Nude in a Black Armchair

Nude in a Black Armchair

Artist	Pablo Picasso
Year	1932
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	162 cm × 130 cm (63.74 in × 51 in)
Location	Wexner Center for the Arts

Nude in a Black Armchair (Nu au Fauteuil Noir) is a portrait painted by Pablo Picasso on March 9, 1932^[1] of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. In 1999 it was bought by Les Wexner, founder of Limited Brands, for 45.1 million USD. Wexner then donated the piece to the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, for which he had provided major funding.

Former Museum of Modern Art curator William Rubin deemed it a "squishy sexual toy,"^[2] with other critics describing a theme of fecundity being mutually displayed by both the female figure and the plant.^[2] The first and the largest of a series of 1932 Marie-Thérèse Walter portraits, Picasso lived outside of Paris, in Boisgeloup, at the time.^[1] It is important critically as it shows the give and take between Henri Matisse and Picasso, where Picasso "borrowed Matisse's voluptuous curves as a sign for pleasure and his use of black to intensify pink" according to the art critic, Richard Lacayo. ^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} INSIDE ART; Now Starring: A Picasso Nude, New York Times, September 24, 1999
2. ^ ^{a b} ART REVIEW; Old Rivals, Immortal but Still Competing, New York Times, February 14, 2003
3. ^ When Henri Met Pablo, Time Magazine, Monday, Feb. 24, 2003 By RICHARD LACAYO

External links

• 'Matisse Picasso' Exhibit Pairs Masters of Art, npr.org