Executed in 1901, Pablo Picasso’s Nu se coiffant presents an intimately scaled drawing of a nude woman styling her hair. Rendered in pastel, the present work beautifully illustrates a celebrated subject matter of Picasso: a portrayal of femininity. Here, his subject tilts her head down with her arms reaching up to her hair in an act of grooming. While artists before him like Edgar Degas had previously embraced this subject matter in drawings and pastels, using paid models to depict in situ, in contrast, Picasso’s approach was more lyrical, distinct from the realism of his predecessors. Picasso drew Nu se coiffant in Paris during his second stay which lasted from May of 1901 to January of 1902. Most likely created just before the commencement of his famed “Blue Period” and when the artist was preparing for his first exhibition organized by dealer Ambroise Vollard on June 23, 1901, this work features the stylistic elements found in Picasso’s earlier works. Not yet submerged in a sea of sorrowful blues and greens hues, the 19-year-old Picasso grants us the opportunity to glimpse an early exploration of what would become a sustained fascination over the course of his life. This work lends itself to the fantasies and fetishes directed by the male gaze via a voyeuristic act of the artist’s imagination. Sensual and deeply private, Nu se coiffant stages an encounter that feeds our more tender sensibilities.
