Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')

Details

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')
signed 'Picasso' (upper right); dated '14.2.55.' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
44 7/8 x 57 5/8 in. (114 x 146.4 cm.)
Painted on 14 February 1955.

Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris.
Victor and Sally Ganz, New York (acquired from the above, 6 June 1956); Estate sale, Christie’s, New York, 10 November 1997, lot 33.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

W. Boeck and J. Sabartés, Picasso, New York, 1955, p. 500, no. 594 (illustrated in color, p. 347; with incorrect title).
J. Flanner, "Letter from Paris" in The New Yorker, vol. XXXI, no. 19, 25 June 1955, pp. 73-74.
F. Elgar and R. Maillard, Picasso, Paris, 1955 (illustrated).
J. Camón Aznar, Picasso y el cubismo, Madrid, 1956 (illustrated in color).
E. Genauer, "Picasso: Living Legend" in Herald Tribune Magazine, section 7, 19 May 1957, p. 6 (illustrated in color; detail illustrated in color on the cover; detail illustrated again, p. 2).
J. Thompson, "Six Schools—One Master" in The New York Times Sunday Mirror Magazine, 19 May 1957, p. 13 (illustrated in color).
R. Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work, London, 1958, pp. 14 and 350-353 (illustrated, pl. XXIV, no. 2).
P. de Champris, Picasso, ombre et soleil, Paris, 1960, p. 294 (illustrated, p. 257, pl. 303).
G. Diehl, Picasso, New York, 1960, p. 81 (illustrated in color, p. 80).
"Room Around Picasso" in Vogue, vol. 136, no. 6, 1 October 1960, pp. 197-199 (illustrated in situ in the Ganz household, p. 197; illustrated in situ again in color, p. 198).
"Junior Critics of Picasso" in Life, vol. 52, no. 20, 18 May 1962, p. 124 (illustrated in color).
K. Sutton, Picasso, London, 1962, no. 47.
J. Lucas, "Picasso as Copyist" in ARTnews Annual, November 1964, pp. 159-160 (illustrated in color, p. 115).
J. Canaday, "Picasso" in Horizon, vol. VII, no. 1, winter 1965, p. 78 (illustrated).
P. Daix, Picasso, New York, 1965, pp. 219-221 (illustrated in color, p. 220).
C. Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Paris, 1965, vol. 16, no. 360 (illustrated, pl. 133).
G. Picon, "La mesure de Picasso" in A. Fermigier, et al., Picasso, Paris, 1967, p. 278 (illustrated, p. 280).
F. Russoli, "Tra le due guerre: La libertà espressiva nella conquista del vero" in L'Arte Moderna, vol. X, no. 82, 1967, p. 20 (illustrated in color).
H. Read, A Concise History of Modern Painting, New York, 1968, p. 325 (illustrated, pl. 228).
"The Power of Picasso" in Life, vol. 65, no. 26, 27 December 1968, p. 14 (illustrated in color, p. 15).
A. Fermigier, Picasso, Paris, 1969, pp. 354-355 (illustrated, p. 355, fig. 236).
J. Galloway, Picasso, New York, 1969, pp. 46-47 (illustrated, p. 46, pl. 19).
P. Dufour, Picasso, 1950-1968, Cleveland, 1970, p. 137 (illustrated in color, p. 89).
F.A. Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix, Baltimore, 1970, p. 354 (illustrated, fig. 208).
K. Gallwitz, Picasso at 90: The Late Work, New York, 1971, p. 123 (illustrated in color, pl. 159).
K. Gallwitz, Picasso laureatus: Sein malerisches Werk seit 1945, Lucerne, 1971, p. 123 (illustrated in color, pl. 159).
H. Greenfeld, Pablo Picasso: An Introduction, Chicago, 1971, p. 151 (illustrated, p. 148).
R. Hughes, "Anatomy of a Minotaur" in Time, vol. 98, no. 18, 1 November 1971, pp. 68-70 (illustrated in color).
R. Passeron, "Quand Picasso s'attaque aux chefs-d'oeuvre" in Jardin des Arts, nos. 200-201, July-August 1971, p. 63 (illustrated).
Tokyo International Publishers, Picasso, New York, 1971, p. 114.
J. Leymarie, Picasso: The Artist of the Century, Lausanne, 1972, pp. 178-179 (illustrated in color; with incorrect date).
