ticketsMember | Make a donation

La Coiffure

1906
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 828
Although today art historians associate a woman at her toilette with Edgar Degas's famous series of nude bathers, shown in Paris at the 1886 Impressionist exhibition and repeated in his oeuvre until about 1910, it is unlikely that Picasso could have seen many examples. Degas had drawn inspiration from the Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and that same source was used by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Auguste Renoir in their development of the theme at the end of the nineteenth century. In an odd twist, however, Picasso chose to suppress in this picture all the eroticism that normally attends the subject. Instead, he turns the picture into a contrapuntal variation on the Holy Family, with echoes of Leonardo's Virgin and Saint Anne at the Musée du Louvre. Picasso painted this composition on a much-used canvas: there are at least three complete paintings beneath the present surface.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: La Coiffure
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1906
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 69 in. × 39 3/8 in. (175.3 × 100 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Wolfe Fund, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Anonymous Gift
  • Object Number: 53.140.3
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
291, No. 1, March 1915, Pablo Picasso Spanish
291, No. 1, March 1915
Multiple artists/makers
1915
Picasso, His Work and His Public, Pablo Picasso Spanish, Etching
Picasso, His Work and His Public
Multiple artists/makers
1968
Head of a Woman, Pablo Picasso Spanish, Pastel on paper
Head of a Woman
Pablo Picasso
1921
Mother and Child by a Fountain, Pablo Picasso Spanish, Oil on canvas
Mother and Child by a Fountain
Pablo Picasso
1901
Reclining Bather with a Book, Pablo Picasso Spanish, Graphite on paper
Reclining Bather with a Book
Pablo Picasso
1921

Related Content

Publications

Books, guides, and catalogues published by The Met.

Showing 4 of 8

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

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.