At Gósol, a small village in the Spanish Pyrenees, in the summer of 1906, Picasso conceived a composition with two young women, perhaps sisters, as a female corollary to his paintings of boys. This is one of three handsome drawings on expensive "Ingres" paper that show the young ladies addressing one another (see Peasant Girls from Andorra, Art Institute of Chicago). Given their costume, fans, and diminutive purses, the scene may be set at a village dance; in the Carnet Catalan, Picasso sketched several dancing couples in which the women are similarly clothed.
What is most remarkable about the three related sheets is Picasso's projection of the figures' naked bodies beneath their clothes. Although the sequence cannot be established with certainty, most scholars agree that Picasso progressed from fully clothed to nude—the opposite of classical drawing technique.
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Inscription: Signed (lower left, in graphite): Picasso [underlined]
[Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, until 1921; sold on September 22, 1921 to Thayer]; Scofield Thayer, Vienna and New York (1921–d. 1982; on extended loan to Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection,1934–82, inv. 34.77; his bequest to MMA)
New York. Montross Gallery. "Original Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings Being Exhibited with the Dial Folio 'Living Art'," January 26–February 14, 1924, no catalogue (typed checklist no. 38; as "Pen and Brush Drawing").
Rochester, N. Y. Memorial Art Gallery. "The Dial Portfolio of "Living Art"," February–March 1924, no. 81.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Art of the Third Republic: French Painting 1870–1940," February 22–March 16, 1941, no. 48.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Practice of Drawing," November 17, 1951–January 6, 1952, no. 60 [checklist published in "Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar," vol. 17, December 1951].
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 194.
Worcester Art Museum. "Selections from the Dial Collection," November 13–30, 1965, unnum. checklist.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial Revisited," June 29–August 22, 1971, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 117.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Two: Twentieth-Century Art," June 4–September 2, 1985, no catalogue.
Canberra. Australian National Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," March 1–April 27, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 16).
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," May 7–July 1, 1986, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings: Additions to the Collection," May 23–September 29, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. PaceWildenstein. "Picasso and Drawing," April 28–June 2, 1995, unnumbered cat. (pl. 3).
Paris. Musée Picasso. "Picasso 1901–1909: Chefs d'oeuvre du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," October 21, 1998–January 25, 1999, unnumbered cat. (fig. 11).
Stadthalle Balingen. "Pablo Picasso: Metamorphoses des Menschen; Arbeiten auf Papier, 1895–1972," June 20–September 24, 2000, no. 61.
Liège, Belgium. Salle Saint Georges. "Pablo Picasso," October 6, 2000–January 31, 2001, no. 40.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 34.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection," July 3–October 7, 2018, no. 44.
Scofield Thayer. Living Art: Twenty Facsimile Reproductions after Paintings, Drawings and Engravings and Ten Photographs after Sculpture by Contemporary Artists. New York, 1923, drawings and engravings section, pl. 9, calls it "Pen and Brush Drawing".
Thomas Craven. "Living Art." Dial 76 (February 1924), p. 182.
Henry McBride. "Modern Art." Dial 76 (February 1924), p. 208.
[Elisabeth Luther Cary]. "The World of Art: Modern Art of One Kind and Another." New York Times (January 27, 1924), p. SM10.
Wyndham Lewis. "Art Chronicle." Criterion 3 (October 1924), pp. 108.
Forbes Watson. "Books. Living Art." Arts 5 (January 1924), p. 57.
Herbert J. Seligmann. "Living Art for Americans." Nation 118 (April 9, 1924), p. 403.
R[obert]. R[attray]. T[atlock]. "Review: Living Art." Burlington Magazine 44 (March 1924), p. 153.
Ralph Flint. "More Modernism in New York." Christian Science Monitor 16, no. 57 (February 2, 1924), p. 11.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 1, Works from 1895 to 1906. Paris, 1932, p. 159, no. 339, ill.
Jacques Lassaigne. Picasso. Paris, 1949, pl. 23.
Jean Bouret. Picasso: Dessins. Paris, 1950, pl. 26.
Nicholas Joost. Scofield Thayer and The Dial: An Illustrated History. Carbondale, Ill., 1964, pp. 229, 238.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, pp. 471, 553, no. 1352, ill.
Núria Rivero and Teresa Llorens inPicasso, 1905–1906: From the Rose Period to the Ochres of Gósol. Exh. cat., Museu Picasso. Barcelona, 1992, pp. 326, 328 n.5.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 333, 341.
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, pp. 10, 98–100, no. 34, ill. (color).
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. 100.
Conxita Boncompte. "Reflections on 'Peasant Girls from Andorra'." OJO: Le Journal. no. 21, March 2013 [http://www.picasso.fr/us/picasso_page_article.php]
, fig. 46
.
Sabine Rewald inObsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2018, pp. 89, 96–97, 127, no. 44, ill. p. 105 (color).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1921
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