L. Steinberg, Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth-Century Art, New York, 1972, pp. 223-234 (illustrated, p. 231, fig. 162; illustrated again, between pp. 234-235).
A. Mondadori, ed., Conoscere Picasso: L'avventura dell'uomo e il genio dell'artista, Milan, 1973 (illustrated in color).
R. Penrose and J. Golding, eds., Picasso in Retrospect, New York, 1973, pp. 215-217 and 280 (illustrated, p. 217, fig. 359).
D. Porzio and M. Valsecchi, Understanding Picasso, New York, 1974, p. 269, no. 126 (illustrated in color).
D. Thomas, Picasso and His Art, New York, 1974, p. 92 (illustrated in color, p. 105, pl. 87).
P. Cabanne, Pablo Picasso: His Life and Times, New York, 1977, pp. 444, 446, 455 and 457-458.
N. Baldwin, "Art in Western Europe: The Post-War Years" in Des Moines Sunday Register, 24 September 1978, p. 23 (illustrated in color).
U. Apollonio, Picasso, Munich, 1980, no. 10.
R.H. Cohen, "Mass Media: Pablo's American Lineage" in Art in America, vol. 68, no. 10, December 1980, p. 44 (detail illustrated).
E.F. Fry, "Modern Art's Old Master: The Legacy of Picasso, Part I" in Portfolio, vol. II, no. 2, April-May 1980, p. 60 (illustrated in color; detail illustrated in color on the cover).
M.M. Gedo, Picasso: Art as Autobiography, Chicago, 1980, pp. 226 and 228 (illustrated, p. 227).
A. Cirici, Picasso, su vida y su obra: La seva vida i la seva obra, Barcelona, 1981, p. 131.
H.L.C. Jaffé, Pablo Picasso, New York, 1983, p. 118 (illustrated in color, p. 119).
"Pablo Picasso: Die Kraft der späten Jahre" in Art: Das Kunstmagazin, no. 3, March 1983, p. 44 (illustrated in color).
J. Barrachina, et al., Picasso: Museo Picasso, catálogo de pintura y dibujo, Barcelona, 1984, p. 697 (illustrated).
M.M. Moeller, Picasso im Sprengel Museum Hannover: Druckgraphik, illustrierte Bücher, Zeichnungen, Collagen und Gemälde, exh. cat., Sprengel Museum Hannover, 1986, p. 30 (illustrated).
G. Boudaille, M.-L. Bernadac and M.-P. Gauthier, Picasso, Secaucus, 1987, p. 132, no. 229 (illustrated).
J. Richardson, “The Catch in the Late Picasso” in The New York Times Book Review, 19 July 1984, p. 21.
K. Gallwitz, Picasso: The Heroic Years, New York, 1985, pp. 123, 135-136 and 141-142, no. 159 (illustrated in color).
O. Granath, Pablo Picasso, exh. cat., Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1988, p. 212, no. 88 (illustrated, p. 213).
J. Hobhouse, The Bride Stripped Bare: The Artist and the Female Nude in the Twentieth Century, New York, 1988, p. 131 (illustrated in color, pl. 111).
R.L. Sommer, Picasso, New York, 1988, p. 153.
J. Beardsley, Pablo Picasso, New York, 1991, pp. 81-82 (illustrated in color, pp. 86-87).
R. Bernier, Matisse, Picasso, Miró: As I Knew Them, New York, 1991, pp. 156 and 158 (illustrated in color, p. 157).
G. Cortenova, Picasso: The Works of Pablo Picasso, New York, 1991, p. 264 (illustrated in color, pp. 264-265).
S.G. Galassi, “Games of Wit”: Picasso's Variations on the Old Masters, Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1991, no. 179 (illustrated).
L. Lévy, Picasso, London, 1991, pp. 136-137 (illustrated in color; illustrated in color again on the back cover).
R. Penrose, Picasso, London, 1991, pp. 30 and 122, no. 46 (illustrated in color, p. 123).
J.S. Boggs, Picasso and Things, exh. cat., The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 361 (illustrated).
A. Panzetta, Picasso, Milan, 1992, no. 32.
R. Rosenblum, "Guerra y paz: La antigedad y el último Picasso" in G. Tinterow, ed., Picasso clasico, exh. cat., Palacio Episcopal, Málaga, 1992, p. 180 (illustrated in color, p. 183, pl. 9).
J. Berger, The Success and Failure of Picasso, New York, 1993, p. 180 (illustrated, p. 183).
J. McDonald, Pablo Picasso, New York, 1993, p. 112 (illustrated in color).
W. Spies, Picasso: Die Zeit nach Guernica, 1937-1973, exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin, 1993, p. 49 (illustrated).
