Picasso initially drew this bust-length figure with open, almond-shaped eyes. The long, diagonal strokes of black ink that cast shadows on the face were added later, possibly inspired by two defaced archaic, Iberian stone heads that Picasso acquired after they were stolen from the Musée du Louvre in 1907. The blackened gaze evokes both blindness and introspection. A close look at this drawing reveals traces of an earlier composition—in this case a standing female nude.
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Inscription: Signed (lower right, in charcoal): Picasso [underlined]; inscribed probably at a later date (verso, upper left corner, in pencil): 1908
Marking: watermark: J C A
the artist, Paris (1908–37; sold in January 1937 to Loeb); [Galerie Pierre (Pierre Loeb), Paris, 1937–38; inv. no. 1032/14; sold in February 1938 for £20, to Cooper]; Douglas Cooper, London (1938–d. 1984; estate no. DC 83/84; his bequest to McCarty Cooper); his partner and adopted son, William McCarty Cooper, London (1984–86; sold in November 1986 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (1986–2013; transferred on April 8, 2013 to the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust); The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Trust, New York (2013–16; gift to MMA)
London. Tate Gallery. "The Essential Cubism, 1907–1920: Braque, Picasso & their friends," April 27–July 10, 1983, extended to July 31, 1983, no. 158.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus," November 22, 1987–January 17, 1988, no. 52.
London. Tate Gallery. "Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism," February 3–April 4, 1988, no. 52.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Léger, Gris: Drawings from the Douglas Cooper Collection," June 16–July 31, 1988, no catalogue.
Houston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," October 14–December 30, 1990, no. 55.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism," January 31–April 21, 1991, no. 55.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "1908–1914: Cubist Drawings Collected by Douglas Cooper," June 12–October 4, 1991, no catalogue.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Facets of Cubism," December 7, 2005–April 16, 2006, not in brochure.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Picasso Black and White," October 5, 2012–January 23, 2013, no. 7.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Picasso Black and White," February 20–May 28, 2013, no. 7.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 52.
New York. Acquavella Galleries. "Picasso: Seven Decades of Drawing," October 7–December 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (pl. 15; as "Tête d'homme [Head of a Man]').
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 715, pl. 313, as 1909.
John Richardson. "Au Château des cubistes." L'Oeil no. 4 (April 15, 1955), ill. p. 22 (on display in Douglas Cooper’s Château de Castille, Argilliers), as 1909.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 322, no. 158, ill. p. 323.
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel, 1987, pp. 135–36, 210–11, no. 52, ill. pp. 135 (on display in Douglas Cooper’s Château de Castille, Argilliers, ca. 1955), 143.
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1990, pp. 35, 55 n. 97, p. 62, no. 55.
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 500, no. 338, ill. p. 122, as "Slanting Head," spring 1909.
Holland Cotter. "When Cubism Fractured Art's Delicate World." New York Times (December 30, 2005), p. E38, ill.
Carmen Giménez, ed. Picasso Black and White. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Munich, 2012, p. 217, no. 7, ill.
Carol Vogel. "$1 Billion Gift Gives Met a New Perspective (Cubist)." New York Times (April 10, 2013), p. A18, ill.
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 46.
Christine Poggi inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 28, 36–39, no. 52, ill. p. 38 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 279, fig. 52 (on display in Douglas Cooper's Château de Castille, Argilliers, France, ca. 1955).
Giancarlo M. G. Scoditti. "An Ethnographical Divertissement on Tribal Art and Picasso’s First Cubism." Tributes to Jean Michel Massing: Towards a Global Art History. Ed. Mark Stocker and Phillip Lindley. London, 2016, pp. 248–50, fig. 3 (in a sketch after Pablo Picasso, dated as 1908–10).
Written on the verso (upper left corner, vertically in pencil): [illegible]; (upper center, in red pencil): lot 1032/14 [Galerie Pierre inv. no.]; (lower left, in pencil): 8 33 PP [Paul Rosenberg’s 1935 inventory of Picasso’s studio]
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1921
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