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A painting of a young girl, seated, wearing a large hat and a pink dress.

The painting shows a young girl looking forward, wearing a large hat with a very large light blue bow on top. The girl’s dress is pink with touches of white at the neck, shoulders and wrists. Her hair is loose and draped over her left shoulder. The background is blue with patches of green near her head in the center. The paint is applied is broad, loose stokes.

Gallery Text

Completed when he was just nineteen years old, this is one of a small number of double-sided paintings that Picasso made in 1901. In each, one side of the canvas features a portrait in the manner of late nineteenth-century French artists. The other side, however, shows a different figure, executed in Picasso’s emergent distinctive style. This composition mimics paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec in its palette and short, energetic brushstrokes, while the frontal pose and confrontational gaze of the sitter recall his portraits of the 1890s. This side of the double-sided canvas was traditionally considered the lesser of the two paintings, and it was hung against the wall, hidden from view, in Wertheim’s home.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.55.2
People
Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Spanish (Malaga, Spain 1881 - 1973 Mougins, France)
Title
Young Girl Wearing a Large Hat
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1901
Culture
Spanish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229047

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1220, European Art, 19th–20th century, Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
sight: 68.6 x 47.6 cm (27 x 18 3/4 in.)
framed: 95.3 x 74 x 7.6 cm (37 1/2 x 29 1/8 x 3 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: dark blue oil, u.l.: Picasso
  • inscription: in red paint, l. r.: S. L. 891.27.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pablo Ruiz Picasso; to [Ambroise Vollard]. [Carroll Galleries, New York (? - 1915) sold]; to John Quinn, New York (1915-1926), sold (by his estate); to [Paul Rosenberg]. Dr. and Mrs. Harry Bakwin, New York NY, 1926. Maurice Wertheim, New York, (1936-1951) bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1951.

Notes
Per correspondence with the owners' grandson, the painting was sold during World War II, this seems unlikely as Wertheim purchased the painting in 1936.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
Copyright
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.55.2
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Recto of a two-sided canvas (verso: 1951.55.1)

Publication History

  • Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1921), no. 79
  • John Quinn, 1870-1924, Collection of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings & Sculpture, Pidgeon Hill Press (Huntington, NY, 1926), p. 13, repr. p. 100
  • Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Cahiers d'Art (Paris, France, 1932), repr. vol. I, pl. 37, no. 76
  • Pablo Picasso, exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT, 1934), no. 7
  • Jacques Seligmann, Picasso's "Blue" and "Rose" Periods 1901-1906, exh. cat., Jacques Seligmann Galleries (New York, NY, 1936), repr., no. 7
  • French Painting since 1870, lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), repr. p. 47
  • La Peinture Française Depuis 1870: Collection Maurice Wertheim, exh. cat., Tom Taylor (Québec, Canada, 1949), p. 51; repr. p. 52
  • Antonina Vallentin, Pablo Picasso, A. Michel (Paris, France, 1957), p. 52
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 34, pl. 12
  • Helen Kay, Picasso's World of Children, Doubleday & Co. (New York, NY, 1965), repr.
  • Pierre Daix and Georges Boudaille, Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods, Idees et Calendes (Neuchatel, Switzerland, 1966), repr. V. 69 and VI.23
  • B. L. Reid, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends, Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (New York, NY, 1968), p. 207
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), repr., no. 23
  • Judith Zilczer, 'The Noble Buyer': John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde, exh. cat., Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C, 1978), p. 176
  • Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso, the Early Years, 1881-1907, Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1981), p. 257
  • Vivien Raynor, "Art: Impressionist Show at the I.B.M. Gallery" [review], The New York Times (New York, NY, April 26, 1985), p. C24
  • John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 23, 101-104, p. 156; repr. in color p. 102
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 124; repr. as no. 833
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1990), repr. in color no. 34, p. 99
  • Marilyn McCully, Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1997), p. 356, in checklist
  • Barnaby Wright, ed., Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901, exh. cat., The Courtauld Gallery and Paul Holberton Publishing (London, 2013), p. 51, fig. 18, ill. (color)
  • Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6, pp. 302-4

Exhibition History

  • Modern European Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 01/01/1933 - 12/31/1933
  • Pablo Picasso, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 02/06/1934 - 03/01/1934
  • Picasso "Blue" and "Rose" Periods, 1901-1906, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 11/01/1936 - 11/30/1936
  • French Painting since 1870 lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1946 - 09/07/1946; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 07/01/1953 - 09/13/1953
  • La Peinture Française depuis 1870, Musée de la Province de Quebec, 07/12/1949 - 08/07/1949
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
  • French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, 06/01/1971 - 09/30/1971
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
  • Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, 03/01/1990 - 04/10/1990; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 04/14/1990 - 05/13/1990
  • Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 09/10/1997 - 01/04/1998
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1220 Wertheim, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu