Baigneuses (Femmes sur la Plage)

About the work

Painted at the Château de Boisgeloup on 4 September 1932 — inscribed, dated and numbered "Boisgeloup 4 Septembre XXXII" on the stretcher — this small-format canvas belongs to Picasso's celebrated 1932 group of bather compositions, the same year that produced some of his most radical figure paintings. The work descended directly through the artist's estate to his granddaughter Marina Picasso, and from there through a documented chain of major galleries before entering a private Austrian collection.

The painting is catalogued in Christian Zervos's Pablo Picasso (Cahiers d'Art, Paris), volume 8, covering works of 1932–1937.

Provenance

• Estate of the artist
• Marina Picasso, Paris (by descent from the above)
• Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva (acquired from the above)
• Perls Galleries, New York
• Pace Wildenstein, New York
• Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen
• Private collection, Vienna, Austria

Exhibitions

• Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, "Picasso at Work at Home," 19 November 1985 – 9 March 1986, cat. no. 64, p. 75
• Association des Musées d'Art / Yomiuri Shimbun Sha, Japan, "Exposition Pablo Picasso, Collection Marina Picasso," 18 November 1986 – 18 October 1987, no. PC-15, p. 130
• Jan Krugier Gallery, New York, "Pablo Picasso: Petits Formats," May 1989, no. 22
• Christie's, Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, New York, 7 November 2012, Lot 2594 (est. $800,000–1,200,000)

Selected literature

• C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Cahiers d'Art, Paris, vol. 8 (Œuvres de 1932 à 1937), no. 66, illustrated