Head of a Woman

1903
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 828
This exquisite portrait was made in Barcelona, where Picasso lived from January 1903 to March 1904 in the studio on Calle Riera de San Juan that he had shared three years before with his late friend Carles Casagemas. The model is thought to be the twenty-year-old Parisian doll dressmaker Cécile Acker, also known as Geneviève (or Germaine) Pfeipher. A lover of the poet Max Jacob, she may also have had a liaison with Picasso. Picasso painted this work over a landscape signed by a painter named González, presumably Joan González, the older brother of the sculptor Julio González.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Head of a Woman
  • Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
  • Date: 1903
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 15 7/8 x 14in. (40.3 x 35.6cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967
  • Object Number: 67.187.91
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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