Woman's head 1939

This ‘Woman’s Head’ was painted by Pablo Picasso, we're not sure exactly when, and it's now in the Musée Picasso in Paris. I love how Picasso’s portraits feel so much like a process. The tan, brown and black colour palette, painted on what looks like a grey-green ground, gives the painting a warmth. The flat angular shapes make the painting feel like a puzzle, with the woman’s face and figure built up from these fractured planes of colour. Look closely at the face. You can see the individual brushstrokes that build up the different tones of pink and brown. They look spontaneous, but something about the confidence of the forms feels resolved. I’m reminded of the work of Francis Picabia, who similarly embraces the possibility of art to be a site of playful ambiguity. It's this ongoing conversation between artists, styles, and eras, that really makes art history so exciting for me.