After the end of World War I, Picasso discovered a new subject, bathers at the seashore. He and his wife, Olga, began to frequent French resorts, where it had become fashionable for beachgoers to enjoy the sun rather than hide from it. This provided an opportunity for Picasso to marry his observations of daily life with an interest in classical antiquity he had been nurturing since his 1917 trip to Italy. These classical goddesses seem to be looking at a very modern airplane just beyond the picture plane.
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Inscription: Signed and dated in graphite, lower right: ¦Picasso¦ / 20 Dated and inscribed on verso in graphite, lower left: 22-8-20- / (I)
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, until 1923; sold on July 7, 1923 to Thayer]; Scofield Thayer, Vienna and New York (1923–d. 1984; on extended loan to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1934–82; inv. 34.76; his bequest to MMA)
Munich. Moderne Galerie / Thannhauser. "Pablo Ruiz Picasso," May 9–June 1922, no. 43 (as "Gruppe von drei nackten Frauen").
New York. Montross Gallery. "Original Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings Being Exhibited with the Dial Folio 'Living Art'," January 26–February 14, 1924, no catalogue (typed checklist no. 34; as "Large Pencil Drawing").
Worcester Art Museum. "Exhibition of the Dial Collection of Paintings, Engravings, and Drawings by Contemporary Artists," March 5–30, 1924, no. 30.
Northampton, Mass. Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College. "The Dial Collection," May 1924, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Art of the Third Republic: French Painting 1870–1940," February 22–March 16, 1941, no. 46.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 193.
Worcester Art Museum. "Selections from the Dial Collection," November 13–30, 1965, unnum. checklist.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial Revisited," June 29–August 22, 1971, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Two: Twentieth-Century Art," June 4–September 2, 1985, no catalogue.
Canberra. Australian National Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," March 1–April 27, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 20).
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," May 7–July 1, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld. "Picassos Klassizismus: Werke von 1914-1934," April 17–July 31, 1988, no. 29.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings: Additions to the Collection," May 23–September 29, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nudes: A Selection from the Bequest of Scofield Thayer," February 12–October 31, 1993, no catalogue.
West Palm Beach, Fla. Norton Gallery of Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Vision," March 2–April 3, 1994, no. 14.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso the Engraver: Selections from the Musée Picasso, Paris," September 18–December 21, 1997, not in catalogue.
Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Pikaso ten: Kaikan 10-shunen kinen/Pablo Picasso: 10th Anniversary," July 4–September 6, 1998, no. 55.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Pikaso ten: Kaikan 10-shunen kinen/Pablo Picasso: 10th Anniversary," September 12–November 29, 1998, no. 55.
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. "Picasso: Bathers," June 18–October 16, 2005, no. 18.
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Picasso and the Theater," October 21, 2006–January 21, 2007, unnumbered cat. (p. 198).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 64.
New York. Frick Collection. "Picasso's Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition," October 4, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 69.
Houston. The Menil Collection. "Picasso The Line," September 16, 2016–January 8, 2017, unnumbered cat. (p. 82).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection," July 3–October 7, 2018, no. 48.
Kurt Pfister. "Pablo Picasso. Ausstellung in der Modernen Galerie Thannhauser—München." Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration 50 (August 1922), ill. p. 255, calls it "Frauen".
Otto Freundlich. "Was wollt ihr von Picasso?" Die Aktion 12 (1922), ill. columns 479, 480.
Dial 76 (June 1924), ill. after p. 492.
"Modern Art Spirit Seen in Collection." Worcester Daily Telegram (March 6, 1924), p. 4.
Paul Eluard. À Pablo Picasso. Geneva, 1945, p. 62, ill.
Paul Eluard. Pablo Picasso. New York, 1947, p. 62, ill.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 4, Oeuvres de 1920 à 1922. Paris and New York, 1951, p. 102, no. 288, ill.
William Wasserstrom. A Dial Miscellany. Syracuse, 1963, ill. between pp. 204–5.
Carsten-Peter Warncke. Pablo Picasso, 1881–1973. Ed. Ingo F. Walther. Vol. 1, The Works 1890–1936. Cologne, 1992, p. 276, ill.
"Nudes, Erotic and Chaste, at the Met." Northport NY Journal (July 23, 1993), ill.
Herschel B. Chipp and Alan Wofsy, ed. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885-1973. Vol. 2, Neoclassicism I, 1920–1921. San Francisco, 1995, pp. 84, 285, no. 20–269, ill.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 333, 341.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 10.
Magdalena Dabrowski inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 182–83, no. 64, ill. (color).
Rachel Mustalish inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 183.
Sabine Rewald inObsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2018, pp. 99, 127, no. 48, ill. p. 109 (color).
Will Heinrich. "Three Masters' Views of the Body Erotic." New York Times (July 20, 2018), p. C11, ill. (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler. "Reading Picasso in Munich and Prague in 1922." Umění / Art 70, no. 2 (2022), pp. 160, 168, 177 nn. 32, 35–37, p. 179 n. 85, pp. 188–90, no. M43.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1955, printed 1961
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