Mother and Child

Between the years 1918 and 1938,  four different women: Olga Picasso, Sara Murphy, Marie Therese Walter, and Dora Maar, served as prominent models in Picasso’s artwork. Most of these women were associated with Picasso's shifting classical ideal; assimilated to this vision through individual features transformed and on some occasions, merged with their rivals. The characteristic costume of one woman may also be found in a portrait of another. By the summer of 1922, the Picasso and Murphy families had become close. A series of notebook drawings, pastels, and paintings in the later half of 1922 reveal that Olga and Sara were the two women that were most often on Picasso's mind. While both of them were maternal figures, Sara was described as warm and relaxed, while Olga was tense and fastidious. In the series, the mother so often depicted resembles Sara more than Olga, evident in this specific painting. Regardless of who specifically is portrayed, it is clear that the mother in this painting subsumes characteristics of both Olga and Sara; transforming them into a classical apotheosis of the ideal mother or wife.
SKU: 4254
Creator: Pablo Picasso
Date: 1922
Original Medium: oil on canvas
Original Size: 39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.
Location: Baltimore Museum of Art
© Succession Picasso 2011