Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
C Frank Stoop
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767" aria-label="More by Pablo Picasso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pablo Picasso</a>
Seated Woman in a Chemise
Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933
actions: postures and motions
adults
people
sitting
woman
<p>From 1917 Picasso made overt reference to the art of the ancient world in many of his paintings. Here the figure's facial features, the soft drapes of her dress and her apparent composure recall the grace and naturalism of fifth-century B.C. Greek sculptures. However, the massiveness of her limbs and her immobility appear to echo earlier antique art, or later Roman copies of Greek models. The ambiguity and potential for irony in this admixture of references were essential elements in Picasso's approach to the art of the past. In this picture the blue sky, as well as the strong light, evoke the Mediterranean.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 February 2002 – 21 April 2002
2002-04-21
11 February 2002 – 21 April 2002
2002-04-21
2002-02-11
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
2002-02-11
The Body in the Twentieth Century
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
2003-06-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2003-06-21
International Modern Art
Collection based display
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
2005-12-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-12-05
Realisms
Collection based display
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
2007-09-15
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2007-09-15
Bathers
Collection based display
14 April 2009 – 16 June 2013
2013-06-16
14 April 2009 – 16 June 2013
2013-06-16
2009-04-14
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2009-04-14
This is Sculpture
Collection based display
15 February 2012 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
15 February 2012 – 15 July 2012
2012-07-15
2012-02-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
4 August 2012 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
2012-08-04
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2012-02-15
Picasso and Modern British Art
Exhibition
4 August 2012 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
4 August 2012 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
2012-08-04
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2012-08-04
Picasso and Modern Art
Loan-out
18 April 2016 – 30 June 2017
2017-06-30
18 April 2016 – 30 June 2017
2017-06-30
2016-04-18
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, USA)
2016-04-18
Reciprocal loan for Georgia O'Keeffe
Loan-out
21 September 2017 – 21 January 2018
2018-01-21
21 September 2017 – 21 January 2018
2018-01-21
2017-09-21
Scuderie del Quirinale (Rome, Italy)
2017-09-21
Pablo Picasso: between Cubism and Classicism: 1915-1925
Loan-out
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
5 June 2018 – 23 September 2018
2018-09-23
2018-06-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2018-06-05
Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One
Exhibition
13 December 2019 – 13 April 2020
2020-04-13
13 December 2019 – 13 April 2020
2020-04-13
2019-12-13
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2019-12-13
Matisse and Picasso
Loan-out
11 October 2022 – 15 January 2023
2023-01-15
11 October 2022 – 15 January 2023
2023-01-15
2022-10-11
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
2022-10-11
Picasso and Chanel
Loan-out
5 August 2024 – 9 August 2026
2026-08-09
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2024-08-05
Monsieur Venus
Collection based display
Seated Woman in a Chemise
support: 921 × 730 mm
frame: 1156 × 960 × 70 mm
Bequeathed by <a href="/search?gid=999999963" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">C. Frank Stoop</a> 1933
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Seated Woman in a Chemise</i> is an oil painting on canvas by Pablo Picasso. This large portrait features a seated woman at the centre of the canvas. She is presented in three-quarter length format and the upper part of her body is angled slightly away from the viewer, towards the right of the composition. Her gaze is directed outwards but not at the viewer: instead she seems to concentrate on a location to the viewer’s right. The sitter wears the white chemise indicated in the title, which falls seductively off her right shoulder. Her right arm rests on a support, which is also covered in a white fabric. Her left arm rests casually on her thigh, which is slightly raised, and her hands meet lightly in the bottom left corner of the image. The sitter’s long dark hair is pulled away from her face and flows down her back. The lower half of her face is in shadow, although a slight smile seems to animate her lips. The portrait is set against a light blue background, which darkens slightly around the subject’s head. The painting is signed ‘Picasso’ in the bottom left corner.</p>
<p>Picasso painted <i>Seated Woman</i> in his studio on the Rue de la Boëtie, Paris in 1923. The portrait was produced by applying oil paint to canvas, often using quick brushstrokes such as those visible in the white of the sitter’s garment. Although conservator Fotini Koussiaki has noted that ‘Picasso didn’t follow a systematic application of successive paint layers to the stretched canvas’, in 1999 radiography revealed an underpainting, also a portrait, which Picasso incorporated into the final image (Fotini Koussiaki, ‘“My Picture is a Sum of Destructions”, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)’, <i>Conservation Journal</i>, no.34, Spring 2000, <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-34/my-picture-is-a-sum-of-destructions,-pablo-picasso-1881-1973/">http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal</a>, accessed 9 March 2016.</p>
