Tag Archives: Picasso Portraits

The National Gallery London – Picasso and Ingres

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‘Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal.‘
Pablo Picasso

The National Gallery London where I just visited the stunning Raphael exhibit is hosting for the first time, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Woman with a Book’ (1932) from the Norton Simon Museum, California. It will be paired with the painting that inspired it, ‘Madame Moitessier’ by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.


Picasso first encountered the enigmatic ‘Madame Moitessier’ at an exhibition in Paris, in 1921, and was enthralled. Over the next decade, he repeatedly referenced Ingres in his art, and painted ‘Woman with a Book’, one of his most celebrated portraits, in homage to Ingres’s famous work.

For Ingres, a 19th-century French artist steeped in the academic tradition, the beautiful and wealthy Madame Moitessier represented the classical ideal. Wearing her finest clothes and jewelry, she gazes at the viewer majestically, the embodiment of luxury and style during the Second Empire.

Dominique Ingres - Mme Moitessier.jpg
Madame Moitessier is a portrait of Marie-Clotilde-Inès Moitessier begun in 1844 and completed in 1856 by 
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Picasso, born 100 years after Ingres, is famous for a very different, abstract, style of art, but his inspiration is clear. The model for ‘Woman with a Book’, Picasso’s then young mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, mimics Madame Moitessier’s distinct pose. The painting balances sensuality and restraint, striking a chord with the eroticism latent beneath Ingres’s image of bourgeois respectability.

‘Picasso Ingres: Face to Face’ is a unique opportunity to see these two portraits, side by side, for the first time, and to trace the continuous thread between 19th and 20th-century artistic development.

Exhibition organized in partnership with the Norton Simon Museum, California.

From The National Gallery Press

Art Today London & Paris

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Passing through London or Paris?

Everyone benefits from a measure of art when traveling; museums are frequently some of the grandest architectural structures in a city and contain additional riches inside.

My recent Journey to London and Paris was enhanced by a few memorable hours in museums. Picasso is always an invitation to linger, and London and Paris have a plethora of Picasso’s at the moment. Might I recommend a few hours of wandering?

London’s National Portrait Gallery is one of my favorite museums; geographically accessible in St Martin’s Place, right off Trafalgar Square. When it opened in 1856, it was the first portrait gallery in the world. Primarily housing portraits of historically famous and important British people, it also hosts many traveling exhibitions.

Picasso’s Portraits runs until February 5, 2017. If I were required to choose between several exhibits in Paris at the moment and this exhibition, I would say get thee to Paris on the next plane…however, my schedule delivered me initially to London.

Picasso’s Portraits provide an immense variety of drawings, paintings and sketches of over 80 works focusing on friends, family, his numerous lovers and wives. The body of the work includes realist oil paintings, including many self-portraits from his early career and provides a full representation of his evolving technique and his experimenting with various painting styles. The website has a marvelous video presentation of many of the pieces.

Picasso- Woman in a Hat (Olga)

Picasso- Woman in a Hat (Olga)

Personally, I love Picasso and never tire of seeing an exhibit or visit the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. His career spanned so many interesting periods and styles…the moody Blue period, seeing his travel influences, in particular I love his perspective change after he saw an African mask exhibit in Paris. The female shape became so angular and descriptive, Picasso didn’t seem to be ruled by fear of change and loved to experiment.

picasso-maya-in-sailor-suit

Picasso – Maya in A Sailor Suit

picasos-self-portrait

Picasso – Self Portrait

PARIS-

Separate blog on the block buster exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton.  But while in Paris also look for ‘Frederic Bazille The Youth of Impressionism’ at the Musee d’Orsay until March 5. Monet and his best friend Bazille shared an Impressionist history, unfortunately Bazille  died on the battlefield during the Franco-Prussian War, his reputation as a significant contributor to the movement has been building. Much of his work and a number of pieces by Monet, Renoir are on display. This show moves to Washington’s National Gallery in April.