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©
Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid
Pablo Picasso

Head of a Man

1913
Oil on canvas.
65 x 46 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
707
(
1977.31
)
ROOM 41
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room

Between 1912 and 1914, the years that synthetic Cubism developed, Picasso painted numerous portraits. The present Head of a Man in the museum collection, which according to Pierre Daix was executed at the end of 1913, combines the influence of the papiers collés with the new turn Cubist language had taken towards formal synthesis. As can be seen, various flattened parts of the person are superimposed with no references to depth, while the varied textures and a few specific recognisable fragments — such as the moustache, ear, eyes, hair, bow tie and fur collar — give a certain impression of reality. Christopher Green points out the similarities to the angular heads Picasso had produced during the months spent in Céret with Eva, and Douglas Cooper suggests that certain elements — such as the moustache, pipe and fur collar — denote of a distinguished personality who even displays the prestigious badge of the Légion d’honneur on his lapel. This may explain why Palau i Fabre calls the work Cabeza de hombre con pipa (El elegante) (Head of a Man with Pipe [The Elegant One]).

The early provenance of the painting is unknown, though before 1953 it belonged to the Galerie Jeanne Bucher in Paris, which opened in 1925; it was owned by G. David Thompson of Pittsburgh and the Leumann collection in Turin before entering the Collection.

Paloma Alarcó

20th Century20th Century - European painting. Cubism and Its wakePaintingOilcanvas
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Private and/or didactic use
Head of a Man. Cabeza de hombre, 1913
Head of a Man
Pablo Picasso

©

Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from VEGAP (www.vegap.es), or from the corresponding collective management organization in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

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Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use, which, however, do not apply to the reproduction of the works included in the photographs, as they are protected by Copyright.

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  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
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Head of a Man. Cabeza de hombre, 1913
Head of a Man
Pablo Picasso

©

Succession Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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