P. Daix, Picasso: Life and Art, New York, 1994, pp. 324-326 and 334.
S.M. Nashashibi, Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World, exh. cat., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1994, pp. 66-67 and 69 (illustrated, p. 67).
F. Orton, Figuring Jasper Johns, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1994, pp. 80 and 247 (illustrated, p. 81, pl. 31).
P. Daix, Dictionnaire Picasso, Paris, 1995, pp. 244-245 and 362-363.
C.-P. Warncke, Pablo Picasso, Cologne, 1995, vol. II, p. 523 (illustrated in color).
E. Lucie-Smith, Movements in Art Since 1945, New York, 1995, p. 16.
A. Sánchez Podadera, A. Romero Márquez and J.C. Jiménez Moreno, Genial Picasso, Málaga, 1995, p. 22.
A. Brighton, A. Klimowski and R. Appiganesi, Introducing Picasso, New York, 1996, pp. 166-167.
J.-L. Ferrier, Picasso, Paris, 1996, p. 161 (illustrated in color).
S.G. Galassi, Picasso's Variations on the Masters: Confrontations with the Past, New York, 1996, pp. 137-138, 146-147 and 173 (illustrated in color, p. 147, fig. 5-17).
H.L.C. Jaffé, Pablo Picasso, New York, 1996, p. 148 (illustrated in color, p. 149).
M. FitzGerald, ed., A Life of Collecting: Victor and Sally Ganz, New York, 1997, pp. 41-42 (illustrated in color, p. 48; detail illustrated in color, p. 49; illustrated in color again in situ in the Ganz household, pp. 14-15).
M. McCully, ed., A Picasso Anthology: Documents, Criticism, Reminiscences, Princeton, 1997, pp. 251-254 (illustrated, p. 252).
Y.-A. Bois, Matisse and Picasso, exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1999, p. 231 (illustrated in color, p. 232, fig. 225).
B. Léal, C. Piot and M.-L. Bernadac, The Ultimate Picasso, New York, 2000, pp. 413 and 534, no. 1006 (illustrated in color, p. 408).
The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: The Fifties I, 1950-1955, San Francisco, 2000, p. 283, no. 55-043 (illustrated).
P. Esteban Leal, Picasso: Las grandes series, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2001, p. 116 (illustrated in color, p. 115, fig. 4).
E. Cowling, Interpreting Matisse Picasso, exh. cat., Tate Modern, London, 2002, p. 74 (illustrated in color, fig. 63).
D. Widmaier-Picasso, Picasso: “Art Can Only Be Erotic,” Munich, 2005, p. 140 (illustrated in color, p. 81).
J.-L. Andral, P. Daix and W. Spies, et al., Picasso: La joie de vivre, 1945-1948, exh. cat., Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2006, p. 143 (illustrated in color, fig. 6).
E. Cowling, Visiting Picasso: The Notebooks and Letters of Roland Penrose, New York, 2006, pp. 102-104.
M. FitzGerald and J.M. Boddewyn, Picasso and American Art, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2006, p. 236 (illustrated, fig. 93).
S. Gohr, Pablo Picasso—Leben und Werk: “Ich suche nicht, ich finde.", Cologne, 2006, p. 145 (illustrated in color).
J.J. Luna, El museo ideal de Picasso: La colección que nunca existió, Barcelona, 2006, p. 200 (illustrated in color, p. 201).
W. Spies, ed., Picasso: Painting Against Time, exh. cat., Albertina, Vienna, 2006, p. 287 (illustrated in color).
G. Clemenz-Kirsch, Die sieben Leben des Pablo Picasso, Halle, 2007, p. 159.
R. Melcher, ed., Pablo Picasso: L’oeuvre des années 50, exh. cat., Stiftung Saarländischer Kulturbesitz Saarlandmuseum, 2007, p. 17 (illustrated in color, fig. 7).
A. Baldassari, et al., Picasso: Ses maîtres et ses héritiers, Paris, 2008, p. 95 (illustrated in color).
C. Gruneberg and A. Becker, eds., Sylvette, Sylvette, Sylvette: Picasso and the Model, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen, 2014, p. 227 (illustrated in color, fig. 3).
J. Fineberg, D. Leers and B. Rose, Picasso & Jacqueline: The Evolution of Style, exh. cat., Pace Gallery, New York, 2014, pp. 11-14.

