Pablo Picasso
Head of a Picador with a Broken Nose
1900-1923
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Pablo Picasso
Head of a Picador with a Broken Nose
1900-1923
Physical Qualities
Bronze, 7 11/16 x 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 in. (19.5 x 14.4 x 11.4 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.453
This work, made in Barcelona, is one of Picasso’s first sculptures. The expressive portrayal of the picador’s tortured face is related to the mask-like visages of Picasso’s Blue Period portraits. Just as Auguste Rodin’s influence is evident in Matisse’s sculpture, The Serf, 1900–1903 (on view nearby), so too is Rodin’s influence present here. Rodin’s Man with the Broken Nose, 1863, was recognized as one of his greatest portraits. Picasso utilized Rodin’s asymmetrical composition, as well as the expressive modeling of the facial features, though with less detail. The portrait might also be an homage to Paul Gauguin’s self-portrait of 1889.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1949; Etta Cone, Baltimore, by bequest 1929; Claribel Cone, by purchase from Sally Stein 1925; ex collection Gertrude Stein.
The Persistent Figure in Modern Sculpture
Cone Refresh
Pablo Picasso:Imitation, Transformation, Innovation
Pablo Picasso: Imitation, Transformation, Innovation (working title)
André Level, "Picasso," (Paris: G. Crès & Cie, 1928) 29.
Etta Cone, "The Cone Collection of Baltimore, Maryland" (Baltimore:
1934) 124.
Christian Zervos, "Pablo Picasso Vol. VI" (Paris: Edition Cahiers D'Art,
1954) 73, cat. # 597.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection" (Baltimore: BMA, 1955) 47.
"Life Magazine" 14 Oct. 1957, color illustration p. 77.
Peter Anselm Riedl, "'Masque d'Homme' Ein Fruhwerk Pablo Picassos," Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Band 7, Hamburg: Ernst Hauswedell & Co, 1962, pp. 83-92.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection" (revised edition) (Baltimore: BMA,
1967) 49.
Roland Penrose, "The Sculpture of Picasso" (New York, NY: MOMA,
1967) 221.
Irene Gordon, Lucile M. Golson, Leon Katz, Douglas Cooper, Ellen B.
Hirschland, "Four Americans in Paris: The Collection of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," exh. cat. (New York, NY: MOMA, 1970) 165, cat # 38.
Werner Spies and Christine Piot, "Picasso Das Plastische Werk," exh. cat. to
"Picasso Plastiken" Berlin: Nationalgalerie, 1983, p. 372.
Brenda Richardson, "Dr. Claribel & Miss Etta" (Baltimore: BMA 1985) 175.
Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde," San Francisco: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011
Ann Temkin and Anne Umland, "Picasso Sculpture," New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2015, p. 36-38, Cat. no. 2, ill. p. 45.
Dallas Museum of Art, "Pablo Picasso: Imitation, Transformation, Innovation (working title)" September 15, 2024 - January 12, 2025. Circulated to Portland Art Museum (Oregon) February 16, 2025 - June 8, 2025.
Original source reference: 9 July 1925, p. 21 of Claribel Cone's 1925 notebook, "Paid Sallie [Sarah Stein] Sunday last…for Gertrude's Objects…5000 Picasso Bronze masque…."
Inscribed: Lower left: "PICASSO 04 1905." The way the inscriptions is made suggests separation and perhaps a difference of inscription methods between the "04" and the "1905."
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