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For TEFAF Online, Connaught Brown is pleased to present Pablo Picasso's Homme au mouton, nu et musicien, one of three drawings Picasso created on 7 January 1967.
This drawing brings together a number of important themes which run through Picasso's oeuvre - Cubism, African masks, Realism and Mythology are seen in the muse, the musician, the shepherd and the self-portrait.
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Pablo Picasso 1881-1973
Homme au mouton, nu et musicien, 7 January 1967
Signed, dated and numbered '7.1.67. III Picasso' upper right
Coloured crayon on paper
19 1/2 x 23 7/8 in, 49.5 x 60.5 cm
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Homme au mouton, nu et musicien comes from a series of ten works on paper which Picasso created in early 1967 while staying at his villa in Mougins. The drawings center on three figures: a seated female nude in profile, a flute player and a man carrying a sheep. It is an exciting, complex series and works from this group are now part of various public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago.
The seated female nude is an allegorical portrait of Picasso’s wife and model Jacqueline Roque, easily distinguished by her dark flowing hair and large almond shaped eyes. From their first meeting in 1953 until his death in 1973, Roque was Picasso’s muse. Picasso was enamoured with Roque’s profile, seeing her resemblance to that of the right-most seated woman in Delacroix’s Les Femme d’Alger. Picasso made over 400 portraits of Roque, including numerous drawings and at least fifteen paintings inspired by Delacroix’s masterpiece. Institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Museo Picasso, Barcelona hold multiple portraits of Roque in their collections.
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Jacqueline Roque and Pablo Picasso
Roque’s three profiles in Homme au mouton, nu et musicien show Picasso’s stages of reducing detail. This references his famed development of cubism and use of African and Oceanic masks for inspiration. Exaggerated in size, her face is the focal point of the drawing made further prominent by the artist’s use of strong pencil and primary colours for the different faces.
Mythological scenes fill Picasso’s oeuvre, particularly in his work post World War II. Seeped in classical history and ideology, throughout history Arcadia has provided artists with the opportunity to explore themes of love, music, art and tragedy. In Homme au mouton, nu et musicien, Roque becomes a goddess doted upon by the flautist and shepherd. The musician regularly appears in Picasso’s art, often taking the guise of Pan – the Greek god of shepherds and music but also the patron of lust and physical satisfaction.
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The man holding the sheep is a highly important figure in Picasso’s art, most notably his 1940s sculpture created during the Nazi occupation of Paris to symbolise compassion and vulnerability. The 1943 sculpture Homme au mouton, was first exhibited at the 1944 Salon d’Automne before being placed in Vallauris’ central square in 1950. In Homme au mouton, nu et musician, similarly to Roque, Picasso has drawn the sheep’s face multiple times. The different angles present multiple impressions, while also suggesting the sheep, as a potential sacrifice to the goddess, is struggling to break free.
