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Lot Essay
Tête appuyée sur les mains II belongs to a series of three heads Picasso drew on the 9th of January 1962 and which he carefully dated and numbered (Zervos, 186-188). Executed in brown wax crayon and bright primary colours, the series explored the idea of two facing profiles constituting a frontal head. In all three works, Picasso used yellow and blue to enliven each of the profiles, joining them with a red line. Of the three, Tête appuyée sur les mains II is the one in which Picasso emphasised the most the idea of the two profiles: he mirrored the use of colour in the two halves and visibly depicted both eyes in profile. Yet, the pose of the hands, sustaining a single head, help to create the effect of a double image, in which kissing profiles give form to a frontal portrait. Picasso would later use the drawing as a preparation for a tapestry.
The almond-shaped eyes and straight nose of Tête appuyée sur les mains II evoke the striking lineaments of Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso had married the previous year and who, from that moment onwards, would watch over him until his last day. As the previous women in Picasso’s life had done, Jacqueline’s presence invaded his work. Only in 1962 – the year Tête appuyée sur les mains II was executed – Picasso painted seventy portraits of her. Expressing a vivid interest for the possibility of composing a face out of two profiles, Tête appuyée sur les mains II relates to a series of portraits of Jacqueline which Picasso started painting just before executing the drawing: on the 3rd of January the artist began Femme au grand chapeau (Zervos, 185: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) while on the 4th he simultaneously started composing Buste de femme au chapeau (Les Dames de Mougins) (Zervos, 180: Private Collection). In both paintings, Picasso formed the head out of two profiles and it is possible that Tête appuyée sur les mains II and the other related drawings served Picasso to experiment and develop this idea while working on the paintings.
In its inclusion of profiles in the frontal depiction of a head, Tête appuyée sur les mains II exemplifies the liberal, candid way in which, in the 1960s, Picasso incorporated into his works the multiple perspectives he had first explored decades earlier with Cubism. In a more immediate timeframe, however, the drawing may have followed an idea Picasso could have had the previous year, while working on a series of découpages, first executed in paper, then in metal. In three-dimensional works such as Tête de femme (1961, Fondation Beyeler), for instance, Picasso had given volume to the head by simply folding a sheet of metal along the line of the nose, diving the face into two distinct flat profile plans. Such spatial division of the head might have inspired Picasso to explore the idea further onto the two-dimensional surface of drawing and consequently painting. Illustrating Picasso’s restless inventiveness, Tête appuyée sur les mains II captures the fervour of invention which Jacqueline’s strong features had inspired in Picasso.
The almond-shaped eyes and straight nose of Tête appuyée sur les mains II evoke the striking lineaments of Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso had married the previous year and who, from that moment onwards, would watch over him until his last day. As the previous women in Picasso’s life had done, Jacqueline’s presence invaded his work. Only in 1962 – the year Tête appuyée sur les mains II was executed – Picasso painted seventy portraits of her. Expressing a vivid interest for the possibility of composing a face out of two profiles, Tête appuyée sur les mains II relates to a series of portraits of Jacqueline which Picasso started painting just before executing the drawing: on the 3rd of January the artist began Femme au grand chapeau (Zervos, 185: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) while on the 4th he simultaneously started composing Buste de femme au chapeau (Les Dames de Mougins) (Zervos, 180: Private Collection). In both paintings, Picasso formed the head out of two profiles and it is possible that Tête appuyée sur les mains II and the other related drawings served Picasso to experiment and develop this idea while working on the paintings.
In its inclusion of profiles in the frontal depiction of a head, Tête appuyée sur les mains II exemplifies the liberal, candid way in which, in the 1960s, Picasso incorporated into his works the multiple perspectives he had first explored decades earlier with Cubism. In a more immediate timeframe, however, the drawing may have followed an idea Picasso could have had the previous year, while working on a series of découpages, first executed in paper, then in metal. In three-dimensional works such as Tête de femme (1961, Fondation Beyeler), for instance, Picasso had given volume to the head by simply folding a sheet of metal along the line of the nose, diving the face into two distinct flat profile plans. Such spatial division of the head might have inspired Picasso to explore the idea further onto the two-dimensional surface of drawing and consequently painting. Illustrating Picasso’s restless inventiveness, Tête appuyée sur les mains II captures the fervour of invention which Jacqueline’s strong features had inspired in Picasso.