Painter and His Model

1914

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

An example of the artist’s lifelong fascination with the motif of painter and model, this picture, painted on an ordinary dish towel, was discovered only after Picasso’s death, when his studios were inventoried. The work is in many ways an art historical anomaly: painted in 1914, at the height of Cubism’s success, it exemplifies an entirely different style known as classicizing figuration, which Picasso would fully embrace a few years later, at the conclusion of World War I. Shortly after he started to color in the female nude, the studio wall, and the landscape painting on the easel, Picasso simply stopped working on the picture, leaving visible a great deal of underdrawing. Despite this, scholars disagree as to whether Painter and His Model is a true work in progress, one whose completion remains unfulfilled and unintentional, or a work whose irresolution was deliberate.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Painter and His Model
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1914
Geography: Country of Origin France
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 22 13/16 × 22 in. (58 × 55.9 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Musée national Picasso – Paris. Dation Pablo Picasso, 1979
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art