John Szoke Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Viewing room
  • Books
  • Essays
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Advisory
Menu

Artworks

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: PABLO PICASSO, La Femme a la Fenêtre (Bloch 695), 1952 (May 17, Paris)

PABLO PICASSO

La Femme a la Fenêtre (Bloch 695), 1952 (May 17, Paris)
Sugarlift aquatint
35 1/2 x 25 inches
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EPABLO%20PICASSO%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ELa%20Femme%20a%20la%20Fen%C3%AAtre%20%28Bloch%20695%29%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1952%20%28May%2017%2C%20Paris%29%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3ESugarlift%20aquatint%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E35%201/2%20x%2025%20inches%3C/div%3E
Sugarlift aquatint printed on Arches wove with Arches watermark From the edition of 50 of the second (final) state Signed by the artist in pencil, lower left Printed by Lacourière,...
Read more
Sugarlift aquatint printed on Arches wove with Arches watermark
From the edition of 50 of the second (final) state
Signed by the artist in pencil, lower left
Printed by Lacourière, 1952
Published by Galerie Louise Leiris, 1952
Image: 32 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches
Sheet: 35 1/2 x 25 inches
Framed: 46 x 31 inches
(Bloch 695) (Baer 891.II.B.b)
Close full details

Literature

The woman depicted is Françoise Gilot, Picasso’s lover from 1945 to 1953 and mother of their children Claude and Paloma. Picasso has tenderly portrayed his young lover as she gazes distractedly out of a window. The dark composition and her somber expression reflect Françoise’s general state of mind at the time (their relationship was quickly deteriorating—she would leave Picasso the following year). The abstracted hairstyle and face are emblematic of the disjointed, overlapping, geometric approach to depicting the figure that Picasso developed in the 1930s, refined in the 1940s, and reinvented in the 1950s.

 

Though Picasso favored lithography in the postwar years, he worked increasingly in intaglio in the early 1950s. Sugarlift aquatint, a difficult technique that he had mastered in the mid-1930s under the tutelage of Roger Lacourière, was his chosen approach. The process is quite delicate and is easily thwarted at any stage—perfection is achieved only through experience and utter sensitivity to the materials. Though challenging, mastery of sugarlift allows great fluidity of expression. Picasso created a number of masterworks in this technique in the 1950s and 1960s, some of which are highly ambitious in their scale, including La Femme a la Fenêtre and L’Égyptienne.

 

Picasso built the image in two states: in the first, he blocked out the composition and the plate was etched lightly to a medium gray with a course-grained rosin powder; and, in the second state, he refined the composition with details that were etched deeply to a darker black with a fine-grained powder.

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
144 
of  265

17 West 54th St, 1 C/D,  NEW YORK, NY 10019

By appointment       

212-219-8300         info@johnszoke.com

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email
View on Google Maps
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2024 John Szoke Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences