Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme (Head of a Woman), 1959 - 1960, stands as a striking testament to the artist’s mastery of the linocut medium, a technique he embraced with daring innovation during his years in the South of France. In this work, the face of a woman—at once classical and modern—emerges with sculptural force, her features distilled into bold, interlocking planes of line and shadow. The simplicity of the composition belies its technical complexity: Picasso carved into linoleum with remarkable precision, balancing areas of deep black with luminous expanses of untouched paper, creating a rhythm that recalls both the immediacy of drawing and the permanence of carved stone.

The woman’s visage, at once serene and monumental, embodies Picasso’s fascination with the female form as a vessel of timeless beauty and emotional intensity. The strong contouring of the brow, nose, and lips lends the image an almost architectural quality, while the linear textures give it movement and vitality, suggesting a living presence captured in graphic form. Rendered with an economy of means yet brimming with expressive power, Tête de femme exemplifies Picasso’s ability to transform a traditional portrait into a modernist icon, merging the intimacy of personal muse with the universality of archetype.

At once intimate and commanding, this linocut reveals Picasso at the height of his graphic experimentation—where invention, economy, and expressive depth converge in a work that continues to captivate with its timeless elegance and strength.

Created between 1959 and 1960, Pablo Picasso Tête de femme (Head of a Woman) is a color linocut on Arches paper hand-signed by Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, 1973) in pencil in the lower right margin. Numbered from the edition of 50 in pencil in the lower left margin, this work was published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
Pablo Picasso Tête de femme (Head of a Woman), 1959-60 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work):

1. McVinney, L. Donald, et al Picasso Linoleum Cuts: The Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kramer Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Random House, 1985. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 6.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany our Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme (Head of a Woman), 1959 - 1960.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Pablo Picasso Tête de femme (Head of a Woman), 1959-60 is presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.