While distorted facial features are legible on the top half of this gridded composition, the bottom half is more difficult to read, making it a challenge to identify the woman with pearl earrings. It was Gris’s friend and dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler who first referred to this painting as a portrait of the artist’s mother, “painted from memory, for after leaving Madrid he never saw her again.”
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Artwork Details
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Title:Head of a Woman (Portrait of the Artist's Mother)
Artist:Juan Gris (Spanish, Madrid 1887–1927 Boulogne-sur-Seine)
Date:Paris, 1912
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 3/16 × 18 1/4 in. (53.8 × 46.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
Accession Number:SL.17.2014.1.20
Inscription: Signed (upper left, in black paint): Juan Gris
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, possibly 1912–14; photo no. 5003; sequestered Kahnweiler stock, December 12, 1914–22; third Kahnweiler sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, July 4, 1922, no. 100, as "Tête de Femme," sold for Fr 65, to Lipchitz]; Jacques Lipchitz (from 1922); [Galerie Simon (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris; inv. no. 10469]; Waldemar George, Paris (in 1923); [Galerie Simon (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris]; [Justin K. Thannhauser, Paris, ca. 1937–38; provenance register no. 10728, photo no. 342, valued at DM 950]; [Galerie de Beaune, Paris, 1938; sold in June 1938 to Cooper]; Douglas Cooper, London (1938–d. 1984; estate no. DC 34/33; 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 (from 1986)
Prague. Obecní Dům Města. "Third exhibition of the Skupina Výtvarných Umělců," May–June 1913, no. 26 (as "Hlava ženy").
Paris. Galerie Simon. "Juan Gris," March 20–April 5, 1923, no. 1 bis (as "Tête de Femme").
Berlin. Galerie Alfred Flechtheim. "In Memoriam Juan Gris, 1887–1927," February 1930, no. 3.
Paris. Galerie Thannhauser. 1937 [possibly this picture].
Venice. Biennale. "XXV Biennale di Venezia," June 8–October 15, 1950, no. 13 (shown in Sala V, “Quattro maestri del Cubismo").
Suffolk. Lowestoft Art Centre. "Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings from the Private Collection of Douglas Cooper, including Original Works by Picasso, Braque, Léger," January 1951.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Boccioni's Materia: A Futurist Masterpiece and the Avant-garde in Milan and Paris," February 6–May 9, 2004, no. 14.
Madrid. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. "Juan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910–1927," June 22–September 19, 2005, no. 12.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 20.
III. Výstava. Exh. cat., Obecní Dům Města. Prague, 1913, unpaginated, no. 26.
Maurice Raynal. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Galerie Simon. Paris, 1923, no. 1 bis.
In Memoriam Juan Gris, 1887–1927. Exh. cat., Galerie Flechtheim. Berlin, 1930, unpaginated, no. 3.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Juan Gris: His Life and Work. New York, 1947, pp. 78, 83, 169, pl. 4.
Douglas Cooper inXXV Biennale di Venezia: Catalogo. Exh. cat., Biennale. Venice, 1950, p. 54, no. 13.
John Richardson. "Au Château des cubistes." L'Oeil no. 4 (April 15, 1955), p. 22, ill. (on display in Douglas Cooper’s Château de Castille, Argilliers).
Douglas Cooper. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bern. Bern, 1955, unpaginated, no. 5, ill.
Carola Giedion-Welcker. "Juan Gris. Ausstellung Kunsthalle Bern." Das Werk: Architektur und Kunst 42, no. 12 (1955), p. 253, as "La Mère".
José Camón Aznar. Picasso y el Cubismo. Madrid, 1956, p. 197, 723, fig. 125.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Juan Gris: His Life and Work. New York, 1969, pp. 118–19, 315, ill. p. 243 (Spanish ed., 1971, p. 398, ill. p. 55).
Douglas Cooper. The Cubist Epoch. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. London, 1970, p. 287, no. 109, pl. 221.
Nicholas Wadley. Cubism. London, 1970, p. 140, ill. no. 155.
Douglas Cooper and Hans A. Peters. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden, 1974, unpaginated, no. 7, ill.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Barcelona, [1974], p. 240, no. 42, ill. p. 24.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Boston, 1975, p. 244, no. 42, ill. p. 24.
Jean Clay. De l'Impressionisme à l'art moderne. Paris, 1975, p. 178, ill. p. 179.
Douglas Cooper with Margaret Potter. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Paris, 1977, vol. 1, p. 28, no. 14, ill. p. 29.
