Page 42 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

THE PRADO IS EXHIBITING
BUST OF A WOMAN BY
PICASSO
On display in Room 9B, next to the Central Gallery

Dating from 1943, this work is an outstanding example of
Picasso’s response to the violence of World War II.

Donated to American Friends of the Prado Museum
through the generosity of Aramont Art Collection, the
painting is now on display in the gallery devoted to
El Greco, together with The Buffoon Calabacillas by
Velázquez, two of the artists who most influenced
Picasso’s work.

Buste de femme 43, Pablo Picasso,1943
THE MUSEO DEL PRADO IS DISPLAYING BUST OF A Donated from the Aramont Art Collection by the Arango Montull family to
WOMAN BY PICASSO, ON DEPOSIT FOR FIVE YEARS FROM American Friends of the Prado Museum. Museo Nacional del Prado
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE PRADO MUSEUM.

Painted in 1943, Bust of a Woman offers an outstanding The decision to hang the painting in Room 9B, which is
example of Picasso’s response to the violence of World devoted to El Greco, and in the company of The Buffoon
War II. In many of the artist’s female images of this Calabacillas by Velázquez, is intended to reveal the
period he distorted the features in a radical manner. In significant influence of the great tradition of Spanish
this example, painted in a single day on 7 October 1943, painting on Picasso. He was actively involved in the
he employed rapid, extremely confident brushstrokes rediscovery and reassessment of El Greco, whom the
to achieve this effect. The resonance of the background avant-garde artists saw as a founding figure of modern
tones and the emphatic presence of the female form art. Furthermore at the age of just fifteen he drew a copy
reflect the artist’s roots in Spanish culture and his of The Buffoon Calabacillas in pencil in the notebook that
profound knowledge of the country’s pictorial tradition. he took with him on his first visit to the Prado.

Buste de femme by Picasso in room 9 B at the Museo Nacional del Prado.
Photo ©Museo Nacional del Prado

42 WORLD of ART