During the latter half of 1922, Picasso’s style underwent a change. He abandoned the earlier, heavy-limbed women and injected his new subjects with a grace reminiscent of the High Renaissance. Recent scholarship has uncovered that the object of the artist’s gently melancholic attention was the spirited Sara, who was married to the American painter and socialite Gerald Murphy. It can now be assumed that this three-quarter length portrait is a “Romanized” version of the woman who stole Picasso’s heart on the beach at Cap d’Antibes in the south of France.
Object Date
1923
Dimensions
Canvas: 51¼ x 38¼ in. (130.2 x 97.2 cm)
Framed: 60 x 46 3/4 x 4 in. (152.4 x 118.7 x 10.2 cm)
