Following the Second World War, Picasso moved to a small industrial town called Vallauris in the Côte D’Azur situated between Cannes and Antibes. This was a particularly productive period of Picasso’s life where he ventured further into sculpture, especially in ceramics with the local Madoura workshop. His t.mes in Vallauris was spent among a wide social circle of creatives including poet Jean Cocteau and artist Edouard Pignon.

The present work is a vibrant portrait of Irène Rignault, who was in Picasso’s Vallauris circle around October 1953 and to whom the work is dedicated. Picasso also painted a large-scale portrait of Madame Rignault (fig. 1), later stolen from or sold by her mother, Madame Madeleine Roger, and employed her features on many of his silver and ceramic plates.

In the present work, Rignault is depicted in half-shadow, with a distinct contrast between the detailed, lit left half of her face, and the darker, more vague figuration on the right. On the left, Picasso exacts gentle sketches of brown, green and blue marking her eye, nose and lips, allowing the negative space of the paper to function as a light source highlighting the pale features around her cheek. Conversely, on the right side, Picasso employs a hard-edged outline around shades which give a vague delineation of her features, with her right eye nearly invisible. Irène is clad in a blouse executed in a patchwork of quick, zig-zag pink, blue and dark green lines, echoing the dynamic brown shading above her head. Taken together, the energetic application of media and corresponding use of the sheet itself focus Picasso's efforts on his subject’s face, whom he adorns with a soft, pleasant smile.

This drawing has been in the same Canadian private collects ion for four decades. This is its first appearance at public auction.