Pablo Picasso

Estate of the artist

Marina Picasso (by descent from the above in 1973)

Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva (acquired from the above circa 2004)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paris, Petit Palais, Picasso, 1966

Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz & Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle, Ausstellung Picasso Plastiken, 1983-84, no. 616.2, illustrated in the catalogue

Geneva, Galerie Jan Krugier, Ditescheim & Cie. & New York, Jan Krugier Gallery, Pablo Picasso Metamorphoses, Oeuvres 1898 à 1973, de la collection Marina Picasso, 2001-02, no. 100, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Bern, Kunstmuseum, Picasso und die Schweiz, 2001-02, no. 162, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Vienna, Albertina Museum, Goya bis Picasso, Meisterwerke der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2004-05, no. 162, illustrated p. 371

Roland Penrose, The Sculpture of Picasso, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967, no. 169, illustrated p. 191

Werner Spies, Picasso - Das Plastische Werk, Berlin & Düsseldorf, 1983-84, no. 616.2a, illustrated p. 368

Werner Spies, Picasso, The Sculptures, Stuttgart, 2002, no. 616.2a, illustrated p. 389

Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, The Sixties I, 1960-1963, San Francisco, 2002, no. 61-318, illustrated p. 206

Excellent condition. The painted surface is stable and in very good condition. A few tiny spots of rust appear through the paint layer along the edges, and some rusting appears on the top of the base. There is a faint, 2” vertical scratch to the forehead, and a 1 ¼” long diagonal indentation in the paint below the proper-left eye (possibly made by the artist’s brush). There is a ¼” nick in the paint to the left of the nose, and minor specks of loss in a few areas along the edges and to the right of the nose. The welds are in very good condition. On the reverse of the sculpture, the paint appears deliberately thin and painterly, with areas of scattered paint loss. Overall, excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The medium of sculpture allowed Picasso greater freedom in manipulating his images.  For the present work, Picasso applies one of his signature line drawings of Jacqueline's facial features to a three-dimensional image by rendering it on a piece of cut and folded sheet metal.  Since his collaboration with the sculptor Julio Gonzalez in the early 1930s, Picasso had gained a level of comfortability with soldering and manipulating various metals.  When he created the present work in 1961, his limits with this medium knew no boundaries, and what he could not do himself he often entrusted to skilled metal workers to carry out the more technical details.  Picasso himself said: "I would like to paint the object in such a way that an engineer could execute them after my paintings."  The present work bears the marks of Picasso's unmistakable brushwork, which render the recognizable features of Jacqueline.

Picasso's rendering of the head for the present work marks the evolution of his folded sheet-metal sculptures since he first developed the technique in 1954, with a series of Sylvette heads.  Werner Spies describes Picasso's process for that particular series, and his description applies readily to the present work:  "The sheet metal used in these pieces is thin and the cutout forms are folded.  The surface of the metal remains smooth and is not, as in the works of the second phase, supplemented with soldered-on, relief-like metal strips.  In the second phase, painting sometimes yields to this relief-like application of metal, used as a graphic means.  A series of sketches shows how Picasso developed these works: here, the fields of vision that open themselves up to successive perception are first of all projected onto a plane.  The possibilities for viewing are exactly predetermined.  [The head] first presents itself in an overall view, the projecting and receding folds lending the form a slight sense of movement. Yet since painting itself, above all in the central areas, produces spatial effects, the sculptural situation is obscured.  The folded sheet-metal form begins to exert a sculptural effect when we divide it up into planes of action and take each of the form surfaces as a separate visual point of departure"  (Werner Spies, op. cit., p. 291).