/71, 1971, no. 20 (illustrated in the catalogue)

Literature
Christian Zervos (ed.), Pablo Picasso. Works from 1970, Paris, 2013, vol. XXXII, no. 51, illustré p. 28
The Picasso Project (ed.), Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885-1973, vol. The Final Years 1970-1973, San Francisco, 2004, no. 70-052, illustré p. 22

The theme of “the painter and his model” has been fundamental in Western art history.

Pierre Georgel compares the theme of the painter and his model in Picasso’s oeuvre with the history of the artist’s studio and notes the following: “Picasso, in the variations of his last twenty years, feigns to turn his comic verve against himself and his own activity: this little gnome, who multiplies himself under so many masks in the face of the immutable and passive beauty of the model, is the one who leads the play of this ever-new comedy, the all-powerful demiurge whose name symbolises, in the mythology of the 20th Century, the unheard-of prestige of the artist.”1

From 1963, Picasso returned to the theme of “the painter and his model”, which had been present in his work since his illustration of Balzac’s short story Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece) in 1926. These paintings portray a painter with a palette and brushes standing in front of a canvas, usually seen from the side, and a naked model, either sitting or reclining.

The present work was conceived in 1970 during the last years of Picasso’s life. It was amid this tumultuous time when he incorporated a mixture of styles into his body of work.

The motif of the female nude fascinated Picasso. In the present work, he accentuates the curves of the model’s body, contrasting with the quasi- abstract figure of the painter. Picasso presents the artist as both creator and voyeur. We’re here to observe the creative process rather than the finished product, so we’re viewing a work in progress.