Bather by the Sea

Pablo Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973

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About the Artwork

Bather by the Sea is readily identified as Dora Maar by the shoulder-length dark hair, long face, bright eyes and full red lips. In 1936, the poet Paul Eluard introduced Picasso to Maar, a painter and photographer who was a member of the Surrealist circle of writers and artists in Paris. For the next ten years, she was Picasso's principle muse.

Bather by the Sea

1939

Pablo Picasso

1881-1973

Spanish

Unknown

Gouache on laid paper

Sheet: 25 1/4 × 18 1/4 inches (64.1 × 46.4 cm) Framed: 39 1/2 × 32 1/2 × 1 3/4 inches (100.3 × 82.6 × 4.4 cm)

Drawings

Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill

70.339

Copyright not assessed, please contact [email protected].

Markings

Signed and dated, in black ink, upper right (at two separate times?): 20. 7. 39 | Picasso

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Provenance

the artist, Pablo Picasso

purchased by (Galerie Pierre, Paris, France)

1947, sold by (Theodore Schempp and Co., New York, New York, USA)

1947-1970, purchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA) 1970-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Provenance page

Exhibition History

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Published References

100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, p. 174, 175 (ill.).

Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, Vol. 9, Oeuvres de 1937 à 1939. Paris 1958, p. 152, 190, cat. no. 318 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Pablo Picasso, Bather by the Sea, 1939, gouache on laid paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill, 70.339.

Bather by the Sea
Bather by the Sea