Woman with Folded Arms (Femme aux Bras Croises)

A gaunt woman sits with her arms tightly folded, withdrawn into herself, her angular body and hollow face washed in the cold blue that dominates the canvas. Picasso painted her during his Blue Period, when he dwelt on the poor, the outcast, and the lonely. Now in a private collection, Woman with Folded Arms is among the most haunting of those works - the sitter sealed off in private suffering, her crossed arms a barrier against the world, the pervasive blue lending her isolation a chill, melancholy dignity that became the signature of Picasso's first great manner.