
Woman with Folded Arms (Femme aux Bras Croises)
1902 · Private collection
Her crossed arms are a wall against the world, and the blue does the rest. Picasso was painting the outcast and the destitute.
★ 5.6

Her crossed arms are a wall against the world, and the blue does the rest. Picasso was painting the outcast and the destitute.

Cézanne cared less who the man was than whether the head would hold together as structure, and the slight asymmetries keep it alive.

The laundress bears down on her iron with her shoulders up and her head sunk, all in the cold blue of Picasso's poorest years.

The doctor who was caring for him leans his head on one hand, a sprig of foxglove on the table, the background rippling blue.