On view
Standing Woman
Vallauris, Autumn 1947
Fired clay painted with slip, partially glazed
Height: 18.5 cm
Museo Picasso Málaga. Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
Between 1945 and 1947 Pablo Picasso modelled more than twenty figurines of standing women. Besides the usual interpretation that relates these works to Greek Tanagra figures and other pieces from ancient Eastern cultures, other studies link them to Iberian votive statuettes. Picasso specifically collected ninety five of these religious figurines representing men, women and animals. There is some agreement that Picasso’s ‘discovery’ of Iberian culture can be dated to 1906, after the artist visited the Iberian Cabinet in the Musée du Louvre.
‘Picasso preferred to frequent the rooms on the ground floor, wandering here and there like a hunting dog looking for game among the Egyptian and Phoenician antiquities, among the sphinxes, the basalt idols, the papyrus and the brightly painted sarcophagi’.
Ardengo Soffici. «Fatti personali». Gazzetta del Popolo, 19 February 1939, p. 3.
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What was happening in Autumn 1947?
- Claude, Picasso and Françoise Gilot’s first son, is born.
- The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered in the West Bank.
- Jean Genet’s 'The Maids' premieres at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris.
- The first instant camera in the world, the Polaroid Land Camera, is launched.
