Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman (Fernande)1909, cast 1960

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Bronze sculpture of a heavily modeled human head with deep-set eyes, furrowed brow, and a bold crescent form across the lower face, with petal-like hair rising from the crown

Artist or Maker: Pablo Picasso
Spain, 1881-1973, active France
Title: Head of a Woman (Fernande)
Place Made: Spain
Date Made: 1909, cast 1960
Medium: Bronze, cast number 2/9
Dimensions: 16 3/16 × 9 5/16 × 9 7/8 in. (41.12 × 23.65 × 25.08 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Smooke in memory of Joseph and Sarah Smooke and Museum Purchase with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Jo Swerling, Mrs. Harold M. English in memory of Harold M. English, and Mr. James Francis McHugh
Accession Number: 78.6
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Picasso created his first Cubist sculpture—of Fernande Olivier, his companion and frequent model—following their 1906 summer trip to the village of Gósol in the Spanish Pyrenees. (Olivier is also the subject of the 1906 painting Head of a Woman, on view nearby.) Here, as in Picasso’s Cubist paintings of this period, the head is broken into small facets, which suggest the plaits of the model’s hair and the muscles and ligaments that underlie her face and neck. The slightly downward tilt of her head gives the impression of melancholy reflection.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1881-1973); G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh; [Galerie Beyeler, Basel]; Private collection, Baltimore; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York]; [Hammer Galleries, New York]; sold in 1974 to Nathan and Marion Smooke, Beverly Hills; given in 1978 to LACMA
Selected Bibliography: Eliel, Carol S. Degas To Picasso: Modern Masters from the Smooke Collection. Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Spies, Werner. Picasso: the Sculptures. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2000.

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