The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Print in black ink with streaking, cross-hatched lines of a woman with light skin tone from the shoulders up, tilting her head down towards her right shoulder and looking up at us. Her dark hair wraps in a loose bun at the top of her head. Straight lines streaking down shade the right side of her face and swirling patterns of straight lines her hair, occasionally hatched, but the most frenetic hatching shading the background.

Head of a Woman: Madeleine

1905, printed 1913

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)
printer

Louis Fort

(French, active 1800s–1900s)
publisher

Ambroise Vollard

(French, 1867–1939)
Spain, 20th century
etching
Image: 11.4 x 8.4 cm (4 1/2 x 3 5/16 in.); Plate: 11.8 x 8.6 cm (4 5/8 x 3 3/8 in.); Sheet: 50.5 x 33.1 cm (19 7/8 x 13 1/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1929.889
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: Geiser/Baer I.21.3; Bloch 2
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Although she worked as an artist's model, little else is known about the figure of Madeleine.
  • ?-1929
    (C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1929-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dumas, Ann. "The Rose Period." In Picasso and Paper. William H. Robinson, et al., 80-101. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2020. Reproduced: P. 83, cat. no. 55
  • Picasso and Paper. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (co-organizer) (January 25-August 2, 2020) https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/picasso-and-paper; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (December 8, 2024-March 23, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=Head of a Woman: Madeleine|url=false|author=Pablo Picasso, Louis Fort, Ambroise Vollard|year=1905, printed 1913|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.889