Pablo Picasso Pd Us 1909 Femme à Léventail (woman With A Fan)

Description

Picasso’s Woman with a Fan gives a seated figure the solidity of an assembled object. Her green and blue-gray face is divided into angular planes, with dark contours defining the head and shoulders. A fan opens near the lower left, providing a recognizable object within the otherwise compressed arrangement. The hat, hands, and costume become parts of a structure that feels both human and architectural.

Painted in 1909, the work shows Picasso testing how much a portrait can change while retaining the presence of its sitter. He does not organize every feature around a single, consistent viewpoint. Instead, shifts of angle and tone suggest different aspects of the form at once. The restricted colors keep the eye on these relationships. A quiet seated pose becomes a demanding study of how a figure can occupy the painted surface.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Pablo Picasso collection.