Beginning in spring 1909 and continuing through the winter of 1910, Pablo Picasso produced a remarkable group of paintings, drawings, and a sculpture devoted to the subject of his companion, Fernande Olivier. The key works were made in the hilltop village of Horta de Ebro (present-day Horta de Saint Joan) in Catalonia, Spain, which Picasso knew well from his youth. Fernande is most recognizable in the earliest works in the series: her signature topknot sits on her rounded head of hair and her cheeks and neck are described with soft, fleshy folds.
Picasso began to harden these forms into more angular planes and divided facets by summer 1909. In Nude in an Armchair, Fernande is shown seated in a chair with a rounded back. A white cloth hangs over the back and side of the chair on the left while it runs along her neck and upper arm on the right, and then wraps around her wrist. The enveloping drapery also serves to fix her within the shifting space of the background. When compared to The Oil Mill (Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection), a rare landscape of Horta de Ebro also painted in summer 1909, the background can be understood as Picasso’s effort to deeply identify Fernande with the Horta de Ebro landscape—nestling her beyond the mountains and into the forest on the left side of the canvas, and closer to the hilltop structure on the right.
The repetition of Fernande’s pose in the works the artist made that summer suggest that the present canvas and others in the series were not painted in direct observation but from Picasso’s memory. Together, the works enable us to chart the artist’s preoccupation with Fernande’s form as a subject of experimentation and his singular drive to dissect and complicate spatial construction. While Picasso’s works that summer were produced in two-dimensional formats, his depictions of Fernande’s face and body were quite sculptural in appearance, emphasizing, as in this painting, the planes and ridges, protrusions and valleys of her physiognomy. Within weeks of his return to Paris in mid-September, the artist had redirected his summer experiments into the production of a life-size Cubist bust of Fernande, which he modeled in clay and which was later cast in bronze.
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[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, sold by winter 1924 to Reber]; Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber, Lugano and Lausanne (1924–37; sold in November 1937 to Cooper); Douglas Cooper, London (1937–d. 1984; inv. no. 65; estate no. DC 35/34; his bequest to McCarty-Cooper); his partner and adopted son, William McCarty-Cooper, London (1984–86; sold in November 1986 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1986–2013; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–21; gift to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Exposition Picasso," June 16–July 30, 1932, no. 59.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Picasso Retrospective, 1901–1931," September 11–October 30, 1932, extended to November 13, 1932, no. 53 (as "Akt im Lehnstuhl," lent by Herr Dr. G. F. Reber, Lausanne).
Brussels. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "Le nu dans l'art vivant," February–March 1934, no. 67 (as "Femme).
Birmingham, England. City Art Museum. "L’art français moderne (Modern French Art)," October–November 1947 [probably this picture].
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Cubist Epoch," December 15, 1970–February 21, 1971, no. 231 (as "Seated Woman").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Cubist Epoch," April 9–June 7, 1971, no. 231.
Paris. Daniel Malingue. "Maîtres impressionnistes et modernes," November 6–December 13, 1980, no. 19.
London. Tate Gallery. "The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & their friends," April 27–July 10, 1983, extended to July 31, 1983, no. 118 (as "Nude Woman in an Armchair").
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 139 ).
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," February 25–June 4, 1990, unnumbered cat. (fig. 87).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso and Braque: After Cézanne," November 9, 1996–February 25, 1997, extended to March 2, 1997, no catalogue.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier," October 1, 2003–January 18, 2004, no. 45.
Dallas. Nasher Sculpture Center. "Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier," February 15–May 9, 2004, no. 45.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "[on loan]," May–November 2004 (on loan).
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Picasso by Picasso. His First Museum Exhibition, 1932," October 15, 2010–January 30, 2011, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 58.
Exposition Picasso. Exh. cat., Galerie Georges Petit. Paris, 1932, p. 26, no. 59 (German ed., p. 4, no. 53, pl. VII).
