Young Girl Wearing a Large Hat

Completed when he was just nineteen years old, this is one of a small number of double-sided paintings that Picasso made in 1901. In each, one side of the canvas features a portrait in the manner of late nineteenth-century French artists. The other side, however, shows a different figure, executed in Picasso’s emergent distinctive style. This composition mimics paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec in its palette and short, energetic brushstrokes, while the frontal pose and confrontational gaze of the sitter recall his portraits of the 1890s. This side of the double-sided canvas was traditionally considered the lesser of the two paintings, and it was hung against the wall, hidden from view, in Wertheim’s home.