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), spring 1955.
Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, Picasso: Peintures, 1900-1955, June-October 1955, no. 127 (illustrated).
Munich, Haus der Kunst; Cologne, Rheinisches Museum Köln-Deutz and Kunstverein in Hamburg, Kunsthalle-Altbau, Picasso, 1900-1955, October 1955-April 1956, no. 121 (illustrated).
New York, The Museum of Modern Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition, May-December 1957, p. 109 (illustrated in color as a frontispiece).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints and Illustrated Books, January-February 1958, p. 24, no. 255 (illustrated in color).
London, Tate Gallery, Picasso, July-September 1960, pp. 56 and 58, no. 196 (illustrated, pl. 45b).
New York, Cordier-Warren Gallery, Picasso, An American Tribute: The Fifties, April-May 1962, no. 18 (illustrated).
The Art Gallery of Toronto and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Picasso and Man, January-March 1964, pp. 20 and 147, no. 263 (illustrated).
Paris, Grand Palais, Hommage à Pablo Picasso, November 1966-February 1967, no. 237 (illustrated).
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Picasso, February-March 1967, p. 97, no. 73.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Collects, July-September 1968, p. 31, no. 145.
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, European XXth Century Artists, January-February 1969, no. 39 (illustrated).
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria and New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse, April-September 1975, pp. 33 and 258 (illustrated in color, p. 32; illustrated again, p. 259).
Des Moines Art Center, Art in Western Europe: The Postwar Years, 1945-1955, September-October 1978, no. 59 (illustrated in color; illustrated in color again on the cover).
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, May-September 1980, p. 425 (illustrated in color).
Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou and London, The Tate Gallery, Late Picasso: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, 1953-1972, February-September 1988, pp. 56 and 271, no. 5 (illustrated in color, p. 155; illustrated again in situ in the 1955 Musée des arts décoratifs exhibition, p. 287).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Copier créer: De Turner à Picasso: 300 oeuvres inspirées par les maîtres du Louvre, April-July 1993, pp. 370-373, no. 265 (illustrated in color, p. 371).
New York, The Museum of Modern Art and Paris, Grand Palais, Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation, April 1996-January 1997, p. 464 (illustrated in color, p. 456).
London, Tate Modern; Paris, Grand Palais and New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Matisse Picasso, May 2002-May 2003, pp. 24, 222 and 336, no. 180 (illustrated in color, p. 332; illustrated again in color, p. 337).
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Picasso: Tradición y vanguardia, June-September 2006, p. 294, no. 37 (illustrated in color, p. 295).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Picasso et les maîtres, October 2008-February 2009, p. 359 (illustrated in color, p. 215).
London, The National Gallery, Picasso: Challenging the Past, February-June 2009, pp. 13, 114, 126 and 143, no. 41 (detail illustrated in color, p. 10; illustrated in color, p. 126).
London, Tate Britain and Edinburgh, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Picasso & Modern British Art, February-November 2012, pp. 192 and 232, no. 120 (detail illustrated in color as a frontispiece; illustrated in color, p. 193).

Special notice

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. This is such a lot.