DescriptionPablo Picasso was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, and grew up in Barcelona, where he associated with a large group of artists and writers that gathered at Els Quatre Gats café. In 1904 Picasso settled in Paris and became friendly with artist Georges Braque, with whom he developed Cubism, and writers Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire. Picasso's painting style changed many times throughout his career, and he produced a range of images from classical figures to radical abstractions. He exhibited widely and is considered one of the most important and influential figures in twentieth-century art. Besides being a prolific painter and draftsman, Picasso was also an accomplished sculptor and printmaker and produced ceramics and theatrical designs. He died in Mougins, France, in 1973.

In 1927, when he was forty-five, Picasso met Marie-Thérèse Walter, a seventeen-year-old French schoolgirl who became his mistress. In retrospect their relationship seems the happiest and least public of Picasso's many amatory alliances, and no other woman is more intricately woven into the fabric of his art.

In this painting of Marie-Thérèse, the time is night and the scene is intimate: she sits reading at a table in a room illuminated by only a small lamp. One hand gently holds open the pages of her book while the other touches her garland-crowned head with fingers that resemble feathers. The space of the room is compressed, but the resulting distortions are never severe. Sinuous rhythms absorb the straight linear accents of the table, and the exaggerated height of both table and plant emphasizes the young woman's childlike appearance. Her pale blond hair and blue-white skin make her look especially ethereal within this dark and deeply colored interior. The canvas, one of several similar compositions Picasso painted of his mistress, is a poem by a man in love.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [upper right]: Picasso /XXXIV

ProvenanceThe artist; Peter Watson, London (from the artist, by 1939 - 1945/6); Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx, Chicago (1945/6 - 1964); Mrs. Florene M. Schoenborn (widow of Samuel A. Marx), New York (1964 - 1996).

Selected Exhibition HistoryNew York: The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso. Forty Years of his Art, 1939, p. 164, cat. no. 264 illus.

New York: The Museum of Modern Art, Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art, 1946, cat. p.189.

New York: The Museum of Modern Art, The School of Paris. Paintings from the Florene M. Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx Collection, November 1, 1965 - December 2, 1966, also shown at The Art Institute of Chicago, City Art Museum of St. Louis, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico, pp. 28-29, illus. in color.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Florene M. Schoenborn Bequest: 12 Artists of the School of Paris, February 11- August 31, 1997 (brochure), checklist no. 19, illus. in color.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar, June 12 - September 4, 1994, checklist no. 34, illustrated.

Tokyo, Japan: Bunkamura Museum of Art, Pablo Picasso, July 4 - September 6, 1998; also shown at Nagoya, Japan: The Nagoya City Art Museum, September 15 - November 29, 1998, cat. no. 78, pp. 134, 135, illus. in color. p. 30, illus. in b/w.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Painters in Paris 1895-1950, March 8 - December 31, 2000, pp. 104-105, illus. 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 60, p. 124, illus. in color.

Selected BibliographyBarr, Alfred H. Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of his Art. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1939, illus. p. 164.

Barr, Alfred H. Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1946, illus. p. 189.

Lieberman, William S., ed. Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar. New York, The Metropollitan Museum of Art, 1994 (brochure), illus. no. 34.

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

Read, Herbert. Art Now, (3rd edition). London, 1948, pl. 117, illus. (as: "Femme lisant, 1934).

Rubin, William. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1972, pp. 144-145, illus. in color.

The School of Paris: Paintings from the Florene May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx Collection. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1965, pp. 28-29, illus. in color.

Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, vol 8. 1957 no. 246, p. 114 illus.