This painting belongs to a small group of pictures of extravagantly dressed women that evoke the Parisian demimonde of dance halls and brothels. The electric palette and broad dabs of paint relate it to other works that Picasso painted in Madrid in spring 1901, in anticipation of his upcoming show at the Galerie Vollard in Paris.
Picasso arrived in Paris in May 1901 with a good number of paintings, pastels, and drawings, but not enough for his show. Installing himself at a Parisian studio, he may have made as many as three pictures a day in order to achieve the sixty-three catalogued items plus the dozens of uncatalogued drawings that were ultimately exhibited. Given the artist's chameleon-like changes of style, it is now impossible to discern which of the pictures exhibited at Vollard's were painted in Madrid and Barcelona in early 1901 and which were painted in Paris in the days preceding the opening.

Signature: Signed, lower left: - ¦Picasso¦ -

Ignacio Zuloaga, Elgueta and Paris (acquired from the artist, probably by exchange, ca. 1903/5–d. 1945); his son, Antonio Zuloaga, Paris (1945–52; sold in March 1952 for $10,000 to Gelman); Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1952–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA, 1998)

New York: MMA (only) September 13, 2006-January 7, 2007, Ambroise Vollard: Patron of the Avant-Garde.

Martigny, Suisse: Foundation Pierre Gianadda, 18 juin-1 novembre 1994. ¦de Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman¦, Rédaction du catalogue: William S. Lieberman, Auteur di catalogue: Sabine Rewald, Textes de: Dawn Ades, John Ashbery, Jacques Dupin, John Golding, Lawrence Gowing, William S. Lieberman, Philippe de Montebello, Pierre Schneider et Gary Tinterow. p. 93 (illus).

New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 12, 1989 - April 1, 1990. London, England: Royal Academy, April 19 - July 15, 1990. ¦Gelman Collection¦. P. 69 (illus. in color) P. 68 (discussed).

National Museum of Modern Art,Tokyo. "Picasso." May 23–July 5, 1964, cat. no. 4, ill. (Also shown in Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, July 10–August 2, 1964 and Nagoya, Prefectural Museum of Art, August 7–14, 1964)

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Saidenberg Gallery, Paul Rosenberg and Co., Duveen Brothers, Inc., Perls Galleries, Staempfli Gallery, Inc., Cordier-Warren Gallery, The New Gallery, Otto Gerson Gallery, New York, "Picasso: An American Tribute," April 25–May 12, 1962, cat. no. 5, ill.

Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1950, "Cent protraits de femmes du XV siècle à nos jours." cat. no. 79