NARRATOR:
The frontal view, stylized body, decorative surface patterning and headdress-like hair give Picasso’s lithographic portrait of his lover Françoise Gilot an Egyptian quality. To create these various effects, Picasso used a variety of lithographic techniques. The basic process involves drawing on a stone or zinc plate with greasy ink or crayon. The stone is then dampened and printing ink is applied. It sticks only to the greasy marks made by the artist. Paper is then placed over the stone or plate to make the print. There are many other ways to manipulate line and texture in lithography, including scraping, rubbing, transfers, and chemical etching. Picasso employed all these techniques in his lithography.
Here, he used a pen and lithographic ink to form this figure’s cross-hatched hairnet, and either pen or lithographic crayon for the grid design of her blouse. A brush dipped in lithographic ink wash created the heavy black outlines and was used to paint the woman’s facial features. The subtle shading on her face may be the result of spreading the greasy lithographic ink over the rough surface of the plate, then rubbing it partially away, leaving just traces of the medium for the printing ink to adhere to.
Color lithographs require separate drawings for each color, so the same piece of paper must be printed multiple times. You can see from the overlap how the heavy black lines were printed after the violet background, green hair and brown-checked blouse.
Details
- Artist Name: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
- Title: Woman with a Hairnet
- Date: 1956
- Medium: Color transfer lithograph on zinc
- Edition: 4th state
- Dimensions: 26 x 19-3/4 in. (66 x 50.2 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: F.1983.20.50.G
- Copyright: © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
The World of Picasso
- Norton Simon Museum, 1994-03-24 to 1994-11-06
- Fryberger, Betsy G. and Gloria Williams, Clinton Adams, David Carrier, and Pat Gilmour, Picasso: Graphic Magician, Prints from the Norton Simon Museum,color pl. 3 pp. 101, 149
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 197
Additional Artwork by Artist
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