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Les Tragediennes
Oil on Board
45" x 64"
1931/32

Les Tragediennes or L’Adieu (The Goodbye) or Le Depart (The Departure), oil on board, 45” x 64”, was painted for Fini’s first solo exhibition at the Galerie Jacques Bonjean in Paris during November and December of 1932. This was a period of transition for Fini as she searched for her own visual voice.

At this time, the most successful living artist was Pablo Picasso. Particularly noting the lower extremities of the woman seated at left one can see his influence on Fini. The colors are from Picasso’s Blue and Pink periods and the loose laying of the paint echoes some of the more accessible of his works. I have been known to refer to the painting as being from her ‘Picasso Period.’

As an aside, apropos to Picasso, Julien Levy, the American art dealer who introduced Surrealism to the United States, tells a story in his autobiography of something that happened when he was introduced by Fini to Picasso. At a sidewalk cafe where they met, Picasso, while explaining his thoughts on putting two eyes on one side of a profile, drew on a paper napkin. Fini took it from Picasso’s hand; looked and crumpled it up with the eloquent phrase, “Pourqoi tu toujours fait le même merde?” (“Why do you always do the same crap?”). She proceeded to fling it into the gutter. According to Levy, as much as he wanted to, he refrained from rescuing it. Picasso’s reaction is not noted in Levy’s telling of the tale. One would hope he laughed.