Pablo Picasso Pd Us 1904 Woman With A Helmet Of Hair

Description

Pablo Picasso’s Woman with a Helmet of Hair gives the sitter’s dark coiffure an extraordinary weight. The hair rises over the head like a shaped enclosure, framing a pale blue-gray face with lowered eyes. A small collar appears below, but little surrounding detail competes with the striking relation between the head and the dense form above it.

Made in gouache in 1904, the image treats a familiar feature of appearance as an expressive structure in its own right. Broad, closely related tones give the face a quiet presence, while the darker hair creates a firm contrast. Picasso does not need an elaborate setting to make the portrait absorbing: its character rests in the balance between the sitter’s inward expression and the almost sculptural shape that frames it.