Will Grohmann. "Picasso." Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart: Unter Mitwirkung von etwas 400 Fachgelehrten. Ed. Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. Vol. 26, Leipzig, 1932, p. 577, as "Nu au fauteuil".
"Jubilejní rok Pablo Picassa." Volné Smery 39 (1932), ill. p. 250 (as installed in the 1932 Picasso retrospective at the Galeries Georges Petit, Paris).
Le nu dans l'art vivant. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts. Brussels, 1934, p. 25, no. 67.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2a, Works from 1906 to 1912. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 174, pl. 87.
John Richardson. "Au Château des cubistes." L'Oeil no. 4 (April 15, 1955), p. 20.
José Pierre. Le Cubisme. Lausanne, 1966, pp. 20, 205, ill. p. 21.
Douglas Cooper. The Cubist Epoch. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. London, 1970, pp. 36, 45, 301, no. 231, pl. 14.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 102, no. 291, ill. p. 101, as "Nudo femminile in poltrona".
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso en Cataluña. 2nd ed. Barcelona, 1975, pp. 170, 267, no. 215, ill. p. 172.
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 102, no. 291, ill. p. 101.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1979, French]. Boston, 1979, pp. 67, 247, no. 302, ill.
Maîtres impressionnistes et modernes. Exh. cat., Daniel Malingue. Paris, November 1980, unpaginated, no. 19, ill.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 246, no. 118, ill. p. 247.
Nissa Torrents. "El cubismo esencial (1907–1920) en la Tate Gallery de Londres." La Vanguardia (June 5, 1983), ill. p. 35.
Simon Wilson. What is Cubism? Exh. brochure, Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 7, fig. 9.
William Rubin, ed. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 139 (German ed., 1990, fig. 87; French ed., 1990, and Spanish ed., 1991, ill. p. 133).
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 501, no. 424, ill. p. 148, as "Nude Woman Sitting in an Armchair".
Dorothy Kosinski. "G. F. Reber: Collector of Cubism." Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1061 (August 1991), pp. 527, 531, fig. 43 (on display in G. F. Reber’s Château de Béthusy, Lausanne, ca. 1930).
Juan Perucho. Picasso, el Cubisme i Horta de Sant Joan. Barcelona, 1993, p. 152, no. 100, ill. p. 137, as "Dona nua asseguda en una butaca".
Anne Baldassari. Picasso photographe, 1901–1916. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1994, pp. 192, 194, figs. 142, 143, 145 (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro [present-day Horta de Sant Joan], summer 1909; photograph by the artist).
Norman Mailer. Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography. New York, 1995, p. 297, pl. 20.
Pierre Daix inPicasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1996, ill. p. 275.
Anne Baldassari. Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Paris, 1997, p. 80, figs. 96, 97 (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro, summer 1909; photograph by the artist).
John Richardson. The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper. New York, 1999, ill. p. 92 (on display in Douglas Cooper’s Château de Castille, Argilliers, ca. 1950s), as "Nude Woman in an Armchair".
Martin Faass. Lyonel Feininger und der Kubismus. Frankfurt am Main, 1999, pp. 26–27, 53, 101, fig. 5.
Peter Kropmanns and Uwe Fleckner. "Von Kontinentaler Bedeuteung: Gottlieb Friedrich Reber und Seine Sammlungen." Die Moderne und Ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik. Ed. Andrea Pophanken and Felix Billeter. Berlin, 2001, fig. 85 (on display in G. F. Reber’s Château de Béthusy in Lausanne, ca. 1930), p. 401, no. 33.
Arthur I. Miller. Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty That Causes Havoc. New York, 2001, pp. 155, 157, figs. 5.21, 5.22 (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro, summer 1909; photographs by the artist).
Elizabeth Cowling. Picasso: Style and Meaning. London, 2002, pp. 210–12, ill. no. 180.
Kathryn A. Tuma inPicasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. and Princeton, 2003, p. 141.
Jeffrey S. Weiss inPicasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. and Princeton, 2003, pp. 10, 14.