<p>Within Picasso’s diverse artistic production, <i>Seated Woman </i>is a key example of what art historian Christopher Riopelle has described as the artist’s ‘neo-classical’ style, which Picasso developed after his first visit to Italy from February to May 1917 (Riopelle, ‘Return to a Kind of Order’, in Cowling, Galassi, Robbins and others 2009, pp.69–85, p.70). Neo-classicism sought to imitate the grandeur and simplicity of classical art, particularly sculpture. This is evident here in different ways in Picasso’s treatment of the female figure, notably the heavy, sculptural limbs, the almost stylised features, the white robe and the way in which the model’s ‘classic repose joins with a sense of anticipation reminiscent, ultimately, of classic relief sculpture’ (Riopelle 2009, p.78).</p>
<p>Art historians such as Christopher Green have placed works like <i>Seated Woman</i> within an aesthetic and cultural shift in France, from pre-First World War progressivism to a return to classical models after the war (Christopher Green, <i>Art in France 1900–1940</i>, New Haven and London 2003, p.216). At this time, artists such as Picasso began to negotiate a path from pre-war artistic developments, like analytical cubism, towards practices that eschewed abstraction. By referencing classical sculpture – as well as French artists of the past, such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Auguste Renoir – Picasso tapped into ‘the sense of artistic tradition, indeed of a specifically French tradition’ being created at this time (Riopelle 2009, p.78).</p>
<p>Picasso produced neo-classical works from around 1917 until 1925. <i>Woman Reading </i>1920–21 (Musée de Grenoble) is another example of a female portrait from this period that features a woman with oversized limbs and classicised features. However, Picasso’s interest in neo-classical sources ‘for several years overlapped with his continuing synthetic cubist explorations’ (Riopelle in Cowling and others 2009, p.70) and both styles were displayed simultaneously, sometimes at the same exhibition. In 2003 Christopher Green commented ‘There can be no doubt that his decision to show his cubist and his neo-classical work together, first of all at Paul Rosenberg’s exhibition in 1921, provoked many not to take his neo–classicism as seriously’ (Green 2003, p.216). Since then, Picasso’s neo-classical works have been seen as an important development in his practice. <i>Seated Woman</i> has been featured most recently in the 2012 exhibition Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Briony Fer, David Batchelor and Paul Wood, <i>Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism between the Wars</i>, New Haven and London 1993, reproduced p.70.<br/>Jonathan Harris, <i>Art History: The Key Concepts</i>, Oxford 2006, reproduced p.158.<br/>Elizabeth Cowling, Susan Galassi, Anne Robbins and others, <i>Picasso: Challenging the Past</i>, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 2009.</p>
<p>Jo Kear<br/>March 2016</p>
<p>
<i>Supported by Christie’s.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2017-02-14T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>From 1917 Picasso made overt reference to the art  of the ancient world in many of his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>.  Here the figure's facial features, the soft drapes  of her dress and her apparent composure recall the  grace and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/naturalism" title="Glossary definition for 'Naturalism'"><span>naturalism</span></a> of fifth-century B.C. Greek  <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a>. However, the massiveness of her limbs  and her immobility appear to echo earlier antique  art, or later Roman copies of Greek models. The  ambiguity and potential for irony in this  admixture of references were essential elements in  Picasso's approach to the art of the past. In this  picture the blue sky, as well as the strong light,  evoke the Mediterranean.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Pablo Picasso</b><span> 1881-1973 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/picasso-seated-woman-in-a-chemise-n04719" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04719</span></a> </span><b>Femme en Chemise assise</b><span>
(Seated Woman in a Chemise) 1923 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Picasso' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 28 3/8 (92 x 73)</span>
<br/><span>Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
With Galerie Simon, Paris (purchased from the artist 1929); with Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin and Düsseldorf, 1929; C. Frank Stoop, London</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Matisse Braque Picasso</i><span>, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, September-October 1930 (48) as 'Frau in Weiss'; </span><i>Picasso</i><span>, Tate Gallery, July-September 1960 (105, repr.); </span><i>Hommage à Pablo Picasso</i><span>, Grand Palais, Paris, November 1966-February 1967 (127, repr.); </span><i>Picasso</i><span>, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, March-May 1967 (58, repr.); </span><i>Léger and Purist Paris</i><span>, Tate Gallery, November 1970-January 1971 (122, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Christian Zervos, </span><i>Pablo Picasso</i><span> (Paris 1952), Vol.5, No.3, repr. pl.3 as 'Femme en Chemise Assise'</span><br/><i>Repr:</i><span> </span><i>Kunstblatt</i><span>, XIII, 1929, p.70 as 'Frau in Weiss' 1923, the property of A. Flechtheim, Berlin; John Rothenstein, </span><i>The Tate Gallery</i><span> (London 1958), p.137 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Picasso's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/neoclassicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neoclassicism'"><span>neo-classic</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> (which developed concurrently with his later <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubism</span></a>) date from the years 1920 to 1924. Though he afterwards gave up painting in this style, he continued to resort to it from time to time in his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravings</span></a>. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This picture has usually been known in recent years as 'Femme assise' (Seated Woman), but appears in the Kahnweiler records as 'Femme en Chemise assise'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.597-8, reproduced p.597</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults people sitting woman