Tête de Femme

While Pablo Picasso never claimed to be a Surrealist, his earlier Cubist works certainly laid the groundwork for such a movement to exist. By the time André Breton's 'Surrealist Manifesto' was published in 1924, Picasso was creating art with a similar surrealist style. The present work demonstrates Picasso's ceaseless desire to present an alternative to realism. The artist challenges our perception of portraiture and reality by capturing the woman's face in a simultaneous profile and frontal-facing perspective. As the viewer, our eyes delight in the challenge to understand this surreal vision of a multifaceted woman, made up of elegant curving, intersecting lines.

Lithograph, 1925, on Japanese Imperial paper, signed lower right, an artist's proof gifted directly to Genevieve Laporte from Picasso's private collection, aside from the edition of one hundred, printed by Engelmann, Paris, published by D.H. Kahnweiler, Galerie Simon, Paris, image: 12.7 x 11.8 cm. (5 x 4.6 in.), sheet: 28 x 22.5 cm. (11 x 8.9 in.)

Bloch 73; Baer 240; Mourlot XX; Cramer Books 14