This sheet was initially bound into Carnet Dix (Notebook Ten), a sketchbook that Picasso filled with drawings and watercolors related to two major oil paintings of 1907: Les demoiselles d’Avignon (Museum of Modern Art, New York) and Nude with Drapery (The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg). Here, Picasso presents the face as a shallow mask, with the simple ovoid eyes reading as open or downcast. The reduction of the facial features to elementary geometric shapes and the striations on the flesh, which serve as both decorative details and shadowed cross-hatching, were influenced by Picasso’s encounter with African art at the Musée du Trocadéro in Paris.
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the artist, Paris (1907; sold in autumn 1907 to Steins); Gertrude and Leo Stein, Paris (1907–13/14); Gertrude Stein, Paris (1913/14–d. 1946; her estate, Paris, 1946–68; sold on December 12, 1968, through the Museum of Modern Art syndicate, to Rockefeller); Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York (1968–77; sold in November 1977, through Harold Diamond, to Reid & Lefevre); [Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London, 1977; sold in 1977 or later to Govett]; W. J. R. Govett, London (1977 or later; sold to Reid & Lefevre); [Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London, until 1999; sold in June 1999 to Lauder]; Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1999–13; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," December 19, 1970–March 1, 1971, unnumbered cat. (p. 169; as "Head," summer 1907).
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Gertrude Stein and Picasso and Juan Gris," June 25–August 15, 1971, no. 12 (as "Tête," summer 1907).
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," September 9–October 31, 1971, unnumbered cat.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Facets of Cubism," December 7, 2005–April 16, 2006, unnum. brochure (ill.; as "Head of a Woman").
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde," May 21–September 6, 2011, no. 366.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso . . . L'aventure des Stein," October 5, 2011–January 22, 2012, no. 366.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde," February 28–June 3, 2012, no. 366.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 51.
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: Étude de l'oeuvre. Paris, 1955, ill. p. 55, as "Tête".
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: A Study of His Work. New York, 1956, ill. p. 59, as "Tête".
John Richardson. Pablo Picasso: Watercolours and Gouaches. London, 1964, pp. 9, 30, pl. 8.
Edward Burns, ed. Gertrude Stein on Picasso. New York, 1970, ill. pp. 32, 74, (on display in the residence of Alice B. Toklas at 5, rue Christine, Paris, 1956), 132, as "Head".
Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1970, p. 169.
Gertrude Stein and Picasso and Juan Gris. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, 1971, unpaginated, no. 12, ill.
Frank Elgar and Robert Maillard. Picasso: A Study of His Work. Rev. ed. New York, 1972, p. 29, fig. 36, as "Head".
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 92, no. 93, ill.
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 92, no. 93, ill.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, p. 207, no. 87, ill., and ill. p. 41, as summer 1907.
William S. Lieberman. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art. Ed. Dorothy Canning Miller. New York, 1981, ill. p. 72, as "Head".
Hélène Seckel. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1988, vol. 1, Carnet 10, p. 260, no. 5, ill. p. 262.
Judith Cousins inPicasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 429 (on display in the residence of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas at 27, rue de Fleurus, Paris; photograph as 1914).
Rosalind E. Krauss. "The Motivation of the Sign." Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. Ed. Lynn Zelevansky. New York, 1992, p. 269, fig. 11, as summer 1907.
Facets of Cubism. Exh. brochure, Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, 2005, unpaginated, ill.
Holland Cotter. "When Cubism Fractured Art's Delicate World." New York Times (December 30, 2005), p. E38, ill. p. E36.
Robert McD. Parker inThe Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, p. 445.
Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, ed. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, p. 269, no. 366, p. 464, pls. 211, 355 (on display in the residence of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas at 27, rue de Fleurus, Paris; photograph as ca. June 1914–spring 1915).
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47, as "Study for Les demoiselles d’Avignon from Carnet 10 (Etude pour Les demoiselles d’Avignon: nu aux rideaux)".
Christine Poggi inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 28, 36, 303(2)n.24, no. 51, ill. p. 37 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 278, fig. 51 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1970–71).
"The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection: A Conversation with Emily Braun and Pepe Karmel." IFAR Journal 16, no. 3 (2015), fig. 24A (color).
One of at least 14 works from Picasso’s Carnet 10, a sketchbook dating from June–July 1907 that includes studies for Les demoiselles d’Avignon and Nude with Drapery.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
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