Lady with a Fan

1905

Pablo Picasso

Artist, Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Shown from the thighs up, a woman faces our left in profile as she lifts up one hand and holds a closed fan in the other in this vertical painting. The woman has pale, peachy skin, and her dark hair is tied with a pink bow at the back of her crown. She looks to our left with heavy-lidded eyes. She has a delicately pointed nose, and her lips are closed. Her electric-blue, long-sleeved shirt is tight fitting and has a scooped neck. A blue cloth ties around her waist and falls over a brown skirt. One knee juts forward. Her right hand, farther from us, is held face-high with the palm facing away. The fan is held out in the other hand in front of the woman’s waist. The background is streaked with smoky blue and gray. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “Picasso 1905.”
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On View

East Building Mezzanine, Gallery 217-C

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Gertrude Stein, Paris, by 1913; sold June 1931 through (Paul Rosenberg, Paris) to Marie N. Harriman [1903-1970] and W. Averell Harriman [1891-1986], New York; W. Averell Harriman Foundation, New York; gift 1972 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1932

  • Exposition Picasso, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1932, no. 36, repro.

1933

  • A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 408.

  • French Paintings, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1933, no. 3.

1934

  • Pablo Picasso, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1934, no. 17.

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, St. Louis Art Museum, 1934.

1936

  • Picasso: "Blue" and "Rose" Periods, 1901-1906, Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., New York, 1936, no. 21, repro.

  • Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936, no. 332, repro.

1938

  • Picasso and Marin, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1938, no. 7.

1939

  • Picasso Figure Paintings, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1939, no. 1.

  • Modern French Masters, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1939, no. 9.

1940

  • Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, 1940, no. 55, repro.

1947

  • Picasso before 1907, M. Knoedler & Company, New York, 1947, no. 23, repro.

1955

  • Chauncey McCormick Memorial Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 1955.

1957

  • Masterpieces Recalled, Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, 1957, no. 39, repro.

1960

  • Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni: An Exhibition, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1960, no. 89, repro.

  • Picasso, Tate Gallery, London, 1960, no. 26, repro.

1961

  • Exhibition of the Marie and Averell Harriman Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1961, unnumbered catalogue, repro. 27.

1962

  • Picasso: An American Tribute, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1962, no. 25, repro.

1966

  • Hommage à Pablo Picasso, Grand Palais (Paintings) and Petit Palais (Drawings, Sculpture, Ceramics), Paris, 1966-1967, no. 29.

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 10, repro.

1980

  • Picasso Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1980, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1981

  • Picasso, 1881-1973: Exposicio Antologica, Museo Espanol de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid; Musée Picasso, Barcelona, 1981-1982, no. 42, repro.

1983

  • Pablo Picasso Exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 1983.

1984

  • Picasso, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wale, Sydney, 1984, no. 22.

1986

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 22, repro.

1992

  • Picasso 1905-1906, Museu Picasso, Barcelona; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, 1992, no. 106, repro., as Woman with Fan.

1997

  • Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997-1998, no. 140, color repro., as Woman with a Fan.

1999

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 77, repro.

2002

  • From Puvis de Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso: Toward Modern Art, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2002, no. 170, repro., as Woman with a Fan.

2004

  • Picasso et Ingres, Musée Picasso, Paris, Musée Ingres, Montauban, 2004, no. 21, repro. (shown only in Paris).

2006

  • Pablo Picasso: Akrobater och harlekiner, familj och kvinnor [Pablo Picasso: Acrobats and Harlequins, Family and Women], Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg, 2006, no. 29, repro.

2011

  • The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011-2012, no. 235, pl. 68 (English catalogue), no. 27, repro. (French catalogue).

2016

  • The Secret of Picasso's Genius, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya; Abeno Harukas Museum, Osaka, 2016, no. 58, repro.

2018

  • Picasso: Bleu et Rose, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2018-2019.

2021

  • Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2021 - 2022, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1932

  • Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso. 33 vols. Paris, 1932-1978: 1(1957): no. 308, pl. 138.

1936

  • Bulliet, C. J. The Significant Moderns and Their Pictures. New York, 1936: repro. no. 104.

1970

  • Four Americans in Paris: The Collection of Gertrude Stein and her Family. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970: repro. 92, 94.

1972

  • "Recent Acquisitions of American and Canadian Museums." Art Quarterly 35 (Autumn 1972): 332, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 268, repro.

1976

  • Schapiro, Meyer. "Picasso's Woman with a Fan: On Transformation and Self-Transformation," in Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities. In Memoriam Otto J. Brendel. Mainz, 1976:249-254, repro.

1978

  • Schapiro, Meyer. Modern art : 19th and 20th centuries. New York, 1978: 111+, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 604, no. 938, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 309, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 9, 297, color repro.

1996

  • Duchin, Peter. Ghost of a Chance: A Memoir. New York, 1996: repro.

1997

  • Le miroir noir: Picasso,sources photographiques 1900-1928. Exh. cat. Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1997: 55-62, no. 56, repro.

  • Picasso: The Early Years, 1892-1906. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997-1998: no. 140.

2012

  • Duncan, Michael. "Stein's Collect." Art in America 100, no. 2 (February 2012): 87, 89, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Picasso / 1905

Wikidata ID

Q20190946

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