Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

Head: Study for a Monument

Pablo Picasso Spanish

Not on view

When the writer Guillaume Apollinaire died in 1918, Picasso was commissioned to create a sculpted monument for his friend’s grave. More than a decade later, he was still searching for the form the memorial should take. This work is one among many sketches and paintings he created for the commission. Inspired, perhaps, by one of Apollinaire’s essays about a monument for a dead poet consisting of nothing but poetry and fame, Picasso here uses the aesthetic of the unfinished to represent poetry as an inspirational act related to the process of creation. Fame is expressed in the monumental scale of the tectonically arranged conical shapes.

Head: Study for a Monument, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Oil on canvas

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.