The Women of Algiers (Version O), 1955

@Private collection

Pablo Picasso was a passionate student of the grand tradition of European painting; he pitted himself ferociously against the great masters of European painting in a dialogue that lasted his entire life, taking up their artistic concerns and making audacious responses of his own. El Greco, Velázquez and Goya were of crucial importance to Picasso, as was Eugène Delacroix and in particular Delacroix’ 1834 work Women of Algiers in their Apartment.

This 1834 painting, which depicted Algerian concubines in their harem with a hookah used to smoke hashish or opium, was known, in the 19th century, for its sexual content and its orientalism. After Delacroix’s death in 1874, the painting was moved to the Louvre, which is where Picasso would visit it.

‘He had often spoken to me of making his own version of The Women of Algiers,’ Françoise Gilot wrote in her 1964 book, ‘and had taken me to the Louvre on an average of once a month to study it. I asked him how he felt about Delacroix. His eyes narrowed and he said, “That bastard. He’s really good.”’

In addition to taking on Delacroix, Picasso had also conceived the series as an elegy to his friend and great artistic rival, Matisse, who died five weeks before he began the series in 1954. Matisse had viewed Delacroix as his immediate forebear in terms of color and oriental subject matter. ‘When Matisse died he left his odalisques to me as a legacy,’ Picasso stated.

The Women of Algiers (Version O) is a phenomenon. This vast canvas is packed with references to Cubism, fractured or flat perspectives, violent color clashes, and the brilliant syntheses of Picasso’s lifelong obsessions, all referenced together as a savage response to the Delacroix work and echoing Matisse in a maelstrom of color and shattered and flattened perspectives. In the process, Picasso created a new style of painting.

🔗: bit.ly/womenalgierso

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