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PABLO PICASSO
(Spanish, 1881-1973)

Woman in the Studio (Jacqueline Roque)
[Femme dans l'atelier (Jacqueline Roque)], 1956
Oil on canvas
Bequest from the Nancy Batson Rash and Dillman A. Rash Collection 1998.19.5

This painting is one of a series that Pablo Picasso completed during the spring and early summer of 1956 at "La Californie," his villa in Cannes. This is a relatively straightforward image of his companion, Jacqueline Roque (whom he would marry a few years later), contemplating a painting on an easel in the artist’s studio. The forms of the figure and the surrounding interior have been simplified but not broken up or manipulated.

As in other depictions of Jacqueline, Picasso has painted the figure in profile, her triangular eye fixated upon the artist’s work. She is depicted as an integral part of his creative process. Picasso uses the centuries-old tradition of a painting within a painting to illustrate the artist’s relationship to both his work and to his lover and muse.

Details such as the arch in the painting within the painting refer to the windows at "La Californie" and the palm trees beyond. The hatching near the sitter translates a wicker rocking chair that was a Picasso favorite. This subject was repeated countless times in 1956 and 1957 in drawings, ceramics and paintings.