A Green Hat, Once in a Blue Moon

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.

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

3 thoughts on “A Green Hat, Once in a Blue Moon

    • Hi Joanne,
      Great question. I’ve passed your inquiry along to our curatorial team to see if anyone has any insights to share. Stay tuned!
      Best,
      Amy Wike, Marketing & Communications

    • Hi Joanne,
      I just heard back from one of our curators, Susan Behrends Frank, who said “The woman in the green hat is Dora Maar. She was an artist in her own right and for a period of time in the late 1930s she was Picasso’s mistress.”
      Best,
      Amy

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