Picasso’s Le Rêve (The Dream): erotic and primal
The painter’s mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, was is his muse in this libidinous portrait of sexual desire and expression
9 march 2018
Dream Lover
Le Rêve shows the 50-year-old Picasso’s 22-year-old mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, in erotic reverie. Half her head appears to be a penis; her hands form a vagina. It’s a primal painting and a blissful one, with its simplified forms, lush colours and dancing patterns.
Off the wall
It is at least as famous, though, for what was happening behind the scenes as what’s on the canvas. Part of a series of libidinally charged, crowd-pleasing paintings of his lover, creative competition was as big a motivator for Picasso as sex.
A quick one
Picasso turned some of these canvases out in as little as five hours, determined to make a hit retrospective in 1932 to trump that of Matisse’s the previous year. This is designed to announce his artistic virility, as much as anything else.
Rip it up
Le Rêve has made headlines a few times. Having secured a $139m sale to collector Steven Cohen in 2006, its then owner, Steve Wynn, put his elbow through it. After a pricey restoration and insurance claim, Cohen eventually bought Le Rêve in 2013 for $155m.
Part of Picasso, 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy, Tate Modern, SE1, to 9 Septemb
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