The subject of La Femme à la Résille (Femme aux Cheveux verts) is Picasso’s lover and mother of two of his children, Françoise Gilot. The portrait was made after Picasso took Françoise to meet his friend and rival, Henri Matisse. As the story goes, Matisse told Françoise that he’d do her portrait – he’d make her skin pale blue, and her hair green. Picasso, who had not yet painted a portrait of Françoise, was both annoyed and inspired by this comment. Years after the meeting, he created this print, the force of which is unmistakably the vibrant hue of the woman’s hair. In fact, it is so eye-catching that the hair appears to be the print’s subject itself. As such, it could be said that Françoise did not inspire the image – competition with Matisse did.

Contrasting Matisse, Picasso thought of color as ornamentation and form as a dimension, the real stuff of art. Notably, however, the phrases in the title referencing Françoise’s hair draw attention to both form and color: “the woman with the fishnet (résille),” referring to the criss-cross pattern stretched over it, as though being held back by a stocking, and “the woman with green hair (cheveux verts).” In his book on modern, abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky wrote of Matisse and Picasso, “Matisse: colour, Picasso: form. Two great tendencies, one great goal.” This print demonstrates Picasso’s unique ability to feed off of styles distinct from his own and digest them, ever-creating art in dialogue with other art.