Nessus and Deianira

Prints and Drawings

September 22, 1920

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973

Picasso first used a specific subject from Classical mythology during his stay in the French town of Juanles- Pins between September 11 and September 22, 1920, when he made a series of six drawings based on the Greek myth of Nessus and Deianira. Recounted in the ninth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the story centers on the abduction of Hercules’ s bride, Deianira, by the centaur Nessus, who had promised to ferry her across a river. In this drawing, we see the climax of the story, when the struggling woman is about to be raped by her abductor.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Nessus and Deianira
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.: 1920
Medium: Graphite on tan wove paper, prepared with a white ground
Inscriptions: Signed recto, upper left, in pen and blue ink: "Picasso" (underlined); inscribed upper left, in graphite: "22-9-20"
Dimensions: 21.5 × 27 cm (8 1/2 × 10 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: Clarence Buckingham Collection
Reference Number: 1965.783
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso VI (Paris:, 1954), no. 1395, p. 166 (ill.).
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard, Picasso (Paris, 1955), p. 133 (ill.), as Centaure Enlevant une Femme.
Maurice Jardot, Pablo Picasso Drawings (New York, 1959), no. 54, p. 155 (ill.).
Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), p. 130, fig. 237a.
Pierre Daix, Picasso (Paris, 1964), pp. 117 and 118 (ill.), as The Rape.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), p. 170 (ill.).
Mike and Nancy Samuels, Seeing with the Mind’s Eye: The History, Techniques and Uses of Visualization (New York, 1975), p. 180 (ill.).
Joseph Meder, The Mastery of Drawing, trans. and revised by Winslow Ames (New York, 1978), pp. 75, 205, and 290, no. 297 (ill.).
Jean Leymarie, Geneviève Monnier and Bernice Rose, Drawing (New York, 1979), p. 232 (ill.).
Mary Matthews Gedo, Picasso: Art as Autobiography (Chicago, 1980), pp. 120 and 121 (ill.).
Alan G. Artner, “Drawings of Picasso on View at Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune (May 10, 1981).
David Elliot, “Mysterious mastery of Picasso—again,” Chicago Sun Times (May 17, 1981), p. 22 (ill.).
Picasso: Opera dal 1895 al 1971 dalla Collezione Marina Picasso (Florence, 1981), p. 52, fig. 3.
Sebastian Goeppert and Herma C. Goeppert-Frank, Die Minotauromachie von Pablo Picasso (Genf, 1987), p. 19 (ill.).
The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973, Neoclassicism I 1920-–1921 (San Francisco, 1995), p. 133, no. 20-429 (ill.).
Jean Clair, Picasso et le Voyage d’Italie (Paris, 1998), p. 283, cat. 211 (ill.).
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Dels Ballets al Drama (1917–1926) (Barcelona, 1999), pp. 231 and 507, no. 850 (ill.).
Elizabeth Cowling, Picasso: Style and Meaning (London, 2002), pp. 406, 407, and 408, no. 362 (ill.).
Christopher Lloyd, Picasso and the Art of Drawing (London, 2018), pp. 122-23 and 147-48, pl. 85.
Enrique Mallen, The On-Line Picasso Project (http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/), no. 20:03 (ill.).

New York, Curt Valentin Gallery, “Pablo Picasso 1920–25,” September 22–October 18, 1952, cat. 14, as The Centaur Nessus.
New York, Schaeffer Gallery, “Contemporary Spanish Painting,” January 19–February 6, 1953, cat. 40 (ill.); traveled to Barnard College.
New York, Galerie Chalette, “Picasso - The Woman,” April 16–May 19, 1956, cat. 10 (ill.).
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition,” May 22–September 8, 1957, p. 51 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, October 29–December 8, 1957.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Picasso,” January 8–February 23, 1958, cat. 95 (ill.).
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Museum Boymans, “Van Clouet tot Matisse: tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collectives,” July 31–September 28, 1958, pp. 142 and 204, cat. 219 (ill.).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “French Drawings from American Collections, Clouet to Matisse,” February 3–March 15, 1959, p. 141, cat. 219 (ill.).
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, “De Clout a Matisse: Dessins Français des Collection Américaines, 1958–1959,” cat. 219 (ill.).
Poughkeepsie, NY, Vassar College, “Centennial Loan Exhibition,” 1961, cat. 124 (ill.).
Fort Worth, Tex. and Dallas, Tex., The Fort Worth Art Center and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, “Picasso,” February 8–March 26, 1967, p. 103, cat. 178 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso in Chicago,” February 3–March 31, 1968, pp. 57, 75, and 116–117, cat. 82 (ill.).
New York, Marlborough Gallery, “Homage to Picasso,” October 1971, cat. 29 (ill.).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Dessins Français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso,” October 15, 1976–January 17, 1977, cat. 81 (ill.).
Frankfort am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie in Städelschen Kunstinstiutut, “Franzöische Zeichnungen aus de Art Institute of Chicago,” February 10–April 10, 1977, pp. 180–181, cat. 87 (ill.).
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective,” May 1–September 16, 1980, p. 226 (ill.).
Cambridge, Fogg Museum of Art, “Master Drawings by Picasso,” February 20–April 5, 1981, pp. 162–163, cat. 65 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, April 29–June 14, 1981 and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, July 11–August 23, 1981.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Master Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958–1983,” July 24–September 30, 1985, pp. 204–205, cat. 95 (ill.).
Tubingen, Germany, Kunsthalle Tubingen, “Picasso,” April 5–May 25, 1986, cat. 105 (ill.); traveled to the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.
New York, Pace Gallery, “Je suis le cahier: The Sketchbooks of Pablo Picasso,” 1986, hors cat.; shown only at The Art Institute of Chicago, July 10–August 23, l987.
Stockholm Moderna Museet, “Pablo Picasso,” October 15, 1988–January 8, 1989, cat. 187 (ill.).
Paris, Musée Picasso, “Picasso et le Voyage d’Italie,” March 14–July 12, 1998, cat. 211 (ill.); traveled to the Palazzo Grassi, Venice.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago”, February 20-May 12, 2013, p. 62, cat. 68 (ill.), cat. by Stephanie d’Alessandro.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso: Drawing from Life”, November 11, 2023 - April 8, 2024.

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris [according to Cambridge 1981]. Curt Valentin (1902–1954), New York, by Sept. 1952 [New York 1952]. Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908–1979), New York, 1952-at least 1958 [according to New York 1959; Philadelphia 1958]. Sold by Eugene V. Thaw (born 1927), New York, to the Art Institute, 1965.

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