The Woman Seated Here In A Bentwood Rocking Chair Is Jacqueline Roque, Pablo Picasso’s Mistress And Later, Wife. Editorial Image

The woman seated here in a bentwood rocking chair is Jacqueline Roque, Pablo Picasso’s mistress and later, wife. An abstracted easel and canvas adjacent to her bisect this image. The painting depicts Picasso’s studio at La Californie, a villa in southern France where the couple lived from 1955 to 1961. The artist represented Jacqueline’s face in both frontal and profile views. A single staring oval eye lends the picture an unsettling, dream-like quality, suggesting the continuing influence of Surrealism in Picasso’s work of the 1950s.