Pablo Picasso

Claude Picasso
Private Collection, New York
Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above in 1996 

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, oeuvres de 1965 et 1967, vol. 25, Paris, 1972, no. 147, illustrated p. 82
The Picasso Project, Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. Surrealism, 1930-1936, San Francisco, 1997, no. 32-046, illustrated p. 106

Tête de Femme is a portrait of Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's devoted second wife who remained with him until the time of his death in 1973.  Picasso's renderings of Jacqueline constitute the largest number of images of any of the women in his life.  The artist first met Jacqueline in 1952 while he was still living with his mistress Françoise Gilot, and by 1954 the raven-haired beauty began appearing in his paintings.  In 1961, Picasso married Jacqueline and they moved into a farmhouse in Mougins called Notre-Dame-de-Vie where they shared a peaceful and secluded lifestyle.  Unlike Françoise, Jacqueline was ever-accepting of the notoriously temperamental artist and his blind obsession with art, and doted on him ceaselessly in his old age.  Picasso experienced a calm and peace with Jacqueline which he had not felt since his days with Marie-Thérèse, and, like his golden mistress, Jacqueline became his muse for some of his most imaginative compositions. 

The present work is an intimate rendering of Jacqueline.  Her thick black hair is released from its usual bun, falls around her shoulders and down her back.  She engages the viewer with wide, open eyes and a playful smile.  Jacqueline is framed in dense background of blue and green, colors that reflect and sparkle off the highlights in her face and hair, the portrayal of a self-confident muse who is both casual, and in love.  Two broad powerful brush strokes of dark red denote clothing, barely clinging to her shoulders, yet enveloping her and dominating the foreground, possibly hinting at the powerful presence of the artist.

Fig. 1  Jacqueline at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 1961.  (Photograph by Jacqueline Picasso)