Head of a Woman

Prints and Drawings

spring 1909

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973

This remarkable drawing, likely modeled on Fernande Olivier, shows how Picasso approached the human head as a group of faceted planes as if it were a sculpture in two dimensions. Instead of delineating her face as a portrait likeness, the artist formed her cheeks, eye sockets, nose, and hair out of geometric shapes that reflect light and shadow in earth tones of beige, brown, and black.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Head of a Woman
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.: 1909
Medium: Gouache, watercolor, and black and ochre chalks, manipulated with stump and wet brush, on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed verso, upper left, in graphite: "Picasso / 09"
Dimensions: 62.5 × 48 cm (24 5/8 × 18 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Edward E. Ayer Endowment Fund in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1945.136
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso II (Paris, 1940), p. 72, no. 140 (ill.).
Joan Merli, Picasso (Buenos Aires, 1942), p. 265 (ill.).
Paul Eluard, A Pablo Picasso (Geneva, 1945), p. 121 (ill.).
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art (New York, 1946), p. 280.
Carl Schniewind, “Chicago Reveals Its Master Portfolio,” ArtNews XLV:1 (March 1946) (ill.).
“Drawings in Chicago,” The Art Digest 20:12 (March 15, 1946), p. 12.
Joan Merli, Picasso (Buenos Aires, 1948), fig. 176.
Jean Cassou and Philippe Jaccottet, Le Dessin Français au XXe Siecle (Lausanne, 1951), p. 183, pl. 82 (ill.).
Anthony Bertram, Picasso (The World’s Masters—New Series) (London: The Studio Publications, 1951), pl. 10.
Paul Sachs, Modern Prints and Drawings (New York, 1954), p. 100, pl. 89 (ill.).
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard, Picasso (Paris, 1955), p. 60 (ill.).
Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 126-127, fig. 231 (ill.).
Alberto Martini, Picasso, Part I (I maestri del colore, 56) (Milan, 1965), n. p. (ill.).
H. H. Arnason, History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture (New York, 1968), pp. 125 and 126, fig. 206.
William Rubin, Pablo Picasso in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1972), p. 14 (ill.).
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, L’opera completa di Picasso cubista (Milan: Rizzoli, 1972), pp. 98–99, no. 232 (ill.).
Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900–1916, Selected Catalogue Documentation, 2 vols. (Munich, 1974), I: 180 and 245, fig. 628 and 1208, II: 424, 458, 582, and 664.
Guy Hubbard and Mary J. Rouse, Art: Choosing and Expressing (Westchester, Ill., 1977), p. 195 (ill.).
Jean Leymarie, Geneviève Monnier, and Bernice Rose, History of an Art: Drawing (New York, 1979), p. 201 (ill.).
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet, Le Cubisme de Picasso: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint 1907-1916 (Neuchâtel, 1979), pp. 239 and 257, no. 264 (ill.).
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Cubism (1907–1917) (Barcelona, 1990), pp. 120 and 121, no. 331 (ill.).
Pablo Picasso: Ludwig Coleccíon, exh. cat. (Munich, 1992), p. 66 (ill.).
Christian Geelhaar, Picasso: Wegbereiter und Förderer seines Aufstiegs 1899–1939 (Zurich, 1993), p. 237, included in fig. 267.
Howard J. Smagula, Creative Drawing (Madison, 1993), p. 160, fig. 7.18.
John Richardson, A Life of Picasso: Volume II 1907–1917 (New York, 1996), pp. 323, 468, and 469 (ill.).
August Macke und die frühe Moderne in Europa, exh. cat. (Ostfildern-Ruit, 2001), pp. 210 and 213, fig. 8.
Enrique Mallen, The Visual Grammar of Pablo Picasso (New York, 2003), pp. 120, 148, and 311, fig. 88.
Enrique Mallen, The On-Line Picasso Project, (http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/), no. 09:48 (ill.).
Ottfried Dascher, Es ist was Wahnsinniges mit der Kunst : Alfred Flechtheim : Sammler, Kunsthändler und Verleger (Wädenswil: Nimbus, 2011), pp. 248-49, 253.
Berhard Echte and Walter Feilchenfeldt, Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer: Die Austellungen 1910-1912 (Wadenswil, Switzerland: Nimbus, 2016), p. 210-12 (ill.).
Christopher Lloyd, Picasso and the Art of Drawing (London, 2018), pp. 88-89, pl. 58.

