Clara and Geneviève [Clara et Geneviève]

Born into a rich grain merchant family in Bulgaria and having succeeded as a satire painter early in his career, it is said that Pascin already had an air of a master when he came to Paris at the age of twenty in 1905, Having been exposed to avant-garde art such as Fauvism and Cubism, he established his own style of painting around 1920.
The themes of his paintings in the period of his maturity were mostly women, especially the prostitutes who roamed around Montmartre at night. He palely painted these women, who posed slovenly in their underwear, in light colors as if in a dream. One can sense the feeling of negligence that was neither weariness nor resignation over the paintings. A glimpse of a feeling of relief can even be felt at the end of resignation, and it is a feeling the painter himself felt strongly. Having won a reputation and wealth at an early age, Pascin could not believe his quick success, and devoted himself to dissipation every night as if to evade his anxiety. Leaving himself to the faint weariness of Intoxication in the dim white light of the morning that comes after a wild night of eccentricity, Pascin could not but feel the loneliness and emptiness of life.
(Source: Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998, p. 23)