Half-Length Female Nude

autumn 1906

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, active France, 1881–1973

From 1904 through 1906, Pablo Picasso moved away from the melancholic subjects of his Blue Period to the more optimistic themes of his Rose Period. In the summer of 1906, the artist traveled to the Catalan village of Gósol; upon his return to Paris that autumn, he painted Half-Length Female Nude. In stark contrast to the gaunt visage of The Old Guitarist, the angular, masklike qualities of the figure’s face reveal Picasso’s growing interest in ancient Iberian sculpture and non-Western art. In this way, the work anticipates his breakthrough to Cubism in 1907.

Status: On View, Gallery 391
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Half-Length Female Nude
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.: 1906
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, u.r.: "Picasso"
Dimensions: Canvas: 80.3 × 64.1 cm (31 5/8 × 25 1/4 in.); Panel: 81.6 × 65.4 cm (32 1/8 × 25 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Florene May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx
Reference Number: 1959.619
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Albert Sarraut, Variations sur la peinture contemporaine (Paris: Des Quatre Chemins, 1930), opp. p. 24 (ill.).
Waldemar George, La grande peinture contemporaine à la collection Paul Guillaume (Paris: Éditions des “Arts à Paris”, 1930) pp. 114 (ill.), 115, 189, as Buste de Jeune Fille.
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso I (Paris: Cahiers d’Art, 1932), p. 179, no. 374 (ill.), as Bust of a Woman,Valentine Gallery, Picasso: Retrospective Exhibition 1901–1934, exh. cat. (New York: Valentine Gallery, 1936), cat. 31.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Walter P. Chrysler Collection, exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1937), p. 5, cat. 18.
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Seven Centuries of Painting, exh. cat. (San Francisco: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1939), p. 54, cat. y-192.
Jean Cassou, Picasso, (Paris: Hyperion, 1940), p. 165, pl. 58.Arts Club of Chicago, Origins of Modern Art, exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago, 1940), cat. 68.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., exh. cat. (Richmond, Va.: Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), pp. 86, cat. 156 (ill.).
Joan Merli, Picasso (Buenos Aires: Editorial Poseidon, 1948), n.p., fig. 156, as Busto de Mujer.
Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée des Arts Decoratifs, 1955), cat. 13 (ill.).
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard, Picasso, trans. by Francis Scarfe (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1956), n.p. (ill.), as Nude.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 358, as Figure.
A. James Speyer, “Twentieth–Century European Paintings and Sculpture,” Apollo 84 (September 1966), p. 223 (ill.), as Bust of a Woman.
Lucy Lippard, The School of Paris: Paintings from the Florence May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1965), p. 16 (ill.).
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille, Picasso 1900-1906: catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint (Neuchâtel: Editions Ides et Calendes, 1966), p. 326, no. XVI.24 (ill.), as Buste de Femme Nu.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso in Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1968), p. 18, cat. 10 (ill.).
Sandra Grung, Supplement to Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1971), p. 87, as Bust of a Woman.
A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 62, no. 3C12.
Mary Matthews Gedo, “Art as Exorcism: Picasso’s ‘Demoiselles d’Avignon’,” Arts Magazine 55:2 (Oct. 1980) pp. 73 and 75, fig. 9, as Bust of a Woman.
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Vivent (1881–1907) (Barcelona: Ediciones Poligrafa, 1980), pp. 481 and 553, fig. 1396, as Tors de Dona Nua.
Marilyn McCully, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1909, exh. cat. (Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 1997), pp. 346–347, and 366, cat. 179 (ill.).
Enrique Mallen, The On-Line Picasso Project (http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/), no. 06:51 (ill.), as Buste de Femme.
Stephanie D’Alessandro, Picasso and Chicago: 100 Years, 100 Works (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), p. 42, pl. 14.
Manuel Segade, Eugenio Carmona, and Pablo Salazar, Picasso 1906: The Turning Point, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2024), 234, 235 (color ill.), 281.

Paris, Galerie Bernheim–Jeune, Collection Paul Guillaume, May 25–June 27, 1929.
New York, Valentine [Dudensing] Gallery, Picasso: Retrospective Exhibition 1901–1934, (alt. title Picasso 1901–1934), Oct. 26–Nov. 21, 1936, cat. 31, as Buste de Femme, 1907–8.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Walter P. Chrysler Collection, Oct. 1937, cat. 18, as Buste de femme–jeune fille.
San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Seven Centuries of Painting, Dec. 29, 1939–Jan. 28, 1940, cat. y-192, as Portrait of a Woman.
Arts Club of Chicago, Origins of Modern Art, Apr. 2–30, 1940, cat. 68, as Portrait of a Woman.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., Jan. 16–Mar. 4, 1941, cat. 156, as Buste de Femme; Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 29–May 11, 1941.
Paris, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Picasso: Peintures 1900–1955, June–Oct. 1955, cat. 13, as Buste de femme nu.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, The School of Paris: Paintings from the Florence May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx Collection, Nov. 1, 1965–Jan.2, 1966, no cat. no., as Bust of a Woman; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 11–Mar. 27, 1966; St. Louis, City Art Museum of St. Louis, Apr. 27–June 13, 1966; Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, July 2–Aug. 7, 1966; San Francisco, Museum of Art, Sept. 2–Oct. 2, 1966.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso in Chicago, Feb. 3–Mar. 31, 1968, cat. 10, as Bust of Woman.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Frames: Selected European Frames from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 17–Dec. 14, 1986.
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1909, Mar. 30–July 27, 1997, cat. 179, as Bust of a Woman; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Sept. 10, 1997–Jan. 4, 1998.
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892–1909, Mar. 30–July 27, 1997, cat. 152, as Girl with a Pitcher; traveled to Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Sept. 10, 1997–Jan. 4, 1998.
Bergen, Kunstmuseum, Picasso: Figure and Image, Feb. 1–June 1, 2008, no cat. no.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso and Chicago, Feb. 20–May 12, 2013, cat. 29.
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Picasso 1906: The Turning Point, Nov. 15, 2023-Mar. 4, 2024, no cat. no.

Paul Guillaume (1891–1934), Paris, by June 1929 [Sarraut 1930]. Valentine-Dudensing Gallery, New York, by 1936; sold to Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. (1909–1988), New York and Warrenton, Va., by Oct. 1937 [Detroit 1937; letter from William Mayglothling, Sept. 24, 1975; copy in curatorial file]; sold, Sotheby Parke–Bernet, New York, Mar, 22, 1945, Chrysler sale, lot 97, to Jacques Helft, Paris and Buenos Aires [this and the following, according to letter from Jacques Helft, Oct. 29, 1975; copy in curatorial file]; on consignment to Allen Loeb, Paris, c. 1946–1955. Floren Schoenborn (1903–1995) and Samuel A. Marx (1885–1964), Chicago and New York, from 1955 [New York 1966]; given to the Art Institute, 1959.

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