This image is related to Les demoiselles d’Avignon (Museum of Modern Art, New York), a painting of monumental importance for Picasso, with its themes of sexual promiscuity and its consequences. Picasso has rotated the figure of a reclining nude ninety degrees, into a standing position, to create a more brazen pose. The white and blue areas on the canvas represent the sheet typically draped over the model, though here it barely grazes her thigh and becomes indistinguishable from the animated folds of the curtained backdrop. Infrared reflectography has revealed an earlier composition beneath the surface layer, a nude self-portrait of Picasso.
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Inscription: Signed (verso, upper left, in black paint): Picasso [underlined]
the artist (1907–d. 1973; his estate, Paris, from 1973; Succession Picasso no. 12087); his granddaughter, Marina Picasso, France (until 1981; sold in 1981, through Jan Krugier & Cie., Geneva, to Thaw); [E. V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York, 1981–82; sold in September 1982 to Lauder]; Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 1982)
Paris. Grand Palais (peintures) and Petit Palais (dessins, sculptures, céramiques). "Hommage à Pablo Picasso," November 20, 1966 –February 28, 1967, no. 47 (as "Étude pour le Nu à la draperie").
Munich. Haus der Kunst. "Pablo Picasso: Eine Ausstellung zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Werke aus der Sammlung Marina Picasso," February 14–April 20, 1981, no. 55 (as "Studie zu Akt mit Draperie").
Venice. Centro di Cultura di Palazzo Grassi. "Picasso: Opere dal 1895 al 1971 dalla collezione Marina Picasso," May 3–July 26, 1981, no. 67 (as "Studio per Le Nu à la draperie").
Cologne. Josef-Haubrich Kunsthalle. "Pablo Picasso: Eine Ausstellung zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Werke aus der Sammlung Marina Picasso," August 11–October 11, 1981, no. 55.
Frankfurt. Städtische Galerie. "Pablo Picasso: Eine Ausstellung zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Werke aus der Sammlung Marina Picasso," October 22, 1981–January 10, 1982, no. 55.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Pablo Picasso: Eine Ausstellung zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Werke aus der Sammlung Marina Picasso," January 29–March 28, 1982, no. 55.
Tokyo. National Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Masterpieces from Marina Picasso Collection and from Museums in the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.," April 2–May 29, 1983, no. 38 (as "Study for Nude with Drapery").
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Picasso: Masterpieces from Marina Picasso Collection and from Museums in the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.," June 10–July 24, 1983, no. 38.
Paris. Musée Picasso. "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," January 26–April 18, 1988, no. 41 (as "Etude pour la demoiselle assise au centre: nu au bras levé," June 1907).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 50.
Hommage à Pablo Picasso. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1966, unpaginated, no. 47, ill.
Pierre Daix. "Il n'y a pas 'd'art negre' dans 'Les demoiselles d'Avignon'." Gazette des beaux-arts 76, no. 8 (October 1970), pp. 266, 268, fig. 21, as "Étude pour le Nu à la draperie".
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 92, no. 85, ill., as "Nudo femminile".
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 26, Supplément aux années 1907–1909. Paris, 1973, unpaginated, no. 263, pl. 80, as "Nu debout (Étude pour 'Nu à la draperie')".
Futurismus, 1909–1917: Wir setzen den Betrachter mitten ins Bild. Exh. cat., Städtische Kunsthalle. Düsseldorf, 1974, unpaginated, no. 3, ill., as "Studie für Akt mit Tuch".
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 92, no. 85, ill, as "Nu feminine".
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, p. 206, no. 81, ill., as "Study for Nude with Drapery" (French ed., as "Etude pour 'Nu à la draperie'").
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, p. 498, no. 1493, ill., as "Study with Her Right Arm Raised".
Giovanni Carandente and Werner Spies. Picasso: Opere dal 1895 al 1971 dalla collezione Marina Picasso. Exh. cat., Centro di Cultura di Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Florence, 1981, pp. 94, 202, no. 67, ill., and ill. p. 95, pl. 18.
Reinhold Hohl inPablo Picasso: Eine Ausstellung zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Werke aus der Sammlung Marina Picasso. Ed. Werner Spies. Exh. cat., Haus der Kunst München. Munich, 1981, p. 238, no. 55, ill. p. 239.
Picasso: Masterpieces from Marina Picasso Collection and from Museums U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. Exh. cat., National Museum of Modern Art. Tokyo, 1983, p. 197, no. 38, ill. p. 58.
Yve-Alain Bois. "Painting as Trauma." Art in America 76, no. 6 (June 1988), ill. p. 137, as "Study for Seated Demoiselle at Center: Nude with Raised Arm," June 1907.
William Rubin in Hélène Seckel. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1988, vol. 2, p. 439, no. 111, ill. p. 438.
Hélène Seckel. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1988, vol. 1, p. 50, no. 41, ill., and p. 258, ill. no. 3.
Pierre Daix. "Dread, Desire, and the Demoiselles." Art News 87 (Summer 1988), ill. p. 136, as June 1907.
William Rubin, with Hélène Seckel, and Judith Cousins. Studies in Modern Art. Vol. 3, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: Special Issue. New York, 1994, fig. 116, as "Study for the Seated Demoiselle: Nude with Raised Arm and Drapery," June 1907.
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, p. 507, fig. 262, as "Study for Nude with Drapery" (French ed., as "Etude pour 'Nu à la draperie'").
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47, as "Study for “Nude with Drapery (Etude pour la demoiselle assise au centre: nu au bras levé)," June 1907.
Christine Poggi inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 28, 35–36, 303(2)n.22, no. 50, ill. p. 34 (color) and fig. 22 (infrared reflectogram revealing a nude self-portrait of the artist in profile).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 277–78.
Emily Braun and Leonard A. Lauder inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 9, fig. 7 (on display in the residence of Leonard A. Lauder, New York, 1987).
Vérane Tasseau. "Lauder, Leonard A." Dictionnaire du Cubisme. Ed. Brigitte Leal. Paris, 2018, p. 405.
Joshua I. Cohen. The “Black Art” Renaissance: African Sculpture and Modernism across Continents. Oakland, Calif., 2020, p. 69, fig. 35 (color).
Written on the verso (center of right stretcher bar, in pencil): 125 [underlined] / Ka; (left of horizontal stretcher crossbar, in pencil): 18 [encircled]; (inverted at center of horizontal stretcher crossbar, in blue crayon): 20[65 PP?]
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