Executed in 1958, Tête de femme—inspired by Pablo Picasso’s wife, Jacqueline Roque—is a striking example of the artist’s working method. Jacqueline’s arresting features, including her deep, almond-shaped eyes and aquiline nose, inspired hundreds of works by the artist, constituting the largest group of images of any woman in his life. A continuous source of inspiration, she appeared in many different guises throughout Picasso’s final years. He represents her in every medium from paintings to drawings, sculpture, prints and ceramics. Although she formally never posed for him, she “came to embody the archetypal female figure during [Picasso’s] ultimate artistic evolutions” (M. Teresa Ocana in Picasso Int.mes (exhibition catalogue), Pinacothèque de Paris, Paris, 2003, p. 17).

The artist first.mes t Jacqueline in 1952 at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, while he was still living with his partner, Françoise Gilot. By 1954 imagery of the unmistakable raven-haired and dark-eyed Jacqueline began to appear in Picasso's works. Unlike Françoise, Jacqueline was more accepting of the temperamental artist and her unwavering support and devotion to him meant she became his longest lasting companion.

The photographer David Douglas Duncan, who was closely acquainted with Picasso and Jacqueline during their years together, observed that Picasso “lived in a world of his own creation, where he reigned almost as a king yet cherished only two treasures—freedom and the love of Jacqueline” (D.D. Duncan, Picasso and Jacqueline, New York, 1988, p. 9). Much like Marie-Thérèse had been in the 1930s, Jacqueline was a soothing companion for the spirited artist, and his grandest depictions of her evoke the quiet yet extraordinarily powerful influence she held over him during the later years of his life. In his monograph on the artist, Duncan claimed that “Jacqueline told me she had not once posed for Picasso. Her silence filled their home—and her face his eyes” (ibid., p. 27). Despite not playing an active role in the creation of individual paintings, Jacqueline was at the very center of Picasso’s existence, artistic and domestic, throughout their t.mes together.

One of the central concerns in Picasso’s paintings and sculptures of the late 1950s and early 1960s is the relationship between light and shadow, negative and positive space and tonal contrasts used to create dramatic and engaging imagery. This extended to executing works in monochrome and imbuing his compositions with a nocturnal air akin to that of his earliest works from the Blue period (see fig. 1). Carmen Giménez theorized that Picasso “really didn’t care about the color. He cared about the form and the structure of the painting. He wanted to express himself the best way possible…. He has the power to bring you into his field without using color, because he’s a master drawer. The line is what’s powerful in his work” (Anthony Barzilay Freund, “Carmen Giménez on ‘Picasso Black and White’ at the Guggenheim” in Sotheby's at Auction, October 9, 2012).

The emphasis on form and line in Tête de femme is further enhanced by the artist’s use of gouache. The beautiful and confident handling of the medium allows the artist to create a full bodied and sculptural composition. The grisaille technique, in which only a range of grey tones is applied to create a monochrome image, was historically used to imitate sculpture and adds a note of elegance and classical beauty; in this work it emphasizes the beauty of Jacqueline’s features and the symmetry of her face. A fugitive medium, gouache allowed Picasso to work quickly conveying a sense of immediacy and directness.