Possibly, Paris, Galerie Kahnweiler, 1909.
Munich, Modern Galerie, Neue Künstlervereinigung, Sept. 1–14, 1910, cat. 84 (ill.), as Kopf, listed for sale.
Possibly, Berlin, Paul Cassirer, Jan.–Feb. 1911, cat. 45, as Kopf.
Possibly, Berlin, Der Sturm, Dritte Ausstellung, May 1912, cat. 125, as Frauenkopf.
Munich, Modern Galerie, Heinrich Thannhauser, “Pablo Picasso,” Feb. 1913, cat. 36. (ill.), as Kopf, 1907, Gemälde, listed for sale.
Düsseldorf, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, “Expressionisten,” spring 1919, p. 18 (ill.), as Kopf, 1908.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: Forty Years of His Art,” Nov. 15, 1939–Jan. 7, 1940, p. 69, cat. 87 (ill.), as Head; also the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 1–Mar. 3, 1940, the Saint Louis Art Museum, Mar. 16–Apr. 14, 1940, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Apr.l 26–May 25, 1940.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, “Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Jan. 16–Mar. 4, 1941, pp. 90-91, cat. 160 (ill.), as Head of a Woman; also the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Mar. 29–May 11, 1941.
Possibly, Newport, R.I., Art Association of Newport, 1941.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings: Old and New,” 1946, pp. 21–22, pl. XXIV, cat. 41.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Gallery of Art Interpretation: Presenting the Art Institute’s Picassos,” Sept.–Dec. 1955, no cat.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: 75th Anniversary,” May 22–Sept. 8, 1957, p. 37; also the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 29–Dec. 8, 1957.
Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, “Picasso: A Loan Exhibition of His Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, and Illustrated Books,” Jan. 8–Feb. 23, 1958, p. 16, cat. 48 (ill.).
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, “Major Artists of the 20th Century,” Nov. 8–Dec. 6, 1959.
Fort Worth, Tex., Fort Worth Art Center Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, “Picasso: Two Concurrent Retrospective Exhibitions,” Feb. 8–Mar. 26, 1967, p. 102, cat. 163.
London, Tate Gallery, “Picasso: Sculpture/Ceramics/Graphic Work,” June 9–Aug. 13, 1967, p. 123, cat. 241 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso in Chicago,” Feb. 3–Mar. 31, 1968, pp. 56, 66, and 116, cat. 70 (ill.).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Dessins Français de l’Art Institute de Chicago,” Oct. 15, 1976–Jan. 17, 1977, n. p., cat. 80 (ill.); also Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Feb. 10–Apr. 10, 1977, pp. 178–179, cat. 86 (ill.).
Bielefeld, Germany, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, “Zeichnungen und Collagen des Kubismus,” Mar. 11–Apr. 29, 1979, cat. 53 (ill.).
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, “Master Drawings by Picasso,” Feb. 20–Apr. 5, 1981, pp. 102–103, cat. 35 (ill.); also the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 29–June 14, 1981, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, July 11–Aug. 23, 1981.
Tübingen, Germany, Kunsthalle Tübingen, “Picasso, Pastelle Zeichnungen Aquarelle,” Apr. 5–May 25, 1986, cat. 61 (ill.).
Washington, D.C, The National Gallery of Art, “Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier,” Sept. 28, 2003–Jan. 18, 2004, pp. 39, 58–59, cat. 10 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper,” Mar. 24-Sept. 13, 2009, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago,” Feb. 20-May 12, 2013, p. 49, cat. 38 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso: Drawing from Life”, November 11, 2023 - April 8, 2024.

With Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, 1909 [according to Daix and Rosselet 1979; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. With Moderne Galerie, Munich, by September 1910 [Munich 1910, cat. 84, ill. (for sale)]. Possibly Mme Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin, 1910 [according to Daix and Rosselet 1979 and Zervos 1940; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. With Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1911 [according to Echte and Feilchenfeldt 2016; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. With Der Sturm, Berlin, 1912 [Berlin 1912, cat. 125]. With Moderne Galerie, Munich, 1913 [Munich 1913, exh. cat. 36, ill. (for sale)]. With Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, 1929/30 [Dascher 2011, pp. 248–49 (ill. from Die Dame, 1929) and photograph by Martha Huth in 1930, Landesarchiv Berlin, F Rep 290-05-01 44]. Possibly Douglas Cooper, London [according to Cambridge 1981; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. Possibly Paul Rosenberg, Paris [according to Parke-Bernet 1945; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. Possibly Buchholz Gallery, New York [according to Parke-Bernet 1945; primary source documentation for this information has not been located to date]. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by Nov. 1939 [New York 1939]; Parke-Bernet, New York, Mar. 22, 1945, as Coll. of Walter Chrysler, lot 94, ill. Sold by Theodore Schempp, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 1945.

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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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