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Portrait of Olga in an Armchair
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Not on view
Olga Khokhlova, a dancer in Sergei Diaghilev’s company Ballets Russes, became Picasso’s principal model soon after they met in 1917. To prepare this portrait of his future wife, he created several drawings; he also worked from a photograph showing Olga in the same dress and pose, one reminiscent of Ingres’s Neoclassical paintings. Here, Picasso contrasts the finely detailed and meticulously executed figure with an indeterminate background, accentuated with only a few searching strokes and a gray wash. That Picasso exhibited this work in 1921 suggests that he considered it finished, despite having left portions of the picture unpainted.
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