Yvon Helft

French, second quarter 20th century

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Shown from the chest up, a young woman with peach-colored skin standing angled to our left takes up right two-thirds of this vertical portrait painting. Her blond hair is accentuated with strokes of tawny brown and gathered at the back of her head. A long tendril cascades down her back. She is lit from the upper left, which casts the back of her head in shadow. Her eyes are downcast, and her long nose and small mouth are set in a round face. She wears an almost sheer white, sleeveless dress with a low scooped neckline. A background painted with long streaks of fawn brown and tan fills the space behind her. The artist signed and dated in the upper right, “Picasso 22.”
Pablo Picasso, Classical Head, 1922, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.189

Classical Head

Pablo Picasso · 1922 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.189

A nude boy or young man sits on a gray box and hunches over his foot, next to a second nude boy who stands facing us in this loosely painted, vertical scene. Both boys have light skin with a yellow cast, and their bodies are outlined with delicate brown lines. They both have short-cropped brown hair, and their facial features are sketched in with brown paint. To our left, the boy sitting on the box looks down at his right foot, on our left, which he holds up on the box with both hands. Next to him, the second boy stands with his arms down by his sides and he looks off into the distance to our right. The room is undefined but has a pale, rust-red floor. Behind them, a terracotta-red urn and jug sit on a platform, possibly in a niche in the silvery-gray wall. Brushstrokes are visible throughout. The artist signed the painting in red letters in the upper left corner: “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Two Youths, 1906, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.197

Two Youths

Pablo Picasso · 1906 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.197