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).

Pablo Picasso sits at a table at the restaurant Chez Félix in Cannes, 1958. He holds his 1906 drawing, "La coiffure (Fernande) (Étude)", which had been brought to the lunch by its owner, Barbara Bagenal, and the critic Clive Bell. Upon seeing the unsigned work, Picasso exclaimed, “Dieu que c'est beau,” before confirming its date and adding his contemporary signature. With a thoughtful expression, the artist, dressed in a dark cardigan, examines the piece amidst the wine glasses and plates of the social gathering.

Artworks:

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

    • Abbreviations: see Bibliography

Keywords:

Drinks

Filename:

pic580047.jpg

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