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Lot Essay
Rendered in a series of sensuous, bold and unwavering lines, the unmistakable profile of Jacqueline Roque is the subject of Picasso's Tête de femme. Executed on 17 June 1967, this intimate ink drawing is one of the many portraits that Picasso made of his wife, muse and below companion. From the time they met in the early 1950s until the artist's death in 1973, Jacqueline was a constant presence in Picasso's life and work as the last great love of his life, so much so that this late period of his career has been termed 'L’époque Jacqueline'. Over the course of their twenty-year romance, Picasso painted more portraits of Jacqueline than he had of any other woman in his life. As John Richardson, the artist's biographer and a close friend of Jacqueline described, 'It is her body that we are able to explore more exhaustively and more intimately than any other body in the history of art ... and it is her vulnerability that gives a new intensity to the combination of cruelty and tenderness that endows Picasso's paintings of women with their pathos and their strength' (J. Richardson, 'L'Époque Jacqueline,' Late Picasso: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, 1953-1972, exh. cat., The Tate Gallery, London, 1988, p. 47).
By the time Picasso executed the present work, Jacqueline's image — her distinct physiognomy and her calm, stable and majestic presence — had become firmly imprinted on the artist's mind. Picasso had met Jacqueline when she was working as a sales assistant at the Madoura ceramic studio in Vallauris. The pair soon became lovers, and they were married in 1961. Though she rarely posed for the artist, from this time onwards, her regal, aquiline profile, dark almond-shaped eyes, and shock of dark hair became the basis for every female figure that the artist depicted. '[Jacqueline] takes the place of all the models of all the painters on all the canvases,' Hélène Parmelin, a writer and friend of the couple described. 'All the portraits are like her, even if they are not like each other. All the heads are hers and there are a thousand different ones ... During these twelve years of Picasso's life, painting and love have mated and mingled. All this unbridled output of Jaqueline from the portrait of Madame Z ... down to the last models of the last painters with their paint still wet, has been growing from day to day. The enormous vitality of the painter feeds on this face which is itself painting, and vice versa. It is the Song of Songs of Notre-Dame de Vie' (Picasso Says ..., London, 1966, p. 68).
By the time Picasso executed the present work, Jacqueline's image — her distinct physiognomy and her calm, stable and majestic presence — had become firmly imprinted on the artist's mind. Picasso had met Jacqueline when she was working as a sales assistant at the Madoura ceramic studio in Vallauris. The pair soon became lovers, and they were married in 1961. Though she rarely posed for the artist, from this time onwards, her regal, aquiline profile, dark almond-shaped eyes, and shock of dark hair became the basis for every female figure that the artist depicted. '[Jacqueline] takes the place of all the models of all the painters on all the canvases,' Hélène Parmelin, a writer and friend of the couple described. 'All the portraits are like her, even if they are not like each other. All the heads are hers and there are a thousand different ones ... During these twelve years of Picasso's life, painting and love have mated and mingled. All this unbridled output of Jaqueline from the portrait of Madame Z ... down to the last models of the last painters with their paint still wet, has been growing from day to day. The enormous vitality of the painter feeds on this face which is itself painting, and vice versa. It is the Song of Songs of Notre-Dame de Vie' (Picasso Says ..., London, 1966, p. 68).