With one continuous black line, Picasso drew this image reminiscent of a misshapen boomerang. He then added details that evoke a ferocious female seen in profile: two oddly shaped eyes, a set of tiny nostrils, three hairs, and four nails for teeth. This work belongs to a series of sixteen paintings of similarly terrifying women. The context was the irreverence fostered by Picasso's Surrealist friends, but the subject is his deteriorating marriage to the Russian dancer Olga Kokhlova, who, despairing over Picasso's loss of interest, had become emotionally unstable. Picasso had by that time already met his next lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter, although Olga would not know it until 1935.
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[Galerie Pierre (Pierre Loeb), Paris, by 1938; probably sold to Paalen, possibly by exchange]; Wolfgang Paalen, Mexico City; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (by the 1940s–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Tokyo. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," May 23–July 5, 1964, no. 39.
Kyoto. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," July 10–August 2, 1964, no. 39.
Nagoya. Prefectural Museum of Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," August 8–18, 1964, no. 39.
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. 179).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar," February 10–May 10, 1994, unnumbered cat. (fig. 96).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar," June 12–September 4, 1994, unnumbered cat. (brochure no. 8; lent by the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection).
London. Tate Modern. "Surrealism: Desire Unbound," September 20, 2001–January 1, 2002, unnumbered cat. (fig. 266; as "The Scream").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Surrealism: Desire Unbound," February 6–May 12, 2002, unnumbered cat. (fig. 266).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 76.
Madrid. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. "Pity and Terror: Picasso's Path to Guernica," April 5–September 4, 2017, unnumbered cat. (p. 75).
Musée National Picasso-Paris. "Picasso. Tableaux magiques," October 1, 2019–February 23, 2020, no. 31.
Paul Eluard. "Poèmes: Défense de savoir." La Révolution surréaliste 3 (October 1, 1927), p. 20, ill.
Christian Zervos. "Tableaux magiques de Picasso." Cahiers d'art 13, nos. 3–10 (1938), p. 108, ill.
Juan Merli. Picasso: El artista y la obra de nuestro tiempo. Buenos Aires, 1942, p. 299, ill. p. 200.
René Guiette. "Peinture magique." Artes 2, nos. 3–4 (1947–48), p. 42, ill.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 7, Works from 1926 to 1932. New York and Paris, 1955, p. 52, no. 119, ill.
Pierre Daix. La Vie de peintre de Pablo Picasso. Paris, 1977, pp. 218, 221 n. 20.
Elizabeth Cowling. "Proudly We Claim Him as One of Us: Breton, Picasso and the Surrealist Movement." Art History 8 (March 1985), pp. 98, 104 n. 82.
Jorge Calado. "As Lágrimas de Picasso." Expresso (August 1994), p. 64, ill.
Guilia d'Agnolo Vallan. "Se habla de Picasso." Vogue España (August 1994), p. 39, ill.
Herschel Chipp and Alan Wofsy, ed. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885-1973. Vol. 4, Toward Surrealism, 1925–1929. San Francisco, 1996, pp. xvi, 224, no. 27–070, ill.
William S. Lieberman. "Donation Gelman: l'École de Paris au Metropolitan." Connaissance des arts no. 554 (October 1998), p. 106.
Andrew Decker. "Metropolitan: Une Exceptionnelle donation." Beaux Arts no. 170 (July 1998), p. 24.
Sabine Rewald in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1999–2000." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58 (Fall 2000), p. 59, ill. (color).
Anne Baldassari inPicasso surreal = Picasso surréaliste = The Surrealist Picasso. Ed. Anne Baldassari. Exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler, Basel. Paris, 2005, pp. 218–19, fig. 88 [see Ref. Éluard 1927], erroneously called "Harlequin".
Anne Baldassari. Bacon–Picasso: The Life of Images. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 2005, pp. 110–12 n. 237, fig. 103.
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, p. 12, fig. 16 (color, installation photo, Gelman apartment, 1989).
Sabine Rewald 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. 210–11, no. 76, ill. (color).
Holland Cotter. "All the Picassos in the Cupboard." New York Times (April 29, 2010), p. C25.
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. 210.
Marilyn McCully and Michael Raeburn inPicasso. Tableaux magiques. Exh. cat., Musée National Picasso-Paris. Milan, 2019, pp. 26, 149, 180, 192, no. 31, TM [Tableaux Magiques] no. 61, ill. (color) p. 81 and back cover.
Pepe Karmel. Looking at Picasso. London, 2023, pp. 103–4, 175 n. 29, fig. 4.9 (color).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1921
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