This drawing exemplifies many aspects of the style known as Analytic Cubism, pioneered by Picasso with his friend Georges Braque. Here, the artist reinterprets the female nude as a series of lines and semicircles. Areas of shading provide only hints of three-dimensional form; however, essential parts of a human body—head, neck, shoulders, arms, torso, breasts, legs, and kneecaps—appear nonetheless. Picasso, who received traditional art training early in life (his father was a professor of fine arts), piques the viewer’s desire to fill in, or "complete," the figure according to academic standards of finish.
Inscription: Signed and inscribed (verso, lower left, in graphite): 49 bis Picasso
the artist, Paris (1910–11; sold in March 1911, for $65, to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1911–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
New York. 291. "Exhibition of Early and Recent Drawings and Water-Colors by Pablo Picasso of Paris," March 28–April 25, 1911 (extended to May 1911), no catalogue.
New York. Armory of the Sixty-ninth Regiment. "International Exhibition of Modern Art (The Armory Show)," February 17–March 15, 1913, no. 351.
Art Institute of Chicago. "International Exhibition of Modern Art (The Armory Show)," March 24–April 16, 1913, no. 287.
Copley Hall, Copley Society of Boston. "International Exhibition of Modern Art (The Armory Show)," April 28–May 19, 1913, no. 144.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Representative Modern Masters," April 17–May 9, 1920, no. 196 (one of the sevent untitled Matisse drawings lent by Stieglitz, either no. 153, 154, 155, 158, or 159).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Cubism and Abstract Art," March 2–April 19, 1936, no. 213.
New York. An American Place. "Beginnings and Landmarks: "291," 1905–1917," October 27–December 27, 1937, no. 38.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940, no. 92.
New York. An American Place. "Exhibition of Four Americans: Dove, Marin, O'Keeffe, Stieglitz, and Picasso," October 17–November 27, 1941, no. 16.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Modern Drawings," February 16–May 10, 1944, unnumbered cat. (p. 43; as "Figure," lent by Alfred Stieglitz, New York).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 92).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, extended to March 7, 1948, no catalogue (checklist no. 99).
Art Gallery of Toronto. "Picasso," April 1949, no. 39.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Drawing, Diamond Jubilee Exhibition," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951, no. 115.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "From the Alfred Stieglitz Collection: An Extended Loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 12, 1951, no catalogue (checklist no. E.L.51.695; loan extended to March 15, 1959).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," May 4–September 8, 1957, unnumbered cat. (p. 39).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition," October 29–December 8, 1957, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books," January 8–February 23, 1958, no. 51.
Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Van Clouet tot Matisse, Tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties," July 31–September 28, 1958, no. 216.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "De Clouet à Matisse, dessins français des collections américaines," October–November 1958, no. 216.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse," February 3–March 15, 1959, no. 216.
Utica. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. "1913 Armory Show, 50th Anniversary Exhibition," February 17–March 31, 1963, no. 351.
New York. Armory of the Sixty-ninth Regiment. "1913 Armory Show, 50th Anniversary Exhibition," April 6–28, 1963, no. 351.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection," September 9–November 12, 1967, no catalogue (unnumbered checklist).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 399 (as "Nude Woman"; removed on November 24,1970 for Exh. Los Angeles and tour 1970–71).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Cubist Epoch," December 15, 1970–February 21, 1971, no. 267.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Cubist Epoch," April 9–June 7, 1971, no. 267.
Paris. Cabinet des dessins, Musée du Louvre. "Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York de David à Picasso," October 25, 1973–January 7, 1974, no. 74.
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Paris–New York," June 1–September 19, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 257).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 122).
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Master Drawings by Picasso," February 20–April 5,1981, no. 37.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Master Drawings by Picasso," April 30–June 14, 1981, no. 37.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Master Drawings by Picasso," July 11–August 23, 1981, no. 37.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 167).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Picasso and American Art," September 28, 2006–February 4, 2007, unnumbered cat. (pl.5).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 52.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 27.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition," January 29–May 6, 2012, no. 47.
Camera Work no. 36 (October 1911), pl. 1.
Camera Work special number (August 1912), p. 39, ill.
Camera Work special number (June 1913), p. 53, pl. VII.
J. Nilson Laurvik. "The Coming Cubists Explain Their Picture Puzzles." Boston Evening Transcript (April 12, 1913), part 3, p. 2, ill.
Arthur Jerome Eddy. Cubists and Post-Impressionism. Chicago, 1914, ill. opp. p. 100.
Alfred Stieglitz. "Under Postage: [Letter] to the Art Editor." New York Times (December 24, 1939), p. 91.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2a, Works from 1906 to 1912. Paris, 1942, p. 103, no. 208, ill.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York, 1946, pp. 72–73, ill.
Wilhelm Boeck and Jaime Sabartés. Picasso. New York, 1955, p. 44, ill.
Roland Penrose. Portrait of Picasso. New York, 1957, p. 37, ill.
Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. Cambridge, Mass., 1959, pp. xxiv, 127, fig. 232b.
Maurice Jardot. Pablo Picasso Drawings. New York, 1959, p. 154, pl. 29.
Robert Rosenblum. Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art. New York, 1960, pp. 56, 60, 62, 226, fig. 34.
Milton W. Brown. The Story of the Armory Show. Greenwich, Conn., 1963, pp. 75, 216–17, 276, no. 351, ill.
Jacob Bean. 100 European Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, [1964?], unpaginated, no. 96, ill.
Hans Ludwig C. Jaffé. Pablo Picasso. New York, 1964, p. 18, fig. 17.
Hans Ludwig C. Jaffé. Pablo Picasso. Paris, 1967, p. 16, fig. 17.
Jean Leymarie. Picasso Drawings. Geneva, 1967, pp. 35, 105, ill.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), p. 379.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. My Galleries and Painters. New York, 1971, ill. between pp. 16–17.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, pp. 103–4, no. 331, ill.
Dorothy Norman. Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer. New York, 1973, p. 108, fig. 47.
Donald E. Gordon. Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900–1916: Selected Catalogue Documentation. Vol. 2, Munich, 1974, pp. 673, 699, 715.
Domenico Porzio and Marco Valsecchi. Understanding Picasso. New York, 1974, p. 38, ill.
Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. rev. ed. (1st ed., 1959). New York, 1974, p. 165, fig. 296b.
Timothy Hilton. Picasso. London, 1975, pp. 104–5, 279, fig. 71.
Ronald Johnson. The Early Sculpture of Picasso, 1901–1914. PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley. New York, 1976, p. 219, fig. 219.
Felix Andreas Baumann. Pablo Picasso: Leben und Werk. Stuttgart, 1976, pp. 65, 206, fig. 112.
Pierre Daix. La Vie de peintre de Pablo Picasso. Paris, 1977, p. 17, ill.
Michael Marrinan. "Picasso as an 'Ingres' Young Cubist." Burlington Magazine 119 (November 1977), pp. 760–61, fig. 38.
William Innes Homer. Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde. Boston, 1977, pp. 62, 65, fig. 32.
Meyer Schapiro. Modern Art, 19th & 20th Centuries: Selected Papers. New York, 1978, fig. 1, opp. p. 138.
Ulrich Weisner et al. Zeichnungen und Collagen des Kubismus: Picasso, Braque, Gris. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bielefeld. Bielefeld, 1979, pp. 267, 343–45, pl. 58, fig. 8.
Leo Steinberg. "The Polemical Part." Art in America 67 (March–April 1979), pp. 120–21, fig. 6.
Geneviève Monnier and Bernice Rose. Drawing: History of an Art. New York, 1979, pp. 202, 273, ill.
Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, and Harold Rugg, ed. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Rev. ed (1st ed., 1934). Millerton, N. Y., 1979, pl. 50.
Anne Carnegie Edgerton. "Picasso's 'Nude Woman' of 1910." Burlington Magazine 122 (July 1980), pp. 498–502, fig. 52.
Pablo Picasso. Tokyo, 1981, p. 107, pl. 22.
Pierre Daix. Cubists and Cubism. Geneva, 1982, pp. 55, 164, ill.
Paul Hayes Tucker. "Picasso, Photography, and the Development of Cubism." Art Bulletin 64 (June 1982), pp. 291, 294, fig. 11.
Barbara Rose. Lee Krasner: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 1983, p. 20, fig. 11, states that this drawing "had a profound effect on her [Krasner's] conception of the figure as a point of departure for abstraction".
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine et al. Donation Louise et Michel Leiris: Collection Kahnweiler-Leiris. Exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1984, p. 105, ill.
William Rubin in"Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. vol. I, New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 282, 300, ill.
Ronald Alley. Picasso: The Three Dancers. London, 1986, p. 15, fig. 18.
Marie-Laure Besnard-Bernadac, Michèle Richet, and Hélène Seckel. The Picasso Museum, Paris: Paintings, Papiers collés, Picture Reliefs, Sculptures, and Ceramics. New York, 1986, pp. 142, 231, ill.
Marie-Laure Besnard-Bernadac, Michèle Richet, and Hélène Seckel. Musée Picasso: Catalogue sommaire des collections. Vol. 2, Paris, 1987, p. 107, fig. 6.
Milton W. Brown. The Story of the Armory Show. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1963]. New York, 1988, p. 302, no. 351.
Anatoli Podoksik. Picasso: La Quête perpétuelle. Paris, 1989, p. 104, ill.
Jean Jouvet, ed. Pablo Picasso, der Zeichner: Dreihundert Zeichnungen und Graphiken, 1893–1972. Zurich, 1989, p. 8, ill.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 190, no. 533, ill.
Percy North. Max Weber: The Cubist Decade, 1910–1920. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1991, pp. 23–24, fig. 3 (upside down).
