Head of Young Boy

Prints and Drawings

August 13–15, 1944

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973

Picasso executed this drawing in his Paris studio in 1944, when the city had become a battlefield during World War II. The subject has been identified as a young French resistance fighter who was active during the last days of the war.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Head of Young Boy
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.: 1944
Medium: Brush and black ink and gray wash, with scraping and touches of pen and black ink, on ivory wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated recto, lower right, in pen and brown ink: "Picasso (underlined) / 13-15 Août 44 Paris"
Dimensions: 50 × 28.8 cm (19 11/16 × 11 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Florene May Schoenborn
Reference Number: 2012.569
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

New York Times (October 8, 1951) (ill.).
Elizabeth McCausland, Picasso (New York, 1944), (detail ill.).
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso 14 (Paris, 1963), p. 20, no. 31 (ill).
William Rubin, Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (Greenwich, Conn., 1972), pp. 164 and 236 (ill.).
The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture: Nazi Occupation, 1940-1944 (San Francisco, 1999), p. 377, no. 44-153 (ill.).

New York, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, “Watercolors and Drawings by Picasso,” October 8–November 3, 1951, no. 23.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition,” May 22–September 8, 1957, p. 90 (ill.); also traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, October 29–December 8, 1957.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of his Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, and Illustrated Books,” January 8–February 23, 1958, cat. 217 (ill.).
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Museum Boymans, “Van Clouet tot Matisse: tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collectives,” July 31–September 28, 1958, pp. 143–144 and 205, cat. 222.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “French Drawings from American Collections, Clouet to Matisse,” February 3–March 15, 1959, pp. 142–143 and 205, cat. 222 (ill.).
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, “De Clout a Matisse: Dessins Français des Collection Américaines,” 1958–1959, cat. 222, pl. 221.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, “The School of Paris: Paintings from the Florene May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx Collection,” 1965, p. 27 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, February 11–March 27, 1966, the City Art Museum of St. Louis, April 26–June 13, 1966, the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, July 2–August 7, 1966, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, September 2–October 2, 1966.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso in Chicago,” February 3–March 31, 1968, pp. 58, 83, and 117, cat. 95 (ill.).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, long-term loan, 1990–1997.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago”, February 20-May 12, 2013, p. 79, cat. 174 (ill.), cat. by Stephanie d’Alessandro.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso: Drawing from Life”, November 11, 2023 - April 8, 2024.

Sold by the artist to Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, 1950 [invoice]; sold to Samuel Marx (1885–1964), Chicago, November 21, 1951 [invoice]; by descent to his wife, Florene May Schoenborn (1903–1995), New York and Chicago, from 1964; bequeathed by Florene M. Schoenborn to the Art Institute, 1997.

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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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