The Dreamer

Pablo Picasso

1932 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Marie-Thérèse Walter, the subject of this sensuous painting, met the artist in 1927, when she was seventeen and he was forty-five. She became his lover and muse soon after. While the female form was not a new subject for Picasso, the flowing, curvilinear style and bright, saturated tones used to depicted Marie-Thérèse are departures from his earlier portrayals of women. By simplifying her voluptuous form into primary shapes, Picasso presents her figure as something resembling an ancient fertility object.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

1932

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997