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| Version E interpreted by Tilly Strauss |
After the barbaric splendor of the previous
version, Picasso continues his elegy to Matisse in a new painting with a reduced
number of figures. Now we have the
seated hookah smoker, the reclining nude, and the servant with tray pulling
back the curtain. The reclining figure and the servant both recall works of
Matisse’s oeuvre. The Blue Nude- Souvenir of Biskra by Matisse in 1907 was the
first odalisque Matisse painted. It was scandalous at it’s first showing at the
Salon des Artistes with critics calling out it’s blue shading, and thick,
rough, and somewhat angular outline. Legs crossed over, the blue nude of
Picasso’s has the only recognizable face in the picture, which is a deftly
drawn Greco-Roman profile. The ingeniously reduced silhouette of the exiting
servant recalls Matisse’s Jazz cut-outs, such as in The Cirque collage of 1943.
There, for a brief moment, Picasso allows the curves, the embellished
patterning and spatial lyricism of Matisse to shine through.
There is a dominating voyeuristic element to the painting.
We watch a sleeping nude. Someone exits, and the hookah smoker hidden under a
veil or in her drug induced haze, is absent. We are alone and awake in the
scene. The lines and shapes fit
snugly together- and I delight in the way the hookah fits in the armpit of the
blue nude, and the pipe tube defines the pant leg of the hookah smoker. Every
shape has it’s place, fitting sweetly together. It is a scene of sublime simplicity. So far, of the 15 versions, this is my personal favorite. This 18 x 21 inch canvas is, I believe,
in the San Francisco Museum of Art, where someday I hope to see it in real
life. I hope someone tells me if it is not there!
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