Tète

This drawing comes directly from the private collection of the family of Jerry Mason, a former journalist who became the editor of the national newsweekly magazine This Week in the 1940s and in 1952 began a new career as publisher of some of the most innovative and famous books on photography of the 1950s and 1960s, including Family of Man. Mason edited, designed and published the 1958 book The Private World of Picasso, which was written and photographed by David Douglas Duncan over the course of his six month stay in Picasso and Jacqueline's home, a collaboration which itself constituted the occasion for this drawing. Picasso drew this whimsical inscription on the frontispiece of Mason's own personal copy of the book where it is accompanied by another inscription from the book's author: 'For Jerry...Dave' in the lower right corner of the page. Along with the book, the family had retained a copy of a telegram dated 15 March 1958 from David Douglas Duncan to Mason which situates this particular moment in the artist's career: 'Picasso Jacqueline thrilled with book ready start another'.