Nude in a Black Armchair

1932 painting by Pablo Picasso

Nude in a Black Armchair (French: Nu au Fauteuil Noir) is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. Painted on 9 March 1932, a time at which Picasso lived in Boisgeloup outside Paris, it is the first and largest of a series of paintings Picasso completed that year of his mistress Marie Thérèse Walter.

This painting presents a nude female reclining on a black chair. In the background, the light of the sun can be seen shining through a window, which is partially obscured by a leafy indoor plant. The image is an expression of the artist's love for his model, which is evident in the use of fluid lines and the balance of colours. The painting is a portrait of Marie Thérèse Walter, aged 22, who had been Picasso's mistress for the past five years. The art critic Richard Lacayo noted the influence of Henri Matisse in this painting, commenting that Picasso "borrowed Matisse's voluptuous curves as a sign for pleasure and his use of black to intensify pink."

Tate Modern exhibitions director Achim Borchardt Hume emphasised that Picasso's relationships with his wife and his mistress had direct influence on his artwork. He said, "You can’t talk about Picasso without talking about his wife and his lover." Picasso's 1932 portraits of Walter have been described as the "undisputed highlight" of Picasso's "year of wonders".

Former Museum of Modern Art curator William Rubin deemed it a "squishy sexual toy," and other critics have described a theme of fecundity being mutually displayed by both the female figure and the plant.