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Lot Essay
Claude Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Pablo Picasso's sense of whimsy and visual lyricism are clear to see in Tête, created on 24 February 1944. This picture shows a head that has been rendered through an array of stylised lines and marks, crowned by a crazy spray of seaweed-like strands that appear to represent the hair of the subject. This picture is one of several that Picasso created on the same day, exploring variations of the human face; in one of the sister-pictures, the hair is shown in a star-like diagrammatic form that appears to have reached a more expressive peak here.
The small eyes and manic hair of Tête add a sense of humour to this work as well as a capriciousness that appears to owe something to Picasso's fellow Spaniard, Joan Miró. From the point of their first meeting in 1920, the two compatriot artists, both largely based in Paris, had an interesting interaction. Picasso even told Miró, 'After me, you are the one who is opening a new door' (Picasso, quoted in M. Rowell, Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 102). Meanwhile, John Richardson has said that Miró influenced Picasso more than the latter artist liked to admit (J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years 1917-1932, London, 2007, p. 322). Looking at the glyph-like composition of Tête, this appears believable, as the depiction recalls some of the cryptic calligraphic figures that featured in Miró's visual pantheon.
Miró and Picasso had worked almost side by side in 1937 creating paintings for the Spanish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, both channelling their horror at the Civil War that was ravaging their homeland into their pictures. In Tête, the legacy of conflict is also perhaps hintingly apparent: this picture, created only months before the beginning of the Liberation of France during the Second World War, echoes some of the earlier pictures of a tortured Dora Maar, not least the exaggerated, almost canine snout. However, the waving hair, small eyes and tightly-pursed mouth ensure that there is nonetheless a tender humour present in this picture.
Pablo Picasso's sense of whimsy and visual lyricism are clear to see in Tête, created on 24 February 1944. This picture shows a head that has been rendered through an array of stylised lines and marks, crowned by a crazy spray of seaweed-like strands that appear to represent the hair of the subject. This picture is one of several that Picasso created on the same day, exploring variations of the human face; in one of the sister-pictures, the hair is shown in a star-like diagrammatic form that appears to have reached a more expressive peak here.
The small eyes and manic hair of Tête add a sense of humour to this work as well as a capriciousness that appears to owe something to Picasso's fellow Spaniard, Joan Miró. From the point of their first meeting in 1920, the two compatriot artists, both largely based in Paris, had an interesting interaction. Picasso even told Miró, 'After me, you are the one who is opening a new door' (Picasso, quoted in M. Rowell, Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 102). Meanwhile, John Richardson has said that Miró influenced Picasso more than the latter artist liked to admit (J. Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years 1917-1932, London, 2007, p. 322). Looking at the glyph-like composition of Tête, this appears believable, as the depiction recalls some of the cryptic calligraphic figures that featured in Miró's visual pantheon.
Miró and Picasso had worked almost side by side in 1937 creating paintings for the Spanish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, both channelling their horror at the Civil War that was ravaging their homeland into their pictures. In Tête, the legacy of conflict is also perhaps hintingly apparent: this picture, created only months before the beginning of the Liberation of France during the Second World War, echoes some of the earlier pictures of a tortured Dora Maar, not least the exaggerated, almost canine snout. However, the waving hair, small eyes and tightly-pursed mouth ensure that there is nonetheless a tender humour present in this picture.