This is a large and exceptionally rare drawing from Picasso’s cubist period. Picasso’s cubist work dates from about 1907-15. Rather than try to copy nature, Picasso was interested in recreating it by pulling it apart and recomposing it. Part of the impetus behind Cubism comes from the desire to view an object from different sides, and re-compose these different views in a single picture. Picasso was never attracted to pure abstraction, always wanting to find some connection with nature. Composed of angular lines and cross-hatching, Picasso suggests the curves of the eyes, the bridge of a nose, the flat plane of the forehead and the strongly angled neck, which together identify the drawing as a human head.