Animaux

In 1927, Picasso met seventeen-year old Marie-Thérèse Walter in front of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, and for the next eight years she was his muse, model, and mistress. These three drawings were done for her—their playfulness and inventiveness contradict any sense of preciousness, yet Marie-Thérèse kept them for the rest of her life. (The two other drawings referenced here: 86.119.007 and 86.119.003.001, both in the Johnson Museum’s collection.) The execution show Picasso’s mastery as a draftsman. With a pair of scissors, he creates a placid lion on the back of a bag or other purloined object; with a blue pencil, he draws a whimsically fleshy portrait of his mistress in the bath on a piece of ledger paper, an equally robust figure standing nearby; and on a sheet of graph paper, he efficiently sketches animals and everyday objects guaranteed to bring a smile. (“Drawing the Line: 150 Years of European Artists on Paper,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum January 20–June 10, 2018)