Study Gallery 08: Screen 4

A PICASSO PAINTING IS BORN

Few artists’ lives are as well-documented as Pablo Picasso’s. One photographer who managed to get close to Picasso was the photo journalist David Douglas Duncan, who took thousands of pictures over 17 years of the artist at work and leisure. 

In his photo series "A Portrait of a Portrait", we see a Picasso painting being born, from the first brush stroke to the last. The painting "Tête de femme" of Picasso’s wife Jacqueline Roquefort, goes through many phases before it is finalised. The series offers an intimate portrait of the artist, who was 76 at the time, and his creative process.

The screen in the Study Gallery presents a handful of the 51 photographs in the series. You can view them all digitally by visiting Search the Collection.