1949

Woman with a Hairnet

Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Françoise Gilot was twenty-one when she met Picasso in Paris in May 1943, and the couple embarked on a decade-long relationship soon thereafter. Gilot had recently dropped out of law school to pursue a career as a painter. She moved in with Picasso three years later, and their son, Claude, was born in 1947, followed two years later by their daughter, Paloma. The family spent several happy years together in Paris and the Antibes, during which Picasso executed numerous portraits of Françoise. The prints and drawings emphasize her classical features and endless configurations of her long, flowing hair, which in this work is secured in a hairnet.