Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Femme dans un fauteuil

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Femme dans un fauteuil
signed and dated 'Picasso 19.4.56.' (lower left); numbered 'II' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39 3/8 x 31 7/8 in. (99.9 x 81 cm.)
Painted in Cannes, 19 April 1956

Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris.
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Cooper, Los Angeles (circa 1957).
Private collection, Los Angeles (by descent from the above).
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 9 October 1985.

THE ESTHER B. FERGUSON COLLECTION: A LEGACY OF ART AND PATRONAGE

For the passionate collector, fine art serves as a source of continual insight, inspiring those who seek to surround themselves with artistic expression. So it is for Esther Ferguson, a woman whose life has been tremendously enriched by her assemblage of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper. For Mrs. Ferguson, collecting reflects a simple belief in the power of scholarship and beauty?a chance to make a lasting connection with the creative vision of artists past and present. ?Living with art is life for me,? she says. ?I need to live surrounded by art.?
A native of Hartsville, South Carolina, Esther Baskin Moore forever dreamed of a grander, more adventurous life. ?I had the desire to see the outside world and to see the world of art,? she said of her decision to move to New York City as a young woman. ?I was scared,? she admitted. ?Women didn?t do that sort of thing back then.? The future collector made frequent trips to museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she sat in on educational lectures. ?I remember walking out of a [Met] lecture,? she recalled, ?and sitting down to cry because I?d learned so much about the world, and because I realized how much more there was to learn.? Moved by the richness and beauty of the art historical canon, Mrs. Ferguson made a point of discovering art at every opportunity. ?Attending those lectures,? she said, ?kept me going throughout the week.? The collector went on to study political science and the history of art at the University of South Carolina. After returning to New York, she met the prominent businessman James Ferguson, chairman of General Foods; in 1981, the couple were married.
When James Ferguson retired in 1989, the couple relocated to Charleston, where Mrs. Ferguson oversaw the careful restoration of their magnificent James Island residence, Secessionville Manor. ?I grew up on the lakes in the Midwest,? Mr. Ferguson wrote, ?but, for reasons I can?t quite understand, I always yearned to live on a salt marsh near the ocean. And here was a... distinctive, historic home on the most beautiful salt marsh I had ever seen. The combination of circumstances was incendiary.? Built in 1837 in the Greek Revival style, the elegant Secessionville Manor had variously served as a private residence, a hospital for Civil War soldiers, and a home to a small community of freedmen after the war. ?When we first had the house,? Mrs. Ferguson told an interviewer, ?we were highly conscious of it as something for which we were stewards more than anything else.? The collector restored Secessionville Manor to reflect its roots in Southern history, preserving unique features such as graffiti from the Civil War period. ?It has become a prized possession,? Mr. Ferguson noted, ?and a magical home.?
Much of the ?magic? of Secessionville Manor comes from Esther Ferguson?s notable collection of fine art, the culmination of many years spent honing connoisseurship. Her first major acquisition, a portrait by Pablo Picasso, was followed by paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Auguste Rodin, Barbara Hepworth, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, Paul Gauguin, Milton Avery, and Fernand Léger. The collection reflects a boundless enthusiasm for the creative process, and a desire to live each day surrounded by works of history and importance. Indeed, the vibrant mise-en-scène at Secessionville Manor is a special showcase for Mrs. Ferguson?s spirited élan and dedication to learning. Her Picasso portrait hung upon a wall painted a rich red hue, chosen ?so that when you come in,? the collector explained, ?the art jumps off the walls.? Upon learning of her home?s association with the freedmen community, Mrs. Ferguson acquired a stirring grouping of works depicting sharecroppers by nineteenth-century artist William Aiken Walker.
Esther Ferguson?s passion for art, culture, and community extends from the city of Charleston to the wider world. She is the founder of the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University, and has served on the boards of the Charleston Symphony, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Young Concert Artists, and the Spoleto Festival USA. The College of Charleston is a particular focus: Mrs. Ferguson has provided financial support and leadership to the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture, as well as the renowned International Piano Series. In 1996, the Fergusons donated two of their historic homes in Trujillo, Spain, to create a dynamic new study abroad program for College of Charleston students and faculty.
Today, Esther Ferguson maintains her longtime commitment as a board member of Charleston?s Gibbes Museum of Art. In 2010, she lent her private collection to the museum for the exhibition Modern Masters from the Ferguson Collection, allowing visitors the opportunity to experience the wonder and beauty with which she lived at Secessionville Manor. To mark the exhibition?s opening, Mrs. Ferguson invited the artist Christo to speak in Charleston, a lecture so enthusiastically received that the collector began funding an ongoing series of conversations with noteworthy luminaries such as Philippe de Montebello, Leonard Lauder, Jeff Koons, Tod Williams, and Billy Tsien. For Mrs. Ferguson, the Gibbes?s Distinguished Lecture Series is an especially poignant reminder of her own journey in fine art: from lectures at the Met Museum to a life collecting art and sharing it with others. ?I measure in large part my life by my love of art,? Mrs. Ferguson says. ?It was thanks to my collecting that I met and got to know many of the people who make a great difference in the world. It is through the world of art that I met people who touched me the most.?
From her home in Charleston, Esther Ferguson continues the vision of art and philanthropy for which she is celebrated. As her collection passes to a new generation of collectors and connoisseurs, it remains indelibly linked with the legacy of this remarkable woman. ?I have lived with the art of some of the great masters,? she says. ?I loved and nurtured these objects while they were in my care.?

THE ESTHER B. FERGUSON COLLECTION: A LEGACY OF ART AND PATRONAGE