Harlequin with a Mirror

Oil on canvas - 1923
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum- Madrid

Initially intended as a self portrait, Harlequin with a Mirror combines some characters from the circus and the Commedia dell’arte that held a strong fascination for Picasso, and with which he identified. Harlequin with a Mirror were the crowning achievements of Picasso’s classicist period inspired by the classical approach of the great masters, which Picasso had adopted after his visit to Italy in 1917.

Woman with Arms Raised

Oil, charcoal and sand on canvas 1936
Picasso Museum- Malaga

Some experts of Picasso's art and work interpret this as the way in Malaga-born artist celebrated but also the beginning of a which the a new love, new artistic phase. Inspired by the Maar, the picture was the beginning of the photographer Dora painted in Paris a summer of 1936, when Picasso was already beginning to show his unease about the war in Spain.

Waiting (Margot)

Oil on cardboard –1901
Picasso Museum-Barcelona

The identity of the young girl portrayed remains a mystery; according to the artist it was a woman he often saw sitting in a café, although he wasn’t especially drawn to her. The glassy eyed, lost gaze of the character suggests the sitter’s addiction to morphine. The use of bright colours– in this case, red dominates the composition, highlighting both the face and figure and the background.

Woman in Blue

Oil on canvas -1901
Reina SofiaMuseum-Madrid

Picasso sent ”Woman in blue” to the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, where it went unnoticed. Before the show concluded he had already left Madrid to prepare his first solo show in Paris, and the work would fall into oblivion and not be retrieved until decades later, when it became part of the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno.

Harlequin

Oil on canvas - 1917
Picasso Museum- Barcelona

Picasso began the year 1917 with the exciting prospect of collaborating for the first time with the world of the performing arts, designing the sets, costumes and grand drapefor the ballet“Parade”,by the Ballets Russes company led by Sergei Diaghilev. This “Harlequin” is one of the various canvases painted during those months in Barcelona. The model is Muscovite Léonide Massine (1896–1979), dancer and choreographer of the Ballets Russes company.

Bullfight

Oil on canvas - 1934
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum- Madrid

The close relationship between the world of bullfighting and Picasso’s works is unquestionable. From his childhood days in Málaga, where his father often took him to the bullring, he was greatly fascinated. The Bullfight in the permanent collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza belongs to a series of works on bullfight themes.

Head of woman crying with scarf (III)

Oil on canvas – 1937
Reina Sofia Museum- Madrid

One of the central motifs linked to Guernica are the figures known as the “weeping women”, inspired in their physical appearance by Dora Maar. These portraits would be the pictures Pablo Picasso redid most often once he had completed the great mural on June 4th 1937.

Jacqueline seated

Oil on canvas – 1954
Picasso Museum- Malaga

Picasso paints a portrait of Jacqueline Roque, who will become his second wife in 1961.