Pablo Picasso

Estate of the artist
Marina Picasso Collection
Private Collection (acquired from the above)

Venice, 1981, both illustrated in the catalogue
Munich & travelling, 1981-82, both illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo & Kyoto, 1983, both illustrated in the catalogue
Melbourne & Sydney, 1984, illustrated in the catalogue
London, 1988, illustrated in the catalogue
Barcelona & Bern, 1992, both illustrated in the catalogue, recto illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Berlin, 1999, illustrated in the catalogue
New York & Geneva, 2001-02, Jeune fille illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Glimcher & Glimcher (ed.), no. 10 (Jeune fille), illustrated in colour p. 26 & no. 5 (Saltimbanque), illustrated p. 23

'Pablo has brought back to the studio a young girl found I don’t know where whom he is going to do as Joan of Arc. Bizarre-looking rather than beautiful with bright red hair and large, rather coarse but good features. She started posing two days ago. But last night I realized she must have been crawling with lice, as both of us have caught them.' (Fernande Olivier quoted in J. Richardson, A life of Picasso, 1881-1906, New York, 1991, vol. 1, p. 342).

The young girl described above is probably depicted in both the present work as well as in lot 125. Although there is no link either in composition or subject matter to the Saltimbanque studies the works depicting four girls are intriguing in their own right. The features of the red-haired model, with her protruding top lip and strong jaw-line, obviously captivated Picasso’s imagination and she would have made an effective model for the androgynous figures of his Rose period pieces.