The two paintings on view in this gallery of Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque, demonstrate what art historian Pepe Karmel has described as the artist’s “ability to make a fundamentally black-and-white composition seem as rich and sensual as a brightly colored one.” With the dynamic, gestural composition of this work and the double face in Head of a Woman (Jacqueline), the paintings also suggest subtly layered aspects of Roque’s personality. The couple met in Cannes in 1952, and married in 1961; Roque provided steadfast support in the twenty years until Picasso’s death in 1973. Her distinctive large eyes, dark brows, and straight nose dominated the artist’s oeuvre in that period, making her the most sustained subject in his work.

Wall label, 2021.