This painting belongs to a small group of pictures of extravagantly dressed women that evoke the Parisian demimonde of dance halls and brothels. The electric palette and broad dabs of paint relate it to other works that Picasso painted in Madrid in spring 1901, in anticipation of his upcoming show at the Galerie Vollard in Paris.
Picasso arrived in Paris in May 1901 with a good number of paintings, pastels, and drawings, but not enough for his show. Installing himself at a Parisian studio, he may have made as many as three pictures a day in order to achieve the sixty-three catalogued items plus the dozens of uncatalogued drawings that were ultimately exhibited. Given the artist's chameleon-like changes of style, it is now impossible to discern which of the pictures exhibited at Vollard's were painted in Madrid and Barcelona in early 1901 and which were painted in Paris in the days preceding the opening.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Ignacio Zuloaga, Elgueta and Paris (acquired from the artist, probably by exchange, ca. 1903/5–d. 1945); his son, Antonio Zuloaga, Paris (1945–52; sold in March 1952 for $10,000 to Gelman); Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1952–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Vollard. "Exposition de tableaux de F. Iturrino et de P.–R. Picasso," June 25–July 14, 1901 [probably this picture].
Paris. Galerie Charpentier. "Cent portraits de femmes du XVe siècle à nos jours," 1950, no. 79.
New York. M. Knoedler and Co., Inc. "Picasso: An American Tribute. 1895–1909," April 25–May 12, 1962, no. 5.
Tokyo. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," May 23–July 5, 1964, no. 4.
Kyoto. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," July 10–August 2, 1964, no. 4.
Nagoya. Prefectural Museum of Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," August 8–18, 1964, no. 4.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 69).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 93).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 142.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 13.
Canberra. National Gallery of Australia. "Matisse & Picasso," December 13, 2019–April 13, 2020, unnumbered cat. (p. 39, as "Woman in Profile [Femme de Profil]").
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 6, Supplément aux volumes 1 à 5. Paris, 1954, p. 174, no. 1461, ill.
Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900–1906. Greenwich, Conn., 1967, pp. 42, 159, 182, no. V.60, ill.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: The Early Years, 1881–1907. New York, 1981, pp. 245, 249, no. 636, ill.
Denys Chevalier. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods. New York, 1991, p. 25, ill.
Impressionist and Modern Art Sale. June 2002, p. 32, ill.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 12, 34–36, no. 13, ill. (color).
Isabelle Duvernois inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 36.
Jane Kinsman in Jane Kinsman with Simeran Maxwell. Matisse Picasso. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2019, pp. 38, 41, 184, ill. p. 39 (color).
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. As part of The Met’s Open Access program, the data is available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
ca. 1960
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
