Pablo Picasso, Woman with Green Hat, 1939. Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 19 3/4 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Carey Walker Foundation, 1994.

It’s not always possible to accede to every visitor’s desires . . . but when we heard (almost on the way out the door for the holiday) that San Francisco visitors Lauren and Ken wanted desperately to see Picasso’s 1939 Woman with a Green Hat, we found a way to make that happen. The painting was not on view in the galleries at the moment, but thanks to some quick thinking and rare, serendipitous good luck, we were able to arrange a quick behind-the-scenes tour. The painting means a lot to Ken. He explained that it totally changed his understanding of Picasso and of modern art generally. He likes the tension between the distortions of the woman’s face and the tenderness in its depiction. Lauren and Ken seem to love the Phillips and have visited dozens of times over decades. We hope they’ll come back many times in the future.

Dorothy Kosinski, Director