Femme au Chapeau (Portrait de Jacqueline au chapeau de paille multicolore) by Pablo Picasso centres on Jacqueline Roque, the artist’s final muse and wife, whose presence defines his work of the late 1950s and 1960s. Executed in 1962 as a linocut in colours on Arches wove paper in an edition of 50 with 20 artist’s proofs, the work emerges from the period when Picasso, working from La Californie in Cannes, turned inward—focusing almost exclusively on Jacqueline as both subject and catalyst.

Her image is immediately recognisable. The elongated profile, almond-shaped eye and sharply defined features recur across hundreds of works from this period. Picasso reduces her form to a series of decisive contours, allowing the broad silhouette of the straw hat to frame and intensify her presence.

To the left, a bearded male figure—often read as a veiled self-portrait—introduces a direct dialogue between artist and subject. This pairing appears repeatedly in Picasso’s late work, where Jacqueline is positioned not simply as sitter, but in relation to the act of looking and making. The compressed space between them suggests both intimacy and control, reinforcing the sense of a closed, interior world.

The palette is unusually rich for a linocut, combining greys, yellows, reds, blues and pinks through layered printing. By this stage, Picasso had fully mastered the reduction linocut technique, using it to build colour with precision while retaining the immediacy of carved line. Flat areas of colour are held in tension by sharp contours, producing a surface that feels both controlled and direct.

Following their marriage in 1961, Jacqueline became Picasso’s constant presence—both in life and in work. He returned to her image obsessively, reworking her features across paintings, drawings, ceramics and prints. Portraiture during this period shifts away from likeness towards repetition and variation, with Jacqueline’s face functioning as a site of continuous reinvention.

The setting remains deliberately ambiguous but grounded in the domestic and studio environments Picasso inhabited during these years. The distinction between life and work collapses, with Jacqueline positioned at the centre of both. She is not simply observed, but absorbed into the image itself.

Femme au Chapeau captures this late moment with clarity. It is at once a portrait, a study of the artist–muse dynamic, and a demonstration of Picasso’s command of printmaking. Through bold line, controlled colour and repeated form, the work positions Jacqueline as the defining presence of his final artistic phase.

For more information or to buy Femme Au Chapeau (Portrait De Jacqueline Au Chapeau De Paille Multicoloure). by Pablo Picasso, contact our specialists using the enquiry button above.
Explore Pablo Picasso prints for sale, or speak to our team about selling Pablo Picasso prints.