Woman Reclining on a Sofa

The son of a prosperous Bulgarian-Jewish corn merchant, Pascin (originally Pincas) studied art in Munich and established his reputation with skilled satirical drawings. In 1905 he moved to Paris, where he became friendly with George Grosz, Rudolf Grossman, and other artists from Munich. In 1913 his work was exhibited in the groundbreaking Armory Show, and the following year he himself traveled to the United States. Before returning to Paris in 1920, he traveled around the southern US; later he also visited North Africa. It was not the sites, the monuments, or the museums that interested him-it was the people. Pascin's work shares Toulouse-Lautrec's liveliness, as well as his preoccupation with women. The reclining woman in our drawing exists in two versions in the Israel Museum's collection, a pastel and this charcoal rendition. Typical of the sensuous depictions of women for which Pascin is best known, it exemplifies his mature work, in which he assimilated the planar modeling of Cezanne and the contours of Expressionism. Bathing the model in a mellow light and conveying an atmosphere of soft sensuality, he depicts a young, already broken or trapped woman in a rather staged pose. The Israel Museum has approximately one hundred oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Jules Pascin, representing nearly every period and medium of his oeuvre and constituting the most important museum collection of his works on paper.