Woman With Bangs

Art Gallery of Ontario

2. Woman with Bangs, 1902, oil on canvas, and the size is 61.4 by 51.8 cm. In this portrait, Picasso portrays an image of a sad woman in shades of blue. He has subtly painted the background in varying tones of blue, drawing our attention to the subject, who is positioned to the right of the painting. This neutral background places her in three-dimensional space that contains no anecdotal information. The woman’s upper torso, cut off under her chest, fills the foreground, casting a shadow over her left shoulder. Wearing a large, shapeless jacket modelled with blue and brown tones, the woman slumps forwards towards the viewer. She stares out of the canvas with an unfocused gaze and solemn facial expression. Her short, dark hair with bangs frames her face. Picasso emphasizes her sombre mood by painting her pouting reddish-brown lips, leaving us to ponder her thoughts. In the Blue Period paintings of poor women, Picasso employs the poses and clothing of Christian religious images of the Madonna to evoke the empathy of viewers.