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Femme couchée lisant (Reclining Woman Reading)
Artist
Pablo Picasso
(Spanish, 1881 - 1973)
Date1960
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 51 1/4 x 77 1/4 in. (130.18 x 196.22 cm)
Framed: 61 3/4 x 87 1/2 x 3 in. (156.85 x 222.25 x 7.62 cm)
Framed: 61 3/4 x 87 1/2 x 3 in. (156.85 x 222.25 x 7.62 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, The Benjamin J. Tillar Memorial Trust
Object number1967.1
Status
Not on viewInscribedverso u.l. in black ink "5.12.60"
Signedrecto u.l.c. in pink pigment "Picasso"
Copyright© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Category
Label TextFemme couchée lisant (Reclining Woman Reading), 1960, was completed long after Pablo Picasso’s celebrity had been established. The large painting shows a reclining female nude holding a book as she stretches out on what appears to be a chaise longue. The space is ambiguous, neither interior nor exterior. The figure and her environment are rendered in tones of grays, blacks, and whites. Picasso distorted and fragmented the woman in the cubistic manner typical of his late style. By centering and leaving space around the figure, delineating its forms in a relatively clear manner, and limiting color, the artist achieved an almost classical serenity in Femme couchée lisant.
The painting, one of the jewels of the Modern’s collection, also boasts one of the most spectacular acquisition stories in the Museum’s history. After floods devastated Florence, Italy, in 1966 and damaged countless works of art, the Committee for the Rescue of Italian Art organized a charity auction in 1967 to raise money for restoration efforts. Femme couchée lisant, which Picasso donated from his own collection, was the star lot of the first auction to be internationally televised. As an audience of millions watched, the director of the Modern outbid potential buyers in London, Los Angeles, and New York, and Picasso’s painting found a home in Fort Worth.
The painting, one of the jewels of the Modern’s collection, also boasts one of the most spectacular acquisition stories in the Museum’s history. After floods devastated Florence, Italy, in 1966 and damaged countless works of art, the Committee for the Rescue of Italian Art organized a charity auction in 1967 to raise money for restoration efforts. Femme couchée lisant, which Picasso donated from his own collection, was the star lot of the first auction to be internationally televised. As an audience of millions watched, the director of the Modern outbid potential buyers in London, Los Angeles, and New York, and Picasso’s painting found a home in Fort Worth.