Tête d'homme

One of the last of Picasso's self-portraits, this powerful work concentrates on the artist's growing expectation of his own death. Picasso, like Rembrandt and other Old Masters before him, depicted himself with the brutal honesty of an old man facing the inevitability of his own mortality.

In the present work, Picasso's famous black eyes stare wide open with a powerful expression that suggests a mixture of fear, curiosity, sadness and weariness that allows the viewer no doubt as to what the figure is contemplating. In an act of courageous artistic honesty, Picasso shows himself here, not in the many guises and alter-egos that he had created for himself throughout his career, but emotionally naked, a tired old man humbled by the ravages of time. Tight-lipped, proud - though somewhat dishevelled with his ruffled hair and wild stubble still growing on his chin - Picasso shows himself in this powerful portrait as an ordinary human being facing the human condition.