The Edward Quinn Archive

Restaurant Chez Félix. Pablo Picasso confirms the date (1906) and signs the drawing "La coiffure (Fernande) (Étude)". Cannes 1958. The present work has a fascinating provenance. In 1936, it was received by Barbara Bagenal as a gift from her admirer, Saxon Sydney-Turner, who had purchased it from the legendary Zwemmer Gallery in London. Barbara, an artist herself and wife of Nicholas Bagenal, moved in Bloomsbury circles with Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Pablo Picasso had originally left the drawing unsigned but, as a 1958 note from Clive Bell attached to the backboard explains: "On February 1958. I took Mrs Bagenal to lunch with Pablo Picasso [in Cannes]. Madame Roque, Pablo Picasso, Mr Duncan and his wife made up the party. I spoke of the drawing. (..) On seeing it Pablo Picasso exclaimed "Dieu que c'est beau". He confirmed the date (1905) and signed the drawing with his 1958 signature. 'That will be a puzzle for art-historians some day', said he. 'To save art-historians trouble I have written this note'" (cf. Sotheby's London, #443, L04010, 22.6.2004). - Photo by Edward Quinn

Restaurant Chez Félix. Pablo Picasso confirms the date (1906) and signs the drawing "La coiffure (Fernande) (Étude)". Cannes 1958. The present work has a fascinating provenance. In 1936, it was received by Barbara Bagenal as a gift from her admirer, Saxon Sydney-Turner, who had purchased it from the legendary Zwemmer Gallery in London. Barbara, an artist herself and wife of Nicholas Bagenal, moved in Bloomsbury circles with Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Pablo Picasso had originally left the drawing unsigned but, as a 1958 note from Clive Bell attached to the backboard explains: "On February 1958. I took Mrs Bagenal to lunch with Pablo Picasso [in Cannes]. Madame Roque, Pablo Picasso, Mr Duncan and his wife made up the party. I spoke of the drawing. (..) On seeing it Pablo Picasso exclaimed "Dieu que c'est beau". He confirmed the date (1905) and signed the drawing with his 1958 signature. 'That will be a puzzle for art-historians some day', said he. 'To save art-historians trouble I have written this note'" (cf. Sotheby's London, #443, L04010, 22.6.2004).

At the Restaurant Chez Félix in Cannes, 1958, Pablo Picasso presents his 1906 drawing, "La coiffure (Fernande) (Étude)," to its owner, Barbara Bagenal. A member of the Bloomsbury Group, Bagenal had brought the work to the lunch as it was unsigned. Here, Picasso authenticates the drawing before adding his contemporary signature, joking that the discrepancy between the work’s date and the signature’s date would one day puzzle art historians. The artist is seen in profile, wearing a ribbed cardigan, as Bagenal leans in to listen.

Artworks:

  • "La coiffure (Fernande) (Étude)", 1906. Sotheby's London, 22.6.2004

    • Abbreviations: see Bibliography

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Filename:

pic580048.jpg

Photo Edward Quinn, © edwardquinn.com / © Succession Picasso / 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich
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