Pablo Picasso
The Foot Bath, 1960
Dated Brush and India Ink Drawing on Wove Paper
20.9 × 26.9 cm
8.2 × 10.6 in
8.2 × 10.6 in
The Foot Bath by Pablo Picasso takes a simple act—one figure washing another’s feet—and reduces it to a few decisive marks. Dated 26 January 1960, the drawing belongs to Picasso’s...
The Foot Bath by Pablo Picasso takes a simple act—one figure washing another’s feet—and reduces it to a few decisive marks. Dated 26 January 1960, the drawing belongs to Picasso’s final decade, when he was working with speed and confidence, using line to carry both structure and mood.
Two women occupy the space. One sits, contained and still, while the other leans forward to tend to her, the basin set between them. The composition is tight, built through curved lines that loop around the figures and lock them together. The standing figure’s neck and hair are drawn in long, continuous strokes, while the seated body is held in broader, heavier forms. There’s no excess detail—just enough to fix the gesture.
India ink suits this approach. The line moves between thin and heavy without correction, and areas of wash are used sparingly to give weight to the basin and lower half of the scene.
The subject isn’t incidental. Scenes of bathing, washing, or tending to the body run through Picasso’s work, often drawn from classical sources but reworked into something more immediate. By this point, he’s not referencing those traditions directly—he’s internalised them. The act becomes uncluttered, almost functional, but still loaded with intimacy.
There’s also a shift in tone. Earlier treatments of the female figure could be more confrontational or stylised; here the focus is on proximity and contact. The interaction is direct, without narrative framing, held entirely within the space of the drawing.
Working from La Californie, and later Mougins, Picasso was producing drawings like this in quick succession—testing how far he could reduce a scene without losing it. What emerges is controlled but not polished. You see the decisions as they happen.
The Foot Bath works because of that clarity. Two figures, one action, a few lines—enough to hold the relationship without overworking it.
For more information or to buy The Foot Bath by Pablo Picasso, contact our specialists using the enquiry button above.
Browse Picasso signed prints for sale, or enquire about selling Picasso prints.
Two women occupy the space. One sits, contained and still, while the other leans forward to tend to her, the basin set between them. The composition is tight, built through curved lines that loop around the figures and lock them together. The standing figure’s neck and hair are drawn in long, continuous strokes, while the seated body is held in broader, heavier forms. There’s no excess detail—just enough to fix the gesture.
India ink suits this approach. The line moves between thin and heavy without correction, and areas of wash are used sparingly to give weight to the basin and lower half of the scene.
The subject isn’t incidental. Scenes of bathing, washing, or tending to the body run through Picasso’s work, often drawn from classical sources but reworked into something more immediate. By this point, he’s not referencing those traditions directly—he’s internalised them. The act becomes uncluttered, almost functional, but still loaded with intimacy.
There’s also a shift in tone. Earlier treatments of the female figure could be more confrontational or stylised; here the focus is on proximity and contact. The interaction is direct, without narrative framing, held entirely within the space of the drawing.
Working from La Californie, and later Mougins, Picasso was producing drawings like this in quick succession—testing how far he could reduce a scene without losing it. What emerges is controlled but not polished. You see the decisions as they happen.
The Foot Bath works because of that clarity. Two figures, one action, a few lines—enough to hold the relationship without overworking it.
For more information or to buy The Foot Bath by Pablo Picasso, contact our specialists using the enquiry button above.
Browse Picasso signed prints for sale, or enquire about selling Picasso prints.
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