Pablo Picasso

This head is filled with multiple profiles and perspectives, most notably seen in the opposing profiles formed by the red and tan forms in the center, each with its own eye. A third eye appears on the left side of the face. The continuous line that flows through the painting reflects the semiautomatic drawing technique Picasso developed around 1924, a creative method that influenced the Surrealists. The combination of distinctly different profiles and displaced eyes may also reflect the influence of tribal art of the Pacific Islands greatly admired by Picasso and the Surrealists. While the woman’s features resemble those of Picasso’s mistress, Marie Thérèse Walter, she may not have been the model since they reportedly did not meet until January 1927.