Woman with a Helmet of Hair

Prints and Drawings

1904

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973

We know very little about the woman depicted in this blue-hued drawing beyond her first name: Madeleine. She was likely Picasso’s model and lover during the summer of 1904; this depiction of her shows him experimenting with color and form to explore somber emotional states.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Woman with a Helmet of Hair
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.: 1904
Medium: Gouache on tan wood pulp board
Inscriptions: Signed and dated recto, upper left, in blue gouache: "Picasso / 1904"
Dimensions: 42.7 × 31.3 cm (16 13/16 × 12 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Kate L. Brewster
Reference Number: 1950.128
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Maurice Raynal, Picasso (Munich, 1921), pl. 13, as Tête.
C. J. Bulliet, “Blue Picasso Among Johnson Headliners,” Chicago Evening Post (October 1, 1929).
C. J. Bulliet, “Blue Picasso to be Flashed Friday,” Chicago Evening Post (October 22, 1929) (ill.).
Marguerite B. Williams, “Art News and Exhibitions in Chicago,” Parnasus I:7 (November 1929), pp. 10 and 11 (ill.), as Head of a Woman.
Lloyd Goodrich, “In the Galleries,” The Arts XVI:5 (January 1930), p. 343 (ill.), as Portrait.
George Waldemar. “Grandeur et décadence de Pablo Picasso,” L’Art Vivant VI (August 1, 1930), p. 596 (ill.), as Tête de Femme.
French Impressionists Old Masters: 35 Paintings Selected from Exhibitions at Dr. Alfred Gold’s Gallery (Berlin, 1930), cat. 8 (ill.), as Woman’s Head.
Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso I (Paris, 1932), p. 103, no. 233 (ill.).
C.J. Bulliet, The Significant Moderns and Their Pictures (New York, 1936), fig. 101, as Woman’s Head.
Elizabeth McCausland, Picasso (New York, 1944), p. 8 (ill.).
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art (New York, 1946), p. 30 (ill.).
Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, Picasso Antes de Picasso (Barcelona, 1946), fig. 189.
Jean Cassou, Picasso (Paris, 1947), pl. 16, as Portrait.
Joan Merli, Picasso (Buenos Aires, 1948), n.p., fig. 105.
Daniel Catton Rich, “The Kate L. Brewster Bequest,” The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 44:3 (September 15, 1950), pp. 53 and 54 (ill.), as Head of the Acrobat’s Wife.
Wilhelm Boeck and Jaime Sabartés, Picasso (New York, 1955), p. 459, no. 24, p. 488, no. 47 (ill.).
Denys Sutton, Picasso: Peintures Époques Bleue et Rose (Paris, 1955), no. 30 (ill.).
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard, Picasso (Paris, 1955), (ill.).
José Camón Aznar, Picasso y el Cubismo (Madrid, 1956), p. 371, fig. 261.
“Una grande mostra di Picasso al Museum of Modern Art,” Emporium CXXVI (December 1957), p. 278 (ill.).
Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1961), pp. 356 and 427 (ill.).
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille, Picasso 1900-1906: catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint (Neuchâtel, 1966), pp. 66, 237, and 240, no. XI.1 (ill.).
El Mundo de los Museos, The Art Institute of Chicago (Madrid, 1967), pp. 14 and 72 (ill.).
Denys Sutton and Paolo Lecaldano, The Complete Paintings of Picasso’s Blue and Rose Periods (New York, 1968), p. 97, no. 131, pl. XXIV, as Woman with Braided Hair.
Georges Boudaille, Picasso: Première Époque 1881–1906, Périodes Bleue et Rose (Paris, 1969), n. p. (ill.).
Denys Chevalier, Picasso: époques bleue et rose (Paris, 1991), p. 64.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), p. 270 (ill.).
Toshio Nishimura, Picasso (Tokyo, 1973), p. 116, pl. 26.
Timothy Hilton, Picasso (London, 1975), pp. 46 and 50, fig. 29.
Grace Glueck, “A Show That Might Even Have Dazzled Picasso,” The New York Times (May 18, 1980), section 2, p. 1 (ill.).
A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Painting (Chicago, 1980), p. 62, no. 3C11.
Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: Vivent (1881–1907) (Barcelona, 1980), pp. 377 and 543, fig. 977, as Woman with Hair in a Topknot.
George Boudaille, Picasso, dessinateur (Paris, 1987), pp. 32–33, pl. 5.
The Annual Exhibition Record of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1888–1950 (Madison, Conn., 1990), p. 705.
John Richardson, A Life of Picasso: Volume I, 1881–1906 (New York, 1991), pp. 302-304 (ill.).
John Richardson, “Planets around the Sun: Pablo Picasso,” The Independent (September 8, 1991), p. 2 (ill).
Denys Chevalier, Picasso: époques bleue et rose (Paris, 1991), pp. 60–61 (ill.).
Carsten-Peter Warncke, Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 I (Cologne, 1992), p. 106 (ill.).
Marilyn McCully, et. al., Picasso: The Early Years 1892–1906, exh. cat. (Washington D.C., 1996), p. 43, fig. 31.
William Rubin, Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation, exh. cat. (New York, 1996), p. 245 (ill.).
Dan Franck, Bohèmes (Paris, 1998), p. 89.
Museo Nacional de Columbia, Picasso en Bogota (Bogota, 2000), p. 140 (ill.).
The Portable Picasso (New York, 2003), p. 64 (ill.).
Christopher Lloyd, Picasso and the Art of Drawing (London, 2018), pp. 48-50, pl. 28.
Enrique Mallen, The On-Line Picasso Project (http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/), no. 04:26 (ill.).

