Woman in a Black Hat

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Woman in a Black Hat

Artist Pablo Picasso (Spanish (active France), 1881-1973)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1909

DimensionsPainting: 28 3/4 × 23 3/4 in. (73 × 60.3 cm)
Frame: 39 1/2 × 33 5/8 × 3 in. (100.3 × 85.4 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, and with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1984.15

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 03

Label TextArtist and model Fernande Olivier (1881–1966) is the subject of this early Cubist portrait by Pablo Picasso. Wearing a bold feathered hat and seated in a high-backed chair, she rests her chin on her hand. The two met in 1904 upon Picasso’s move to Paris from Barcelona and were soon living together. Olivier, who had worked as an artist’s model for several years, became a frequent subject of Picasso’s early works. Later in life Olivier published memoirs of her stormy relationship with Picasso, despite his protests. Picasso’s early Cubist explorations show the ability of the style to question the possibilities and meanings of visual representation. He overlapped geometric planes and multiple points of view rather than using traditional perspective. His color palette became severely limited as he sought to treat subject and background with equal emphasis. The process of fragmenting and recombining visual components became known as Analytic Cubism. [image caption] Fernande Olivier, photographed by Pablo Picasso, 1906. Musée Picasso, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY, Photo: Madeleine Coursaget.Published References

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Exhibition History

Berlin, Secessions Austellungshaus, XXII, Ausstellung der Berliner Secession, 1912, no. 199.

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Basel/Riehen, Roundation Beyeler, The Other Collection, Aug. 19, 2007-Jan. 6, 2008.