Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque)

Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) is an oil painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, painted between 2 April and 10 May 1960.^[1] It depicts Jacqueline Roque, a woman with whom he had started a relationship in 1954, after his divorce from Françoise Gilot, and who he would marry in 1961. The painting belongs to the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, Alsace, since 1967, when it was bought by the museum following a successful Picasso exhibition there. Its inventory number is 88.RP.400.^[2]

Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque)
French: Buste de femme assise (Jacqueline Roque)
Artist	Pablo Picasso
Year	1960
Medium	oil paint on canvas
Movement	Portrait painting
Subject	Jacqueline Roque
Dimensions	100 cm × 81 cm (39 in × 32 in)[1]
Location	Unterlinden Museum, Colmar
Accession	1967

Description

The painting depicts Jacqueline (then in her early 30s, as she was born in 1927) sitting in a green armchair. Her face is depicted both frontally and laterally: the right side of her face (i.e. the left side, as seen by the viewer) is also her right profile, which is why her nose is so prominent, and why only one half of her mouth is visible. Picasso also emphasizes Jacqueline's lush hair and her ample bosom, as an homage to the voluptuous Mediterranean type of female beauty which had already been celebrated by Eugène Delacroix.^[2]

References

1. "Buste de femme assise (Jacqueline Roque)". webmuseo.com. Musée Unterlinden. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
2. Goerig-Hergott, Frédérique (December 2015). La collection d'art moderne – Le Musée Unterlinden de Alechinsky à Zack. Paris: Éditions Artlys. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-2-85495-627-6.