Catherine Millet on Picasso's 'Two Women Running on the Beach' at Lyon

Catherine Millet's essay for artpress revisits Pablo Picasso's 1922 painting 'Deux femmes courant sur la plage (La Course)', on view at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in the exhibition 'Picasso, Baigneuses et Baigneurs' (originally scheduled until January 3, 2021, pending reopening). Millet confesses initial fatigue with the proliferation of Picasso exhibitions but was drawn to this small work (32 x 41 cm) for its monumental figures. She notes the painting's granite setting, the Greek temple-like triangle formed by the women's hands, and the ecstatic profile and broken neck of the left figure—borrowed from Ingres's Thetis and Angélique. The work also evokes Poussin's sleeping, intoxicated women, though Picasso's figure has an open eye and slightly open mouth. Millet highlights the exhibition's exceptional reunion of three 'stone bathers' from 1937, held by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Musée Picasso Paris, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. The show includes photographs, works by other artists (including two Francis Bacons), and a thematic catalogue. A second episode will follow next week.