Accession Number1994/1.68
TitlePortrait of Françoise (Buste de Femme)
Artist(s)Pablo PicassoArtist NationalitySpanish (culture or style)Object Creation DateFebruary 28, 1949Medium & Supportoil on canvasDimensions 16 5/16 in x 13 ⅒ in (41.4 cm x 33.3 cm);24 in x 21 in x 1 ¾ in (60.96 cm x 53.34 cm x 4.45 cm)
Credit LineGift of The Carey Walker FoundationLabel copyMarch 28, 2009
During the final years of World War II, Pablo Picasso began a relationship with a young painter named Françoise Gilot (born 1921). The couple had two children together before Gilot left Picasso in 1953. Portrait of Françoise—executed in long, linear strokes and concentrations of pigment—is one of a series of portraits of her in a variety of media made over the course of a year. Gilot had a strong character; she once asserted that Picasso’s portraits of her were “not boxes in which I fit. I’m not a prisoner of them.” Here her forceful nature is conveyed by the intensity of her gaze and the erectness of her posture.
Subject matterPortrait by Picasso of his lover, Françoise Gilot. The portraits of her usually depict Gilot with a sharp, narrow face that recalls portraits of Spanish princesses by Diego Velasquez. Completed on February 28, 1949, one month before the birth of Picasso and Gilot’s second child, Paloma.
Physical DescriptionBust portrait of woman. Her hair is brown, shoulder length, and curls at the bottom. Her high-collared blouse has off-white and light blue vertical stripes. She looks directly at the viewer
Primary Object Classification Painting Primary Object TypeportraitAdditional Object Classification(s)PaintingCollection AreaModern and ContemporaryRightsIf you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit
http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Keywords
Cubist
Portraits
abstraction
bust-length
modern and contemporary art
oil painting (technique)
oil paintings (visual works)
portraits
wives
woman
women (female humans)