Among the "strange, coarse, and mismatched materials" that French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire observed in works by Picasso are the scraps of wallpaper and newspaper in this uncanny head. Adorned with top hat and moustache, Head of a Man is framed by rhythmic interactions between drawn lines, cut edges, and shading. The artist's elision of the ear with what seems to be a guitar's curved contours, at left, humorously aligns the organ of hearing with the musical instrument.