Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Picasso once said it was the town and surrounding area of Antibes, founded on the ancient Greek settlement of Antipolis, which brought him daily to the antique: ‘I cannot explain the call…at Cannes I don’t think about it, Why? But at Antibes this antiquity seizes hold of me every time.’ On his trip to the Cote d’Azur with Françoise Gilot in 1946 he filled canvases with fauns and centaurs for the walls of Chateau Grimaldi. Having never been to Greece and only twice visiting Italy, it is remarkable the effect the ancient civilization had on the artist’s work. Working at the Madoura pottery made his associations with antiquity even more direct allowing him to slip seamlessly between his present and his imagined past. In these mythologically inspired designs he incorporated those closest to him. In Quatre profils enlaces, Francois Gilot is his muse. Her aquiline nose is one of the motifs most often ascribed to her in paint and on paper in the late 1940s, and the curling vines and leaves identify her in this joyful time as his Femme-fleur.


Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.