![Pablo Picasso - Jeune Fille Endormie [1935] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3673/12630294775_108dc0f95b.jpg)
Pablo Picasso's lyrical portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter from the first half of the 1930s are considered one of the greatest pinnacles of his career, and by extension, of modern art. Completed and signed on 3 February 1935, Jeune Fille Endormie shows Marie-Thérèse sleeping, the theme of the most lyrical of these portraits. That intimacy is driven home by the composition, which is tightly focussed on the sleeper's head: it dominates the canvas, appearing only slightly larger than life size, giving a sense of the artist's highly subjective perspective while gazing upon his sleeping lover. Picasso plunges his viewer into his own charmed world. The swooping, sinuous lines convey a rich sensuality, with the artist himself vicariously enjoying the curves of her body by extension, through the proxy of his paintbrush. This is lent all the more impact by the rich, glowing colours that suffuse this canvas, an incandescent palette that is itself celebratory. This reveals Picasso's romance not only with Marie-Thérèse but also with colour itself, as the intense colours sing on the canvas with their vivacious intensity - they seem not merely to glow, but to burn.
[Private Collection - Oil on canvas, 46.3 x 55 cm]