Jean Clay. Modern Art, 1890–1918. New York, 1978, pp. 178, 316, ill. p. 179.
Lesley Blanch. "The Collectors: A Distillation of Taste. Douglas Cooper in Monte Carlo." Architectural Digest (October 1980), ill. p. 100 (on display in the Monte Carlo residence of Douglas Cooper).
Malcolm Gee. Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930. PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art. New York, 1981, appendix F, p. 65, no. 18.
Douglas Cooper and Gary Tinterow. The Essential Cubism: Braque, Picasso & their friends, 1907–1920. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1983, p. 140, no. 59, ill. p. 141.
Mark Rosenthal. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. New York, 1983, pp. 24, 177, no. 7, ill. p. 26.
John McEwen. "Squaring an Old Account." Sunday Times Magazine (April 24, 1983), ill. p. 35.
Nissa Torrents. "El cubismo esencial (1907–1920) en la Tate Gallery de Londres." La Vanguardia (June 5, 1983), ill.
Dario A. Fumolo. "Il Cubismo essenziale." La Vernice (March–April 1983), ill.
Mark Roskill. The Interpretation of Cubism. London, 1985, p. 64.
John Golding. Boccioni: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. London, 1985, p. 21, fig. 20.
Juan Antonio Gaya-Nuño. Juan Gris. Barcelona, 1985, p. 126, fig. 26.
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel, 1987, p. 98 n. 89, ill. p. 24 (on display in Douglas Cooper’s Château de Castille, Argilliers, ca. 1955).
Dorothy M. Kosinski. Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger: Douglas Cooper Collecting Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, 1990, pp. 40, 57 n. 115, p. 60, no. 16, fig. 36.
David Cottington. "London and Stuttgart: Juan Gris." Burlington Magazine 134 (December 1992), p. 819, fig. 57.
Christopher Green, with Christian Derouet, and Karin von Maur. Juan Gris. Exh. cat., Whitechapel Gallery. London, 1992, p. 117, pl. 11, and ill. on dust jacket.
John Golding. "Living Still Life." New York Review of Books 40 (January 28, 1993), pp. 27–29, ill.
Laura Mattioli Rossi, ed. Boccioni's Materia: A Futurist Masterpiece and the Avant-Garde in Milan and Paris. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 2004, p. 101, no. 14, ill.
Paloma Esteban Leal inJuan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910–1927. Ed. Paloma Esteban Leal. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Madrid, 2005, vol. 1, unpaginated, no. 12, ill., vol. 2, p. 21, no. 12, ill.
Laura Mattioli Rossi, ed. Boccioni: pittore, scultore, futurista. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale. Milan, 2006, p. 184, no. 29, ill. p. 58.
Paz García Ponce de León. Juan Gris: La pasión por el Cubismo. Madrid, 2008, pp. 210–11, ill.
Juan Gris: Rimes de la forme et de la couleur. Exh. cat., Musée Paul Valéry. Sète, 2011, p. 53, ill. p. 52.
"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, as ca. March 1912.
Douglas Cooper, with Margaret Potter, updated by Alan Hyman, and Elizabeth Snowden. Juan Gris: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint/ Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1977). San Francisco, 2014, vol. 1, pp. 26–27, no. 14, ill.
Harry Cooper inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 72–75, 306(2)n.14, (3)nn.19, 20, no. 20, ill. p. 73 (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, pp. 257–58, fig. 20 (on display in Douglas Cooper's Château de Castille, Argilliers, France, ca. 1955).
Marie Rakušanová. "Je kubismus, který je český, světový? Př.pad Kubišta (Is Cubism That Is Czech Also International? The Case of Kubišta)." Umění / Art 65, nos. 5–6 (2017), pp. 484, 497 n. 80, fig. 3.
Vérane Tasseau. "Lauder, Leonard A." Dictionnaire du Cubisme. Ed. Brigitte Leal. Paris, 2018, p. 405.
Jacqueline Rose. Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty. London, 2018, ill. (color) on front cover and spine, as "Mother of the Artist".
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inYears of Disarray 1908-1928. Avant-gardes in Central Europe. Ed. Karel Srp. Exh. cat., Olomouc Museum of Art. [Prague], 2019, p. 60 (reproduction of Exh. Prague 1913 checklist, as no. 26, "Hlava ženy").
Laura Doyle. Inter-imperiality: Vying Empires, Gendered Labor, and the Literary Arts of Alliance. Durham, N.C., 2020, ill. on cover (color).
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