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09 Stripes

In the 1930s, Picasso began to experiment with the motif of stripes in painting, drawing, and printmaking. The painter revisits, in fact, the classical theme of the female portrait through his own perception of the sitter. Marie-Thérèse Walter is rendered entirely in erotic curves, as in the 1932 painting ★The Reading★ (no. 49). Depicted either lost in sleep or absorbed in reading, the figure reveals her nudity and voluptuous breasts.
The paintings inspired by Surrealist photographer Dora Maar are, on the other hand, distinguished by her sharp physical traits. Picasso portrayed her in a nearly frontal pose, with sharper contours and an open neckline, and employed a warmer palette that made the erotic charge more overt. Painted in 1939, ★Bust of a Woman with Striped Hat★ (no. 52) is saturated with dense black lines that convey a profound sense of despair.