MAYORAL

Provenance
– Gilberte Duclaud Collection, Antibes
– Galerie Beyeler, Switzerland
– Private Collection, Germany
– Galerie Thomas, Munich
– Galerie Gómez Turu, Barcelona
– Private collection, Barcelona

Executed on 7 August 1957, La plage belongs to one of the most liberated and inventive periods of Pablo Picasso’s career.

At this time, the artist was living in the south of France, where the Mediterranean landscape, its light and scenes of leisure became central themes in his work. Beaches, bathers and outdoor figures recur frequently in his production of the 1950s, reflecting both his environment and his renewed pictorial freedom.

This small -scale work is distinguished by its intimate and spontaneous character.

Picasso combines oil paint with coloured pencil, deliberately blurring the boundaries between painting and drawing. The human figures, reduced to simplified, sketch -like silhouettes, inhabit a stylised seaside setting in which sand, sea and sky merge into a soft, luminous palette. A palm tree positioned on the right side of the composition evokes a Mediterranean atmosphere and reinforces the summery mood of the scene.

The composition favours suggestion over description. Forms are intentionally simplified, almost childlike, and the line remains free and vibrant, conveying the immediacy of the artist’s gesture. This economy of means lends the work a remarkable freshness and modernity, characteristic of Picasso’s late style, in which expression and visual rhythm take precedence over naturalistic representation.

La plage is dedicated to Gilberte Duclaud, a close acquaintance of Picasso during the 1950s.

Based in Antibes, Duclaud was a friend and collector of the artist, with whom she maintained personal relations during his stays on the Côte d’Azur. Several works from this period were gifted or dedicated to her, underscoring the private and personal nature of certain creations. The dedication on the reverse of the present work further enhances its intimate character.

The painting benefits from an excellent provenance, having remained in the collection of Gilberte Duclaud before passing through prestigious galleries, including Galerie Beyeler in Switzerland, and subsequently entering several European private collections.

Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Maya Widmaier -Picasso, La plage is a compelling example of Picasso’s Mediterranean compositions, combining spontaneity, poetry and modernity.

Through this work, Picasso once again demonstrates his extraordinary ability to renew his visual language, transforming an everyday seaside scene into a deeply personal and universal image, emblematic of the vitality of his late work.