Picasso, ‘Le Reve’ and the book of love

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Next week in New York, Picasso’s great 1932 painting, ‘Le Reve’ (The Dream) is set to go on public view for the first time since 2006, when Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn poked a hole in the masterpiece with an errant elbow while showing it to Barbara Walters, Nora Ephron and other assembled friends. I’ll have a story today about why that picture of Picasso’s mistress is so wildly sexy -- and so current.

Meanwhile, another masterpiece from the same series as ‘Le Reve’ in the collection of Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum shows the artist in a less blatantly erotic, more slyly seductive, yet equally brilliant mode. ‘Girl With a Book’ is one of a half-dozen related portraits of his 22-year-old mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, that 50-year-old Picasso made in anticipation of a planned retrospective exhibition. Virtually identical in size to ‘Le Reve,’ and showing her in the same red chair, this one riffs on J.-A.-D. Ingres’ famous 1856 society picture of a rich and powerful financier’s wife, ‘Madame Moitessier.’

The artist is obviously flattering his pretty young girlfriend. Marie’s elegantly seated pose, with hand gracefully paused near her face, is the same as in the Ingres. So is the reflection in the mirror, which emphasizes a classical Roman profile (Ingres based his portrait on an ancient carving). Picasso made the floral print dress less exquisite, more peasant-like. (It recalls the work of his rival, Matisse). And where the banker’s wife held an elegant fan in her lap, Marie-Therese holds a book.

Picasso plays with the memory of that fan, however. The open, V-shaped book’s pages riffle, like a fan that is opening. And the marks merge into her fanning fingers. Per usual, Picasso has sex on the brain: Just as he did in ‘Le Reve,’ he is here suggesting his lover’s sexuality. Not for nothing are the girl’s breasts exposed.

So what is the book that Marie-Therese has in her lap? Apparently, it’s the book of love.

--Christopher Knight