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Woman in an Armchair

1909–10
Not on view
Inspired by the portraits of French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, Picasso returned often to the subject of a solitary seated woman. This painting is part of a small group of works created in the fall and winter of 1909–10 and reveals Picasso’s desire to meld the figure with its environment by leveling distinctions between volumetric forms and empty spaces. Many of the artist’s numerous changes to the composition are readily apparent, including the reduction in size of the figure’s head.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Woman in an Armchair
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1909–10
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 32 × 25 3/4 in. (81.3 × 65.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.149.7
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

Cover Image for 1850. Woman in an Armchair, Part 1

1850. Woman in an Armchair, Part 1

Not on view

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This fractured Cubist nude exemplifies Picasso’s use of abstracted figures that encourage the viewer to make his or her own personal connections. Picasso brilliantly characterized the subject of the nude in his work, and I quote him: “I want to say the nude. I don’t want to do a nude as a nude. I want only to say breast, say foot, say hand or belly. To find the way to say it, that’s enough. I don’t want to paint the nude from head to foot, but succeed in saying. That’s what I mean. When one is talking about it, a single word is enough. For you, one look and the nude tells you what she is, without verbiage. We must find the way to paint the nude as she is. We must enable the viewer to paint the nude himself with his eyes. We must see to it that the man looking at the picture has at hand everything he needs to paint a nude. If you really give him everything he needs—and the best—he’ll put everything where it belongs, with his own eyes. Each person will make for himself the kind of nude he wants, with the nude that I have made for him.”

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