15 Items in this Learning Collection
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Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Young Woman with Mandolin

Accession Number
1994/1.69

Title
Young Woman with Mandolin

Artist(s)
Pablo Picasso

Artist Nationality
Spanish (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1932

Medium & Support
oil on board

Dimensions
33 in x 26 ⅜ in x 2 ½ in (83.82 cm x 66.99 cm x 6.35 cm);33 in x 26 ⅜ in x 2 ½ in (83.82 cm x 66.99 cm x 6.35 cm);25 ¼ in x 18 7/16 in (64.14 cm x 46.83 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of The Carey Walker Foundation

Label copy
March 28, 2009
The woman in this painting is almost certainly Picasso’s young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, described as “the most unfettered and passionate of all his loves,” and a favorite subject during the course of their affair in the early thirties. Although Picasso’s work from this period ranges from Cubist geometries to neoclassical portraits to calligraphic welded iron constructions, the sweeping, curvilinear style and soft, free-floating planes of color in this picture were reserved for Marie-Thérèse, his muse. The distinctive manner in which he has rendered her profile—with a continuous, arched line from forehead to nose—became his emblem for her depictions; the lyricism of the subject is echoed in the sensuous arabesques that comprise her body.

Subject matter
The painting is an abstract rendering of a woman seated in a chair, playing a mandolin. Picasso has emphasized the theme by including several musical symbols. The subject is Marie Therese Walter, Picasso’s lover at the time.

Physical Description
This painting depicts the abstract form of a woman sitting in a chair with her head, shown in profile and tilted upward. There is a stringed instrument in her lap and her hands rest on the arms of the chair. It is painted in muted colors of aqua and lavender with brighter areas of yellow, orange and blue. The figure, chair and instrument are created with just a few black lines to suggest their forms.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
portrait

Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Surrealism
abstraction
mandolins
modern and contemporary art
music
portraits
woman

4 Related Resources

Spanish Avant-Garde
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
Music and Musicians
(Part of: Music + Art for Educators)
MG-Collection
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved

On display

UMMA Gallery Location ➜ FFW, Mezzanine ➜ M01 (Joan and Robert Tisch Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art)