Couple|Pablo Picasso |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 15 April 2025

On Display Permanent collection

Share
×
Enlarge
Zoom
Print

On Display

Permanent collection

Pablo Picasso

Málaga, 1881 - Mougins, France, 1973

Couple

Date	1969
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	190 x 130
Inscriptions	Signed lower left: Picasso; Dated on back of canvas: 7.7.69.
Credit Line	Donated by Mr. Ryuzaburo Umehara
Standard ref.	Zervos XXXI 300; Picasso Project 69-304
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1974-0005

This painting depicting a nude couple, joined as if dancing, was created when Picasso was 88 years old. Picasso was known to have created at least 167 oil paintings that year, an astonishing feat considering his age. The paintings of Picasso's late years, as seen here, were created in a rough style of simple application of pigment to canvas. As can be surmised from the large number of works created in this period, he did not carefully construct and paint each work individually. As a result, these works were not well received critically when they were created, with the general reaction, "Picasso has aged." However, from the 1980s onwards, with the appearance of the so-called Bad Painting, people came to admire a sense of the contemporary in his works. From around the time that he met Jacqueline Roque in 1953, Picasso's lifestyle changed from the social glitter of the post war world to a time when he was drawn into his own closed world. This trend was further accelerated by his formal marriage to Jacqueline in 1961, and their fixed residence in Mougins, southern France, that would become his final home. Given these lifestyle changes, it is not surprising that the realm of Picasso's late works also reveals the artist focusing on his own internal issues. The "Painter and Model" series, along with the group of works which are variations on the themes presented in works by earlier artists such as Delacroix, Velázquez and Manet, reveal that during this period Picasso was searching for the secrets of artistic creativity. On the other hand, many of the works of this period were permeated with the questions of the erotic, whether in deeply passionate scenes of fused bodies or those of kisses. An awareness of these two issues, artistic creativity and the erotic, is layered in the base notes of his work of this painting. Artistic creation and eroticism were seen by Picasso as essentially having the same source. The man and woman painted here can also be considered as an extension of his earlier exploration of the theme of artist and model, while their depiction may stand as a work created at the point of connection between Picasso's two great themes from the period, the erotic and the pursuit of artistic creativity. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.117)

Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris; Galerie Hervé, Paris; Yayoi Gallery, Tokyo; Donated by Mr. Ryuzaburo Umehara to the NMWA, 1974.

Exhibition History

1986: Picasso, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 4 October 1986 - 3 November 1986, cat. no. 132, col. repr.
1989: The French Modern Painting, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Miyakonojo City Museum, 15 April 1989 - 14 May 1989, cat. no. 30, repr.
1989: Oya to ko demiru sekai no meiga, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, 26 August 1989 - 1 October 1989, The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, 7 - 29 October; Fukui Fine Arts Museum, 3 - 28 November; Kure Municipal Museum of Art, 4 - 28 January 1990, cat. no. 47, col. repr.
1990: Picasso and Japan: The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Inaugural Exhibition, The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, 3 November 1990 - 9 December 1990, cat. no. P78, col. repr.
1992: Adam & Eve, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 10 October 1992 - 6 December 1992, cat. no. 26, repr.
1997: Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 55
2006: Picasso: Malen gegen die Zeit, Albertina, Wien, 21 September 2006 - 7 January 2007, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 3 February - 28 May 2007, cat. no. 75, repr.
2015: Picasso: Works of Genius Everybody Knows, Fukuyama Museum of Art, 19 September 2015 - 23 November 2015, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
2022: Picasso and His Time: Masterpieces from Museum Berggruen/Nationalgalerie Berlin, The National Museum of Western Art, 8 October 2022 - 22 January 2023, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, 4 Febrary 2023-21 May 2023, cat. no. 107, col repr.

Bibliography

1971: Alberti, Rafael. A Year of Picasso, Paintings: 1969. Kerrigan, Anthony, trans. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1971, no. 90, repr.
1976: Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. vol. 31, Paris, Cahiers d'art, 1976, no. 300, repr.
1976: Bulletin Annuel du Musée National d’Art Occidental. No. 9 (1974), 1976, Nouvelles acquisitions, par Chisaburoh F. Yamada, pp. 4-5. Nouvelles acquisitions (catalogue). pp. 14-15, repr.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 211, repr.
1986: Picasso (exh. cat.). The Museum of Modern Art, Gunnma, ed. Takasaki, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunnma, 1986, pp. 48, 169, 189, cat. no. 132, col. repr.
1989: Oya to Ko de Miru Sekai no Meiga Ten (exh. cat.). Fukunaga, Osamu et al. [Tokyo], The Yomiuri Shimbun, 1989, pp. 48, 118, cat. no. 3, col. repr.
1990: Picasso and Japan: The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Inaugural Exhibition (exh. cat.). The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, ed. Tokushima, The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, 1990, pp. 38, 167, cat. no. P78, repr.
1992: Adam & Eve (exh. cat.). The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, ed. Saitama, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 1992, p.59, cat. no. 26, repr
2003: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885-1973: The Sixties III, 1968-1969. Chipp, Herschel, Wofsy, Alan, dir., vol. 15, San Francisco, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 2003 (The Picasso Project), no. 69-304.
2006: Picasso: Malen gegen die Zeit. Spies, Werner; Baselitz, Georg. et al., eds. Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2006, cat. no. 75, repr.
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 117, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 117, col. repr.
2015: Picasso: Works of Genius Everybody Knows (exh. cat.). Fukuyama Museum of Art, ed. [Fukuyama], Fukuyama Museum of Art, 2015, pp. 80, 118, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
2022: Picasso and His Time: Masterpieces from Museum Berggruen/Nationalgalerie Berlin (exh. cat.). Murakami, Hiroya, ed. Tokyo, Kyodo News, 2022, pp. 264-265, cat. no. 107, col. repr.

Page top