Woman Standing with One Arm behind Her Head

Prints and Drawings

1922

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973

Scholars have long thought that this drawing depicts Picasso’s first wife, the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova (1891–1955). Drawn the year after the birth of their son Paulo, the robed figure appears as if she is a statue come to life. Although the two remained married until Khokhlova’s death in 1955, they separated in 1935 because of Picasso’s infidelities.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Woman Standing with One Arm behind Her Head
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1922
Medium: Graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions: 34.3 × 23.9 cm (13 9/16 × 9 7/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Gecht Family
Reference Number: 2015.275
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso 30 (Paris, 1975), p. 116, no. 362 (ill.), as Femme Debout, un Bras Derriere la Tete.
Werner Spies, Picasso: Pastelle, Zeichnungen, Aquarelle, exh. cat. (Tubingen, Germany, 1986), cat. 103 (ill.).
New York, Pace Wildenstein, Picasso and Drawing, exh. cat. (New York, 1995), cat. 35 (ill.).
The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885-1973: Neoclasssicism II 1922-1924 (San Francisco, 1996), no. 22-165 (ill.), as Woman Standing wit One Arm Behind her Head.
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Dels Ballets al Drama (1917–1926) (Barcelona, 1999), pp. 338 and 515, no. 1255 (ill.), as Dona en Actitud Teatral.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago, 2003), pp. 134–135, cat. 110 (ill.).

Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Master Drawings by Picasso, 1981, hors cat.; shown only at The Art Institute of Chicago, April 29–June 14, 1981.
Kunsthalle Tubingen, Picasso: Pastelle, Zeichnungen, Aquarelle, April 5–May 25, 1986, cat. 103 (ill.), as Portrait Olga; also traveled to the Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, June 6–July 27, 1986.
New York, Pace Wildenstein, Picasso and Drawing April 28–June 2, 1995, cat. 35 (ill.), as Standing Woman (Olga).
Art Institute of Chicago, Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago, November 15, 2003–January 11, 2004, cat. 110 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago”, February 20-May 12, 2013, p. 62, cat. 74 (ill.), cat. by Stephanie d’Alessandro.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso: Drawing from Life”, November 11, 2023 - April 8, 2024.

Estate of the artist [according to authentication from Bernard Ruiz-Picasso]. Bernard Ruiz-Picasso [according to authentication Ruiz-Picasso]. Claude Bernard, Paris [label on back of photograph]. Sold by B.C. Holland, Chicago, to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Gecht, Chicago, 1981.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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