This exquisite portrait was made in Barcelona, where Picasso lived from January 1903 to March 1904 in the studio on Calle Riera de San Juan that he had shared three years before with his late friend Carles Casagemas. The model is thought to be the twenty-year-old Parisian doll dressmaker Cécile Acker, also known as Geneviève (or Germaine) Pfeipher. A lover of the poet Max Jacob, she may also have had a liaison with Picasso. Picasso painted this work over a landscape signed by a painter named González, presumably Joan González, the older brother of the sculptor Julio González.
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Inscription: Signed in dark blue paint, upper left: Picasso Signed and dated on verso in blue paint, at center: Picasso / 1903 [following date, there is also a large circular swirl of blue paint that extends under the stretcher bar, possibly added to cross out an inscription]
Baron Shigetaro Fukushima, Paris and Tokyo; [Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Düsseldorf and Berlin, by 1932]; Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York (by 1933–d. 1967; on extended loan to MMA, from 1936 [inv. L.3346.33]; her bequest to MMA)
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Picasso Retrospective, 1901–1931," September 11–October 30, 1932, extended to November 13, 1932, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern Paintings—Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," July 8–September 6, 1950, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Loan Exhibition," June 22–September 30, 1956, no catalogue.
New York. Perls Galleries. "Masterpieces from the Collection of Adelaide Milton de Groot," April 14–May 3, 1958, no. 21 (as "Tête de Femme").
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. "Masterpieces from the Adelaide Milton de Groot Collection," December 2, 1958–March 1, 1959, no. 29.
Oregon. Portland Art Museum. "Picasso for Portland," September 21–October 25, 1970, no. 6.
Bellingham, Wash. Whatcom Museum of History and Art. "5000 Years of Art: An Exhibition from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 4, 1976–October 2, 1977, no. 82.
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama. "From Impressionism to École de Paris: Its Passion and Struggle," November 3–December 12, 1982, no. 76.
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Der Junge Picasso: Frühwerk und Blaue Periode," December 6, 1984–February 17, 1985, no. 198.
Charleroi. Palais des Beaux-Arts. "Picasso, Miró, Dalí: Évocations d'Espagne," September 24–December 22, 1985, no. 24.
Yokohama Museum of Art. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century," March 25–June 4, 1989, no. 162.
Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art. "Paburo Pikaso ten/Exposition Pablo Picasso, autour des portraits," May 29–June 24, 1990, no. 1.
Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art. "Paburo Pikaso ten/Exposition Pablo Picasso, autour des portraits," June 24–July 25, 1990, no. 1.
Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. "Paburo Pikaso ten/Exposition Pablo Picasso, autour des portraits," July 31–August 26, 1990, no. 1.
Nabio Museum of Art, Osaka. "Paburo Pikaso ten/Exposition Pablo Picasso, autour des portraits," August 31–September 27, 1990, no. 1.
Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Paburo Pikaso ten/Exposition Pablo Picasso, autour des portraits," October 2–28, 1990, no. 1.
Paris. Musée Picasso. "Picasso 1901–1909: Chefs d'oeuvre du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," October 21, 1998–January 25, 1999, unnumbered cat. (fig. 34).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 125.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat. (p. 249).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 21.
Florence. Palazzo Strozzi. "Picasso, Miró, Dalí. Angry Young Men: The Birth of Modernity," March 12–July 17, 2011, no. 4.11.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 6, Supplément aux volumes 1 à 5. Paris, 1954, p. 67, no. 548, ill.
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900–1906. Greenwich, Conn., 1967, p. 224, no. IX.16, ill.
Paolo Lecaldano. L'opera completa di Picasso blu e rosa. Milan, 1968, pp. 92–93, no. 69, ill.
Georges Boudaille. Picasso: Première époque, 1881–1906: Périodes bleue et rose. Paris, 1969, p. 14.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, pp. 349, 542, no. 906, ill.
Laszlo Glozer. Picasso: Les Chefs–d'oeuvre de la Pèriode bleue, 38 tableaux. Munich, 1988, pl. 31.
Magdalena Dabrowski inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 57–59, no. 21, ill. (color, recto and verso).
Shawn Digney-Peer inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 58, fig. 21.2 (Infrared reflectogram).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
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