Pablo Picasso – Nus

Sold for 8.600.000 SEK at Uppsala Auktionskammares evening sale ”The Neuman Collection” 7 Dec 2016.

1002. Pablo Picasso (1881‑1973). ”Nus”.
Signed in pencil Picasso and dated 1er. Aout 1972. Pen and black ink, brush and grey wash and white gouache on paper, 57 x 77.5 cm.

Even until his last days, Pablo Picasso painted with an everlasting enthusiasm and eagerness, which resulted in some of his most interesting paintings. Nus was painted less than a year before the artist passed away in his home, villa Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, and captures the intensity that characterizes many of Picasso’s later works. In his last four years, Picasso created more works of art than at any other comparable period in his life. Painting and drawing almost became an obsession for him and he dated each work with an absolute precision. The works from his final years are painted in a free, unrestrained way and he allowed himself a freedom needing no justification. A gentle playfulness and youth exudes the paintings dating from this period, leading the viewer to an irresistible fascination for his artistry.

Nus shown at the Pablo Picasso exhibition in 1988, Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Eroticism was a recurring theme in Picasso’s impressive oeuvre and he kept returning to the various motifs of loving couples and nude figures, even though his style and means of expression changed greatly over time. With a continual reference to his wife Jacqueline and his love for her, the majority of Picasso’s later works were dominated by erotic allusions. He created many similar pictures but they are all unique in terms of their composition. Nus almost seems to be composed of two different images. On the left side of the painting, the intimate and emotional scene with the loving couple is captured in black and white and from different angles. It is a wild and energetic scene where body parts blend together and is united by the use of fine lines and sharp contours. Picasso’s fascination with the subject led him to explore the boundaries of his paintings and he often combined objective courses of events with a more personal and emotional interpretation. The couple are seen facing each other in the right side of the painting, both gazing into each other’s eyes with a warm and loving glance. The women who surrounded him always influenced the women he depicted. During his final years, he was married to the devoted Jacqueline Roque who frequently appeared in his paintings even though she never posed as a model for Picasso. Picasso’s great love for his muse, lover and wife Jacqueline has been captured in this endearing embrace. The painting can perhaps not be seen as a complete self-portrait, but the reminiscence of the artist and his wife is evident. David Sylvester discusses the late works by Picasso; “At twenty-five, Picasso’s raw vitality was already being enriched by the beginnings of an encyclopedic awareness of art; at ninety, his encyclopedic awareness of art was still being enlivened by a raw vitality” (D. Sylvester, Late Picasso, Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints 1952-1972, (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 144).

Picasso working on an etching in Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins 1970
Photo Edward Quinn, © edwardquinn.com

Figure 1: Étreinte, 1972.
Étreinte. Couple, 1st June 1972 (oil on canvas),
Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.
© Succession Picasso

The theme of the two lovers embracing recurs in Picasso’s paintings from the 1970’s. Figure 1 shows Étreinte (Private Collection), which was completed only a month before Nus, and shows a couple caught in their act of love. Their genitals are fully exposed, as in many of Picasso’s paintings and drawings, and their bodies unite in the embrace. Picasso’s impressive method of making a single being out of two is clearly visible in Étreinte, but also in Nus where it was further developed. Picasso painted every detail of the act with fine lines, but emphasized the interaction between man and woman with more vivid brushstrokes. For the artist, sexual power and creative power shared the same impulse. His way of depicting sexuality is completely explicit, and when discussing art and eroticism he stated; “Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.” (Antonia Vallentin, Picasso, 1963, p. 168).

Picasso and Jacqueline in La Californie, Cannes.
Photo Edward Quinn, © edwardquinn.com

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