Fourth exhibition around the work on paper
In April 1937 Dudensing presented Drawings, Gouaches and Pastels by Picasso, an exhibition of fifty-two works on paper many of which came from Paris dealer Pierre Colle.[i] The works ranged in date from 1906 to 1933 and within the month Dudensing sold almost half the show including fifteen to Chrysler.
That November—the month that symbolized the start of the art season in New York—the Valentine and Seligmann Galleries again both featured Picasso retrospectives. Though unplanned the shows complemented one another since the Seligmann show focused on the years 1903-23 while the Valentine focused on 1923-37.[ii] While it might seem hard to compete with the works from the Jacques Doucet collection on view at Seligmann, including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 (Z.IIa,18), Dudensing had an equally impressive group from the Guillaume collection with works ranging stylistically from Femme nue, 1907 (Z.IIa,35) to Grande nu à la draperie, 1923 (Z.IV.308). Predictably, Picasso’s latest output, such as Femme endormie of 1935 (Z.VIII,266), piqued public interest and this time Dudensing charged a quarter for admission in an attempt at crowd control.[iii]
[i] Valentine Dudensing Ledger Books, vol. 2: 1930-1939. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.
[ii] Coincidentally scheduled to open at the same time as the Seligmann Gallery show, the Valentine opening was postponed one week due to a delay with the shipment of the paintings from Paris. Edward Alden Jewell, “Picasso’s Pictures Placed on Display,” New York Times (November 2, 1937), 31L.
[iii] Bibi Dudensing, “Letters: From the Valentine Gallery,” Town and Country, 93, 4184 (January 1938), 98. Despite the entrance fee, Dudensing reported that 3,000 visitors had been in to see the show in the first three weeks. Letter from Dudensing to Alice Warder Garrett, dated “Tuesday” [November 23, 1937], Collection of the Evergreen House Foundation, Evergreen Museum & Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
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