Carsten-Peter Warncke. Pablo Picasso, 1881–1973. Ed. Ingo F. Walther. Vol. 1, The Works 1890–1936. Cologne, 1992, p. 193, ill.
Yve-Alain Bois et al. "The Semiology of Cubism. Discussion." Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. Ed. Lynn Zelevansky. New York, 1992, p. 212, fig. 3.
Joseph Low (Pepe) Karmel. "Picasso's Laboratory: The Role of his Drawings in the Development of Cubism, 1910–14." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1993, vol. 1, p. 65; vol. 3, appendix 1, pp. 382–83, 439 n. 24; vol. 4, figs. 53, 54.
Barbara Rose. "Jasper Johns: The 'Tantric Details'." American Art 7 (autumn 1993), pp. 52–53, fig. 7.
Anne Baldassari. Picasso photographe, 1901–1916. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1994, pp. 119–21, figs. 90–92.
Hélène Seckel, ed. Max Jacob et Picasso. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper. Paris, 1994, p. 74, fig. 1.
Pierre Daix. Dictionnaire Picasso. Paris, 1995, pp. 672–73.
Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculptures, part 1. November 7, 1995, p. 34, fig. 2 (upside down).
Peter Read. Picasso et Apollinaire: Les Métamorphoses de la mémoire, 1905–1973. Paris, 1995, p. 115, ill.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, pp. 144, 300, 312, ill.
Anne Baldassari inPicasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1996, pp. 183, 210–11, ill.
Marius de Zayas. How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York. Ed. Francis M. Naumann. Cambridge, Mass., 1996, pp. 24, 26, fig. 28.
Anne Baldassari. Le Miroir noir: Picasso, sources photographiques, 1900–1928. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1997, pp. 90, 93–95, figs. 105, 108, 110, 111.
Pepe Karmel et al. Picasso: Dessins et papiers collés, Céret, 1911–1913. Exh. cat., Musée d'art moderne de Céret. Céret, 1997, ill.
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine et al. Les Années cubistes: Collections du Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne et du Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq. Paris, 1999, p. 13, ill.
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, pp. 151, 509, fig. 332 and ill. p. 18.
Meyer Schapiro. The Unity of Picasso's Art. New York, 2000, pp. 21–22, 188, fig. 30.
Percy North. "Bringing Cubism to America: Max Weber and Pablo Picasso." American Art 14 (autumn 2000), p. 77 n. 25.
Sarah Greenough in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, pp. 36–37, 382.
Charles Brock in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, pp. 120, 124, 537, 559, fig. 14.
Jill Kyle in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, p. 116.
Helen M. Shannon in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, p. 176, fig. 41.
Stacey B. Epstein. Inheriting Cubism: The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1909-1936. Exh. cat., Hollis Taggart Galleries. New York City, 2001, p. 25, ill.
Sarah Greenough. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Vol. 1, 1886–1922. New York, 2002, pp. xxv–xxvi, fig. 18.
Pepe Karmel. Picasso and the Invention of Cubism. New Haven, 2003, pp. 82–83, 123, figs. 100, 140.
Danielle Tilkin et al. New York et l'art moderne: Alfred Stieglitz et son cercle (1905–1930). Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2004, pp. 72, 168, figs. 22, 83 (Spanish ed., 2004).
Christopher Green. Picasso: Architecture and Vertigo. New Haven and London, 2005, p. 8, fig. 4.
Imai Keiko et al. Pikaso: Itsutsu no tema/ Picasso: Five Themes. Exh. cat., Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa. Kanagawa, 2006, p. 61, fig. 4.
Bernice B. Rose, ed. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. Exh. cat., PaceWildenstein. New York, 2007, p. 36, ill.
Anne Baldassari inPicasso et les maîtres. Exh. cat., Grand Palais and Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2008, p. 30, ill.
Susan Greenberg Fisher et al. Picasso and the Allure of Language. Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 2009, p. 16, fig. 1.
Kristina Wilson. The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925–1934. New Haven and London, 2009, p. 26, fig. 6 (installation photo of Exh. New York 1937).
Debra Bricker Balken. Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2009, p. 5, fig. 3.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 4.
Thierry de Duve inMondrian. Ed. Brigitte Léal. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 2010, p. 46, fig. 2 (color).
Lisa M. Messinger inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 148–51, no. 52, ill. (color).
Holland Cotter. "All the Picassos in the Cupboard." New York Times (April 29, 2010), p. C23, ill.
Rachel Mustalish inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 151.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 50, 56, 86, 106, 249, no. 27, ill. (color).
Sarah Greenough, ed. My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Vol. 1, 1915–1933. New Haven, Conn., 2011, pp. 94, 727.
Rachel Mustalish inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 56–57.
Laura Moure Cecchini. "Baroque Futurism: Roberto Longhi, the Seventeenth Century, and the Avant-Garde." Art Bulletin 101 (June 2019), p. 37, fig. 3 (reproduction of Ref. Camera Work 1912).
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Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
ca. 1960
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