Jeffrey S. Weiss, Valerie J. Fletcher, and Kathryn A. Tuma. Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. and Princeton, 2003, p. 88, 100–101, no. 45, ill. p. 89, cover, endpapers, and p. 100, no. 57, p. 101, no. 58 (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro, summer 1909; photographs by the artist).
Uwe Fleckner. Carl Einstein und sein Jahrhundert: Fragmente einer intellektuellen Biographie. Berlin, 2006, ill. p. 326, fig. 210 (on display in G. F. Reber’s Château de Béthusy, Lausanne, ca. 1930).
Bernice B. Rose, ed. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. Exh. cat., PaceWildenstein. New York, 2007, ill. p. 50 (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro, summer 1909; photographs by the artist).
Tobia Bezzola. Picasso: His First Museum Exhibition, 1932. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Munich, 2010, pp. 198, 218, Zürich no. 53, p. 259, no. 19, ill. pp. 66, 95, Reber no. 3 (installed in “Exposition Picasso,” Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1932), 218, listed in the catalogue for Exh. Zürich 1932 as "Akt im Lehnstuhl," 1909, lent by Herr Dr. G. F. Reber, Lausanne.
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies. (video recording). Produced by Martin Scorsese and Robert Greenhut, Produced and directed by Arne Glimcher. New York: Arthouse Films, 2010, ill. color and bw (on display in Picasso’s studio in Horta de Ebro, summer 1909; photographs by the artist).
Pierre Daix. Le nouveau dictionnaire Picasso. Paris, 2012, p. 631.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47, as "Nude Woman in an Armchair".
Andrea Bayer inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 48, 52–55, no. 58, ill. p. 54 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 282–83, figs. 58 (on display in the residence of Dr. Gottlieb Friedrich Reber, Lugano, ca. 1924), 72B (installation photo, Exh. Brussels 1934).
Emily Braun and Leonard A. Lauder inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 10.
Alan Hyman, ed. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885–1973. Vol. 1909–1912, Analytic Cubism. San Francisco, 2015, pp. xxiii, 58, 321, 330, no 1909-21, ill. p. 58.
"The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection: A Conversation with Emily Braun and Pepe Karmel." IFAR Journal 16, no. 3 (2015), pp. 41–42, figs. 8 (on display in G. F. Reber’s Château de Béthusy, Lausanne, ca. 1930) and 16 (color).
"Pablo Picasso, 'Femme Assise,' 1909." Pablo Picasso: "Femme assise," 1909. To be Included in "Impressionist & Modern Art: Evening Sale". June 21, 2016, p. 14, fig. 6 (color).
"Pablo Picasso's Portraits of Fernande, 1909–10." Pablo Picasso: "Femme assise," 1909. To be Included in "Impressionist & Modern Art: Evening Sale". June 21, 2016, ill. p. 75 (color), as "Nu dans un fauteuil".
Trevor Stark inPablo Picasso: New Collection 2017–2020. Ed. José Lebrero Stals. Exh. cat., Museo Picasso Málaga. Málaga, 2017, pp. 6–7, fig. 2.
Trevor Stark. Total Expansion of the Letter: Avant-Garde Art and Language after Mallarmé. Cambridge, Mass., 2020, pp. 51, 53, 92, 353 n. 51, fig. 1.7, colorpl. 1.
Paul Rodgers. Pablo Picasso–Simon Hantaï: Drama Shared: Cubism and the Fold. New York, 2020, p. 20, colorpl. 4, as "Nu dans un fauteuil".
Doris Kachel inBiografien der Bilder: Provenienzen im Museum Berggruen. Ed. Petra Winter, Doris Kachel, and Sven Haase. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin, Museum Berggruen. Berlin, 2021, ill. frontispiece and p. 31 (on display in G. F. Reber’s residence, Lugano, ca. 1924; photograph by Irmgard Fritsch).
Written on the verso (left of horizontal stretcher crossbar, in black pen): SP 12 May 69
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1922
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