Chicago, Chester H. Johnson Galleries, “Modern French Art,” Fall 1929.
University of Chicago, Renaissance Society, “Exhibition of Modern French Paintings,” February 4–18, 1931.
Chicago, Home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brewster, “Special View for the benefit of Chicago Public School Art Society of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Brewster,” January 20–22, 1933, cat. 21, as Head of Acrobat.
New York, Jacques Seligmann and Company, “Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods, 1901–1906,” November 2–26, 1936, p. 18, cat. 16 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “The Sixteenth International Exhibition: Water Colors, Pastels, Drawings and Monotypes,” March 18–May 16, 1937, n.p., cat. 117, as Head of the Acrobat’s Wife.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: Forty Years of His Art,” November 15, 1939–January 17, 1940, p. 36, cat. 24 (ill.), as Woman with Helmet of Hair (Head of Acrobat’s Wife); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, February 1–March 3, 1940.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Brewster Collection,” September 1950, no cat.
Winnetka, Ill., New Trier High School, May 14–June 6, 1952.
San Antonio, Tex., McNay Art Institute, “Picasso: Paintings, Drawings,” November 4–December 5, 1954, cat. 7 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Gallery of Art Interpretation: Presenting the Art Institute’s Picassos,” September–December 1955, no cat.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso: 75th Anniversary Exhibition,” May 22–September 8, 1957, p. 24 (ill.), Woman with Chignon (Head of the Acrobat’s Wife); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, October 29–December 8, 1957.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Picasso,” January 8–February 23, 1958, cat. 14 (ill.), as Woman with Chignon.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso in Chicago,” February 3–March 31, 1968, pp. 16 and 112, cat. 8 (ill.).
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Picasso Retrospective,” May 1–September 16, 1980, p. 60 (ill.).
Dusseldorf, Germany, Kunstsammlunug Nordrhein-Westfalen, “Picasso,” June 6–July 27, 1986, n.p., cat. 22 (ill.); traveled to Tübingen, Germany, the Kunsthalle Tübingen, April 5–May 25, 1986.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper,” March 24-September 13, 2009, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso and Chicago”, February 20-May 12, 2013, p. 35, cat. 7 (ill.), cat. by Stephanie d’Alessandro.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Picasso: Drawing from Life”, November 11, 2023 - April 8, 2024.

Alfred Gold, Berlin [French Impressionists Old Masters 1930]. Sold by Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago to Walter S. Brewster (1872–1954), Chicago, December 4, 1929 [invoice]; bequeathed by his wife, Kate Brewster (née Lancaster; c. 1879–1947) to the Art Institute, 1950.

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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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