Masterpieces from the World’s Museums in the Hermitage.
Nude Woman in a Red Armchair by Pablo Picasso from the Tate Gallery, London
3 October 2010 - 12 December 2010

3 October, 2010 the Winter Palace held the opening of the exhibition Nude Woman in a Red Armchair by Pablo Picasso (Tate Gallery, London) from the cycle Masterpieces from the World’s Museums in the Hermitage, which once again confirms the bonds of strength, having joined us with the best foreign collections of pieces of art. The exhibition is held within the program The Year of Russia in France and the Year of France in Russia 2010, carrying on the tradition of partnership and cooperation in the sphere of culture and art of two countries.

The picture, painted by the great French artist of the 20th century, is of utmost interest primarily, because of the fact that it belongs to the period, not reflected in the Hermitage collection. The time of Nude Woman in a Red Armchair creation is characterized with search for a new style which carries the echo of classicism of the early 1920-s and surrealism of the end of the decade, named in France as “the insane epoch”, which appeared to be as original as everything that had been done earlier.

In contrast to other phases of Pablo Picasso’s creative evolution the border of the 1920-1930-s was marked with constant address to the image of one and the same woman – Marie-Therese Walter (1909–1977), so that researchers sometimes name this time as the period of Marie Walter. Hundreds of master’s works – pictures, sculptures, drawings, engravings, including sheets of the famous Vollard’s Suite – more than to anyone else are dedicated to her. Picasso met seventeen-year-old Marie-Therese in January 1927 at the exit from the underground near the Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette. He was 45; the girl knew nothing about his life or the artist himself. “He just took my hand and said: “I am Picasso. We’ll make wonderful things together”.

Their affair lasted for nine years and for a long time it had been a secret, even those who followed Picasso’s creative work closely could not imagine who had been posed as a model for his latest pictures. In 1935 Marie-Therese gave birth to Picasso’s daughter, Maya. During first years the painter hid this union, trying to avoid jealousy of Olga Khokhlova, marriage with whom came into crisis, and being afraid of accusation in cohabitation with the under-age (she was not 21 at that time). It is characteristic that even in 1931 Picasso often betook some coding and was able to depict the beloved one in the form of the still-life painting as, for example, in Still-Life with the Pedestal Table recently shown in the State Hermitage at the exhibition from the Picasso Museum, Paris (the picture was chosen for the cover of the exhibition catalogue).

The peak of love affair, coincident with the incredible intensity of work fell upon 1932. Many canvases of the same size as Nude Woman in a Red Armchair bore the same date. This canvas was possibly painted equally quickly. "It is like to write a diary", – said Picasso. Pictures of Mademoiselle Walter depicted the model in full size or even larger. This young woman was distinguished with a stout and supple figure, beautiful smooth body shape, and roundish face. Picasso depicted her in sculpture more often than anyone else. He was not tired of the young model’s cast shapes, showing his beloved either asleep or dreaming as if she was unaware of the artist’s presence.

Six years ago Nude Woman in a Red Armchair from the Tate Gallery took the foreground at the exhibition Picasso and Ingres, held in Picasso Museum, Paris. The whole composition is developed from round shapes, equally eloquent in reproduction of the head, shoulders, arms, hips. The picture is characterized with Ingres’s linearity, not delicately subtle but powerful and spontaneously assertive. The entire structure of Picasso’s creative impulse was born by the unveiled love appeal even more than that of his predecessor.

Exhibition curator – Albert Kostenevich, Chief Researcher of the Department of Western European Fine Art of the State Hermitage, Doctor of Art History.

At the exhibition