Description
The subject of this portrait is likely Germaine Gargallo (1880–1948). When she refused the marriage proposal of Picasso’s friend and roommate, Carles Casagemas (1880–1901), tragedy followed. In a drunken rage, Casagemas shot Gargallo in the head (grazing her temple), and then turned the gun on himself. His death and Picasso’s resulting grief led, in part, to the artist’s Blue Period, which explored themes of despair and isolation.
Provenance
Joseph Winterbotham (1878–1954), Chicago, by 1936 [Chicago 1936]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1954.
Accession Number
80592
Medium
Pastel, with stumping and incising, over touches of charcoal, on gray millboard, laid down on tan cardboard, fixed
Dimensions
36.5 × 27 cm (14 3/8 × 10 11/16 in.)
Classification
pastel
Credit Line
Bequest of Joseph Winterbotham
Background & Context
Background Story
Pablo Picasso's Young Woman with a Hat (1900) is a pastel with stumping and incising over touches of charcoal on gray millboard. This early work dates from the very beginning of Picasso's career, when he was still a teenager working in Barcelona and Paris. The young woman with a hat is rendered in a style that shows the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec and the Parisian avant-garde.
Cultural Impact
This early work documents Picasso's artistic formation before the invention of Cubism.
Why It Matters
This early pastel of a young woman with a hat shows the young Picasso influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec.
