Pablo Picasso | Woman Asleep at a Table | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman Asleep at a Table

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

Date: 1936

Medium: Oil and charcoal on canvas

Dimensions: 38 1/4 x 51 1/4in. (97.2 x 130.2cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997

Accession Number: 1997.149.3

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

The ovoid shape of Marie-Thérèse Walter’s resting head and the simplification of her features recall the heaviness of sleep, as seen
in Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse (on view nearby). Picasso moved his lover Marie-Thérèse and their one-year-old daughter, Maya, to a country house outside Paris in autumn 1936. Although he frequently depicted Marie-Thérèse asleep, this work may also reflect the sweet exhaustion of the new mother, as well as the perplexity of the fifty-five-year-old father: when Picasso painted this canvas, he had already met Dora Maar, his new lover.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signature: Signed and dated, lower left: 18 D. XXXVI. ¦Picasso¦
Provenance

Carlo Frua de Angeli, Milan (acquired from the artist, probably through his wife, Mary (Meric) Callery, in the late 1930s); [Perls Galleries (Klaus G. Perls), New York, from 1964; stock no. 6593]; Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York (until 1997; their gift to MMA, 1997)
Exhibition History

Sâo Paulo, Brazil: Museu de Arte Moderna, ¦Exposicâo Picasso¦, December 13, 1953 - February 20,1954, no. 32.

Toronto, Canada: The Art Gallery of Toronto, ¦Picasso and Man¦, January 11 - February 16, 1964; Montreal, Canada: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, March 1964, cat. no 164, p.121 illustrated (also traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya).

Paris: Grand Palais, ¦Hommage à Picasso¦, November 1966 - February 1967, cat. no. 168, illustrated (as: "La mansarde du poète"), n.p.

Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, ¦Pablo Picasso¦, 24 April - 30 June, 1968, cat. no. 42, p. 51, pl. 11, illustrated in color.

Humlebaek, Denmark: Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, ¦Picasso¦, 20 September - 10 November, 1968, (as: "La mansarde du poète), cat. no 46.

Tokyo: Musée de la Ville de Tokyo, ¦Exposition PICASSO¦, 15 October - 4 December 1977; Nagoya: Musée Préfectoral d'Aichi, December 13 - 26, 1977; Fukuoka, Centre Culturel de Fukuoka, January 5 - 22, 1978; Kyoto, Musée National d'Art Moderne, 28 January - 5 March 1978, cat. no. 45, illus. (as: "La mansarde du poète").

San Francisco, California: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, ¦Picasso and the War¦, October 10, 1998 - January 3, 1999; New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, January 27, 1999 - May 9,1999.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ¦Painters in Paris 1895-1950¦, March 8 - December 31, 2000, p. 107, illustrated in color.

Kyoto,Japan: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, September 14-November 24, 2002; Tokyo: The Bunkamura Museum of Art, December 7, 2000 - March 9, 2003, Picasso and the School of Paris, Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. plate 61, p. 125, illus. in color.

New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Picasso Black and White," October 5, 2012–January 23, 2013, no. 56.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Picasso Black and White," February 20–May 28, 2013, no. 56.
References

Lieberman, William S. Painters in Paris 1895-1950. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, p. 107.

Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, vol 8. Paris, 1957, no. 309, p. 146, illustrated.

Richard Shiff in Picasso Black and White. Ed. Carmen Giménez. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 2012, pp. 42, 221, no. 56, ill. (color).