Nude in a Black Armchair

A nude woman reclines asleep in a black armchair, her body flowing in sinuous lilac, white, and rose curves, a plant arching behind her - again Marie-Therese Walter, Picasso's golden muse of the early 1930s. Now in the Wexner Center collection, Nude in a Black Armchair belongs to the same rapturous series, the sleeping figure rendered in the soft, curving, sensuous biomorphic forms that her presence drew from him. The dark chair sets off the luminous body; desire, tenderness, and the act of watching the beloved sleep are fused into serene, undulating harmony.