Seated Woman
Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973
Paris, 1927
An oil-on-wood portrait in which Picasso flattens and fragments a seated woman into interlocking planes and a fused profile/frontal face to suggest several viewpoints at once.
You’re struck by the bold red dress and masklike face split between profile and front, the sweeping black hair and curved contour lines that make the figure feel both solid and fractured.
Painted in 1927 as Picasso moved beyond Analytic Cubism, this work recasts portraiture by presenting a person as a composite of perspectives, opening new ways to represent time, memory, and identity in modern art.
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
51 1/8 x 38 1/4" (129.9 x 96.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of James Thrall Soby
Accession
516.1961
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
