Bather with Balloon

«The subject of Woman in Gray and Black [Bather with Balloon] and of many of the artist’s drawings done during the summer of 1929 is a bather with a beach ball. A photograph Picasso took of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter holding a beach ball suggests that she was the inspiration [1]. Although Picasso was vacationing with his wife and son in Dinard, Marie-Thérèse was also staying in the town.

Unknown photographer. Marie-Thérèse Walter, Juan-Les-Pins, July 27, 1932. Archives Maya Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso © Archives Maya Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso

This was the largest painting that Picasso did at Dinard that year. The upraised head of the bather at the upper left is balanced by an outstretched arm and a huge han dat the right. Her other hand grasps the ball on the sand below. In the smaller of two drawings related to the composition, picasso used strong, black hatching lines to give the figure volume. However, in the painting the overall tonality of black and gray merges the figure with the space around her.

The choice of this rock-like palette may may well reflect the artist’s fascination with the dolmens and menhirs he had discovered on a visit in August (1929) to his friednd Max Jacob in Quimper, on Brittany’s Atlantic coast. At the same time, he had the exemple of the rocky cliffs along the beach at Dinard itself. Both sources suggest that the artist may have considered transformin his monumental bather with a beach ball into sculpture. In a sketchbook that Picasso had with him at Dinard, he did several drawings related to the present work on 16 September [2]. Either they were made as a record of the painting in progress or they were done once he had finished. The closeness of the sketches to the painting suggests the latter» [3].

Pablo Picasso. Woman (Carnet Dinard). Dinard, September 17, 1929. Private collection © All rights reserved © Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2024

[1] Reproduced in BALDASSARI, Anne (dir). Picasso and Photography. [Cat. Exp.: Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), 1997]. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997, p. 195.
[2] See the sketchbook drawing dated 16 September 1929 (reproduced in RUIZ-PICASSO, Bernard; Marta-Volga de Minteguiaga-Guezala and Marilyn McCully (dirs.) Picasso in Istanbul. [Cat. Exp.: Sakip Sabanci Museum (Istanbul), 2006]. Istanbul: Sakip Sabanci Museum, p. 176).
[3] BOIS, Yve-Alain (dir.). Picasso Harlequin. [Cat. Exp.: Complesso del Vittoriano (Roma), 2008]. Milan: Skira, 2008, p. 190-191