Head (Study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon)

Pablo Picasso, 1906

Technical Details

About This Work

This watercolor head study isolates the facial construction that Picasso was testing before Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. The compact sheet makes experimentation visible, turning a preparatory image into an independent work with its own medium, scale, and rhythm. Picasso's choice of watercolor on paper shapes how the subject is encountered: the material, scale, and method are not incidental but part of the artwork's visual argument. The record is held by Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, whose direct object page verifies the canonical title, date, medium, dimensions, and collection attribution. This catalog entry therefore distinguishes documented facts from interpretive reading and directs visitors to the institutional record for further research.

MoMA records this drawing as a 1906 Head study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, with a distinct object number and Newberry Collection provenance. It is separate from the accepted oil sketch Study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and must remain separately identified in the catalog. The work belongs in a broader account of Picasso's sustained shifts among drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and sculpture rather than in a simplified single-style narrative. Its museum object number and rights statement allow the gallery to provide reliable scholarship without presenting an unlicensed reproduction as if it were freely reusable. The site will retain the official collection link as the authoritative factual reference and use a rights-aware fallback for the image display.

Current Location

Valuation & Provenance

Keywords