Head of a Woman (Fernande)

‘Apart from a few Works done in Barcelona (1902-3), Picasso’s earliest sculptures, including this Head of a Woman (Fernande), were generally modelled in Montmartre, either in his Bateau Lavoir studio or, more likely, at his friend Paco Durrio’s atelier. The idea to cast the work in bronze from the clay original was probably suggested to Picasso by the dealer Ambroise Vollard, and a number of casts were made at the Valsuani foundry, of which the present work is no. 6.

The head of Fernande Olivier, the artist’s mistress, was done at a time when Picasso was exploring sculptural ideas in his paintings—how to convey the substance of flesh, space and the earth itself through colour. When he turned to modelling he was able to achieve a real fusion of actual substance and like-like qualities: as Picasso biographer John Richardson has suggested, “[Picasso’s] desire for his model engendered a Pygmalion-like urge to transfuse the clay with her sensuousness” (John Richardson. A Life of Picasso, vol. I, 1881-1906. New York: Random House, 1991, p. 428).

A photograph taken in Barcelona in May 1906 reveals that Picasso also achieved a remarkable likeness of Fernande in this work. The sculpture is strikingly similar to a drawing [Fernande Olivier, Gósol, summer 1906] that Picasso did of Fernande during the summer in Gósol, in which emphasis is given to her almond-shaped eyes, the overall shape of her head, and her hair loosely falling down her back. In three dimensions these same features dominate the form’.


Text: GODEFROY, Cécile y Marilyn McCully (dirs.). Pablo Picasso: 43 Works. [Exh. cat.: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2010]. Malaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2010, p. 41.