Portrait of Olga in an Armchair
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Portrait of Olga in an Armchair
- Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
- Date: 1918
- Geography: Country of Origin France
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 51 3/16 × 34 15/16 in. (130 × 88.8 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Musée national Picasso – Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, photograph: René-Gabriel Ojéda.
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art