On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Head of a Woman (Fernande)
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Picasso originally made this work in clay, leaving finger marks and bits of material unsmoothed. The final Cubist form—constructed by building up and paring away material—has both mass and a dappled surface that suggests its disintegration. In September 1910 the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who gave Picasso his first Paris show in 1901, purchased the clay sculpture to make a bronze edition. To make the bronze, this plaster was cast from the original clay, which was destroyed in the process. The plaster would typically be used to start the bronze casting but Picasso, who visited the foundry to oversee the process, decided there was more work to do. The plaster shows evidence of Picasso’s continued efforts: while it was still damp, he sharpened brow edges and cut facets in the neck, furthering its Cubist form.
