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Head of a Woman

Pablo Picasso · 1925

Pablo Picasso: 1881–1973

UnclassifiedSpain
Other names (9)

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad María de los Remedios Alarcón y Herrera Ruiz Picasso, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad María de los Remedios Alarcón y Herrera Ruiz Picasso, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano de la Santissima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco Picasso, Pablo Ruiz, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Pablo Ruys, Pablo Ruys Picasso, P. Picasso

Biography

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War. His career spanned more than 76 years, from his late teens to his death in 1973.

Beginning his formal training under his father José Ruiz y Blasco aged seven, Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent from a young age, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.

Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.

Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.

Wikipedia contributors. Opening excerpt, formatted for reading. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision.

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Pablo Picasso

Head of a Woman

1925

lithograph · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Artwork details and sources
Dating
Exact year
Medium
lithograph
Dimensions
image: 12.5 x 11.6 cm (4 15/16 x 4 9/16 in.) sheet: 26.2 x 20.9 cm (10 5/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
Collection no.
2011.60.77
Attribution
By the artist

Collection: National Gallery of Art

About this artwork

Head of a Woman — Pablo Picasso. 1925.

Medium: lithograph.

Dimensions (museum labels retained): image: 12.5 x 11.6 cm (4 15/16 x 4 9/16 in.) sheet: 26.2 x 20.9 cm (10 5/16 x 8 1/4 in.).

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Accession 2011.60.77. The John U. and Evelyn S. Nef Collection.

Museum holding does not establish current display.

Source: National Gallery of Art, CC0 collection metadata, retrieved 9 September 2026.

Location checked Sep 9, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.

Artwork sources