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Pablo Picasso

Spanish, 1881-1973

Woman's Head, 1909

bronze

overall: 16 1/4 x 10 3/8 x 10 3/4 inches (41.27 x 26.35 x 27.3 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Edmund Hayes Fund, 1948

1948:1

More Details

Inscriptions

signature / back left shoulder / Picasso

Provenance

Buchholz Gallery, New York;
sold to the Albright Art Gallery, 1948

Class

Sculpture (visual work)

Work Type

Cast (sculpture)

This information may change due to ongoing research. Glossary of Terms

Verbal Description Audio

Woman’s Head was made not long after Pablo Picasso spent the summer in Spain, where he painted numerous portraits of his companion Fernande Olivier (French, 1881–1966). At this time, the artist was already interested in the nonrepresentational shapes that would become central to Cubism, and the influence of African sculpture can be seen in this work. Its jutting and receding planes not only create volume but also suggest multiple points of view; yet, the sculpture maintains the basic shape of a human head, which is Fernande’s.

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017