Portrait of Nusch Éluard

May 1941

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973

Nusch Éluard, wife of Paul Éluard, the French poet, collector, and champion of Surrealism, posed for Picasso many times. These depictions of Nusch, as well as their close relationship, led to rumors that the two were having an affair. Indeed, Paul was thought to have blessed and even encouraged the liaison as a way of symbolizing his love for both of them.

In this drawing of Nusch, the sitter is elegantly dressed and formally presented—she is erect and dignified. Her self-possession is emphasized by the constraints of her jacket. Of all Picasso’s portraits of Nusch, this is the most indebted to a realist vocabulary and the truest to the sitter’s beauty.

Status: On View, Gallery 126
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Portrait of Nusch Éluard
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1941
Medium: Graphite, with stumping and touches of scraping and incising, on cream wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed, dated, and dedicated, recto, lower center, in blue pencil: "Pour Nusch/Paris Mai 41/ Picasso" (underlined)
Dimensions: 36.9 × 26.2 cm (14 9/16 × 10 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.1001
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Paul Eluard, A Pablo Picasso (Geneva, 1945), p. 150 (ill.).
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Œuvres de 1940 à 1941 XI (Paris, 1961), p. 51, cat. 122 (ill.).
The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, a comprehensive illustrated catalogue 1885 – 1973, Nazi Occupation, 194 –1944 (San Francisco, 1999), p. 13, cat. 41-022 (ill.).
Suzanne Folds McCullagh (ed.), Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), pp. 146 and 200, cat. 148 (ill.).
Art Institute, News and Events (May/June 2006), cover (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, pp. 146 and 200, cat. 148 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago,” Feb. 20-May 12, 2013, p. 79, cat. 170 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” Mar. 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

The artist to Nusch Éluard (1907–1946). Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Nov. 9, 1995, lot 261, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

Zervos 122

Picasso Project 41-022

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