In Marie-Thérèse agenouillée, modèle contemplant un groupe sculpté, Pablo Picasso blends classical form, personal intimacy, and narrative complexity in a single, elegant line drawing. Created in 1933 at the height of his fascination with Marie-Thérèse Walter, this work captures the artist’s muse not in action, but in reflection - kneeling serenely before a monumental sculptural relief.

On the left, Marie-Thérèse is portrayed in profile, her figure simplified into flowing, monumental curves. She kneels with a calm gaze, her body echoing the timeless grace of Greek statuary. Before her rises a dramatic sculptural scene: a muscular youth, nude and idealized, battles or embraces a rearing horse amid a swarm of ethereal figures. The relief pulsates with energy and narrative tension, in stark contrast to the stillness of the foreground.

This juxtaposition between the living model and the carved myth points to Picasso’s fascination with the act of creation, with the relationship between artist, muse, and the art object. Marie-Thérèse becomes not only an observer but a symbolic stand-in for the artist himself- contemplating passion, struggle, and transformation through art.

Executed in an exquisite, spare line, the drawing carries a balance of clarity and richness. Picasso offers us not only a scene, but a meditation: on beauty, myth, the role of the muse, and the eternal dance between life and art.

Printed by Lacouriere, Paris in 1939
Published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris in 1939