Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767" aria-label="More by Pablo Picasso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pablo Picasso</a>
Head a Young Boy
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994
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<p><span>Head of a Young Boy</span> is one of the earliest lithographs that Picasso made in collaboration with the Paris lithographer Fernand Mourlot. It has been interpreted as the artist’s nostalgic memory of himself as a young boy. The present print is the third and final state of the lithograph. In the passage from the first to the second state, the boy’s head was shaded more strongly and made more expressive. In this final version, the shading was softened and rendered more delicate.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper print lithograph
24 May 2004 – 8 November 2004
2004-11-08
24 May 2004
2004-05-24
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
11 December 2004
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-05-24
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-12-11
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
2010-05-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
16 September 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-09-16
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
2010-05-21
Picasso: Peace and Freedom
Exhibition
21 September 2010 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
2010-05-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
21 September 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-09-21
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
11 February 2011 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
2011-02-11
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark)
http://www.louisiana.dk
2010-09-21
Picasso: Peace and Freedom
Loan-out
15 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
15 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-15
The Lightbox (Woking, UK)
http://www.thelightbox.org/
2018-03-15
Picasso: Le Visage Humain/Expressions
Loan-out
Head of a Young Boy
image: 307 × 227 mm
frame: 530 × 420 × 20 mm
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of <a href="/search?gid=999999791" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</a>, accessioned 1994
<p>Made on 7 November 1945, <i>Head of a Young Boy</i> is one of the earliest <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> that Picasso produced in the atelier of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographer</span></a> Fernand Mourlot in Paris. Having first visited Mourlot’s studio on 2 November 1945, the artist returned to work there every day for four months, arriving before nine o’clock every morning and not leaving until after 8:00 pm (Mourlot 1970, p.11). Between 1945 and 1949 Picasso and Mourlot produced 179 lithographs together (Jean Sutherland Boggs, ‘The Last Thirty Years’, in Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds., <i>Picasso 1881/1973</i>, London 1973, p.202).
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<br/>The melancholy <i>Head of a Young Boy</i> has been interpreted as Picasso’s nostalgic memory of himself as a young boy. Picasso drew the image with lithographic <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a>, which he then scraped back with a tool to create rough highlights or details, particularly in the areas of the boy’s hair and clothing. The present print is the third and final state of the lithograph. The first state is the least detailed of the three, the boy’s expression is blank, his face is more rounded and only shaded on the left hand side. In the second state Picasso shaded the head more strongly, defined the mouth and darkened the irises of the boy’s large eyes, rendering them more expressive; he also refined the hair and the contours of the ears. In this final version, Picasso reworked the shading further, softening it in order to achieve a more delicate result.
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<br/>This lithograph was printed on white Arches wove <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> that comprised eighteen artist’s proofs plus fifty numbered and signed prints published by the Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, of which this is number forty-four. Louise Leiris gave it as a present to Elly Kahnweiler in 1947, who later bequeathed it to Tate. Elly Kahnweiler was married to Gustav, the brother of the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Louise Leiris was Daniel-Henry’s long-time assistant and eventually took over the running of his gallery.
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<br/><b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Fernand Mourlot, <i>Picasso Lithographe</i>, Paris 1970, reproduced p.15
<br/>Brigitte Baer, <i>Picasso the Printmaker: Graphics from the Marina Picasso Collection</i>, exhibition catalogue, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas 1983
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli, ‘Pablo Picasso’, in Jennifer Mundy (ed.), <i>Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2004, pp.88-90, reproduced p.91
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<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli
<br/>August 2004</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><i>Head of a Young Boy</i><span> is one of the earliest <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> that Picasso made in collaboration with the Paris lithographer Fernand Mourlot. It has been interpreted as the artist’s nostalgic memory of himself as a young boy. The present <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> is the third and final state of the lithograph. In the passage from the first to the second state, the boy’s head was shaded more strongly and made more expressive. In this final version, the shading was softened and rendered more delicate.</span></p>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
artist, ceramicist artist, draughtsman artist - non-specific artist, painter artist, printmaker artist, sculptor arts and entertainment body boy children emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas head / face memory named individuals nationality nostalgia people Picasso, Pablo portraits self-portraits society Spanish work and occupations