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The Dreamer

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The Dreamer

Pablo Picasso  (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)

Date:
1932
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
39 7/8 x 36 3/4in. (101.3 x 93.3cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997
Accession Number:
1997.149.4
Rights and Reproduction:
© 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This artwork is not on display

  • Description

    Picasso met Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977) on a sidewalk in Paris in January 1927; he was forty-five and she was seventeen. They became lovers soon after, and Marie-Thérèse gave birth to their daughter, Maya, in 1935. Marie-Thérèse's voluptuous figure inspired innumerable pictures, many of them erotic. Picasso based this composition on Ingres's famous "Odalisque and Slave" (the two versions are at the Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Mass., and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) but during extensive revisions condensed the figure into something resembling an ancient fertility object. In an earlier state, Picasso included the shadow of his profile watching over his beautiful lover.

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Signature: Signed in black paint, lower left: P¦icasso¦

    Inscription: Inscribed and dated on verso in black paint on horizontal stretcher bar left: Boisgeloup / juillet XXXII

  • Provenance

    The artist, Paris (1932–55; sold in summer 1955 in Paris, through Sam Kootz, to Rübel); Peter and Elizabeth Rübel, Cos Cob, Connecticut and New York (1955, until after 1973; sold to Perls); [Perls Galleries (Klaus G. Perls), New York, after 1973, stock no. 7143]; Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York (until 1997; their gift to MMA, 1997)

  • Exhibition History

    Tokyo, Japan: The Bunkamura Museum of Art, July 4 - September 6, 1998. Nagoya, Japan: The Nagoya City Art Museum, September 15 - November 29, 1998. ¦ Pablo Picasso¦, Cat. no. 75, pp. 132, 133, illus. in color, p. 30, illus. in b/w.

    Chemnitz, Germany: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, October 22, 2002 - January 19, 2003. ¦Picasso et les femmes. p.182. illus. in color.

    New York, New York: Acquavella Contemporary Art, October 15 - November 29, 2008. Picasso's Marie-Therese, cat. no. 7, pg. 59.

  • References

    Pablo Picasso. Exh. Cat. Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998. pp. 233, 234.

  • See also
    Who
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
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