Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror
The background of the piece is painted in four
different colors; red, two shades of yellow, and green. The top left corner of
the piece is painted red with a green diamond pattern painted over it. Inside
each of the diamonds is a small green dot with a point painted in the center.
The red corner stops about midway through the width of the painting, and the brighter-yellow
section of the background begins, engulfing the top and bottom right corners
and about three-quarters of the painting to the left. Over this brighter-yellow
background, the green diamond pattern continues, same as the pattern covering
the red corner. There is a very small discrepancy in the bright-yellow section
of the background, just above the painting of the mirror, where it is instead
painted white with a red diamond pattern. Moving all the way to the left side
and starting about a quarter of the way down from the top of the piece, the
mustardy, darker-yellow section begins. Over the top of the dark-yellow color
is a continuation of the consistant diamond patter, but in red.
Moving forward in the image, the figures are laid
over the background. They are painted over a white background, whether or not
it is the white of the canvas or a layer of white over the colored background
is unclear. The figures are both women; the woman on the right of the image is
the mirror reflection of the woman painted on the left. Both of the figures are
distorted representations of the female body. Beginning with the image on the
left, Picasso painted very thick black lines to develop the figure. Her hair is
painted in an organic, swooping shape with thick black lines to further define
her blonde strands. In the thick black lines, you can see where Picasso dragged
the paint and did not reload his brush. The left side of her face is painted a
pinkish skin-tone color with a quick brush of a deeper pink to show a flushed
cheek. Her eye and eyebrow are painted in thick black lines, and Picasso pulled
the eyelash line over the hair to create depth and layering. The right side of
her face is painted in a much more abstract manner. Instead of using the same
pink skin-tone as he did on the left, Picasso instead painted the right side of
the face a vibrant yellow and highlighted her flushed cheek with a brush of
bright red. He also emphasized her lips with the same bright red color he used
to flush her cheek. Just underneath the circular face of the figure is a large
green plane, which defines the woman’s profile and creates a separation between
her chin, neck, and her arm resting on the mirror. Her neck is painted as two
triangles, one black and one white. The white triangle leads to the backside of
the woman, which is a large white shape. Her back is defined by a very thick
black line, followed by twenty-four thinner black lines, separated to look like
the pattern of a ladder. About halfway down her back, there is a circle,
shortening the lines, maybe symbolizing her stomach, and just beneath her
stomach, the shape breaks again to show the beginning of her leg. The black
triangle making up her neck begins the front side of her body. A black shape
with red curved lines, interrupted about a quarter of the way down her body by
her reaching right arm, leads to her breasts, painted the same pinkish
skin-tone color as the left side of her face. Just under her breasts is a white
and green curved line, followed by another red curved line, which is then
followed by a sequence of deep red curved lines until the viewer reaches the
woman’s stomach. Painted as a tear-drop shape, the woman’s stomach pertrudes
out and is the same pink-flesh-tone as her face and breasts. The circle that
interupted the sequence of lines on the left side is finished on the right
side, and a black line just underneath the circle also shows the start of the
top of her thigh.
The woman on the left is reaching her arms out
toward a mirror, resting her hands on the sides of it. The mirror is outlined
in a thick black line, then outlined again in a bright orange color, and again
in a deep blue. The figure in the mirror, which is assumed to be the reflection
of the woman on the left, is painted in a very abstract manner. The color
scheme of the reflected figure is very different than the woman gazing at her
reflection. Instead of being blonde, the figure in the mirror’s hair is
depicted as a thick green line. Her face, which is similar in features to the
figure on the left, is painted in green, a bright red, a deep wine red, and a
light violet. There is an orange crescent shape just under the eye on the
right. The neck of the reflection is a solid purple triangle, outlined with a
thick black line. The rest of the upper part of her torso is interrupted by the
figure on the left’s reaching arm, and just underneath her arm are two deep red
draping shapes with vertical bright red lines painted on top of them. Underneath
these shapes is the reflected image of the woman’s breasts, which are two
separated white circles with mint-green colored lines on the left breast and a
mint-green circle inside the right breast. Her stomach is also shown as a white
shape with mint-green, slightly curved lines as acsents. In the background of
the reflected image, large, organic shapes filled with bright red, green, blue
and purple colors surround the figure, almost blending the reflection of the
woman into the mirror, contrasting with the woman on the left, who clearly
stands out from the background surrounding her.
Historic
Context of Girl Before a Mirror
Girl Before a Mirror is
an image of vanity painted by Pablo Picasso in March of 1932. Pablo Picasso was
a Spanish artist, born in Malaga, but during the time he painted Girl Before a Mirror, he was living in
France. France in the 1930s was parallel to the United States in the 1930s,
suffering from an intense economic depression (“Pablo Picasso”). An account from the same year Picasso painted the
piece states, “"The winter I spent on the streets - the winter of
'32-33 - was no milder nor harder than any other winter; the winter cold is
like labour pains - whether it lasts for a longer or shorter period of time
there is always the same amount of pain. That particular winter, it snowed and
it froze; thousands of young men, forced out of their jobs by the crisis,
struggled on to their last penny, to the end of their tether then, in despair,
abandoned the fight...On street benches and at métro entrances, groups of
exhausted and starving young men would be trying not to die. I don't know how
many never came round. I can only say what I saw. In the rue Madame one day I
saw a child drop a sweet which someone trod on, then the man behind bent down
and picked it up, wiped it and ate it." (“Great Depression in France”). Paris, which had once been a place
awed by travelers, was empty and suffering. However, the influence of Parisian
art still managed to flourish.
The style of
Art Deco began in Paris in 1925 and influenced art worldwide through the rest
of the 20th century (Harmon). Art Deco is defined as, “An
art movement
involving a mix of modern
decorative art
styles,
largely of the 1920s and 1930s, whose main characteristics were derived from
various avant-garde
painting
styles of the early twentieth century.” (“Fine
Arts Terms Glossary”)
In Girl
Before a Mirror, the influence of Art Deco is apparent. In Art Deco pieces,
the artist uses simplified shapes and very decorative patterns. Picasso
oversimplifies the shapes in the woman and her reflection, then fills the
shapes with decorative patterns. Though Girl
Before a Mirror does show characteristics of Art Deco, it is more
influenced by the movement than classified as an Art Deco piece. Picasso’s
paintings during this time period are be categorized as Cubism, an art style
that Picasso himself helped to create. Cubism is artwork in which “the subject
matter is broken up, analyzed,
and reassembled in an abstracted
form,
influenced by African art and the works of painters Paul Cézanne
and Georges Seurat, and by the Fauves.”
(“Fine Arts Terms Glossary”).
The Cubism collaboration between Picasso and friend, Georges Braque, ended at
the outbreak of the first World War.
Girl
Before a Mirror shows influence by not only the Art
Deco period in France, but also reflects France’s very “relaxed social ambience.”
(Harmon)
Picasso’s painting has a very sensual nature. Picasso paints the woman, who is
modeled after his lover at the time, nude in front of the mirror, especially
emphasizing her curves. Picasso not only painted a nude figure in Girl Before a Mirror, but in several
other of his paintings throughout his career. An exhibition of 350 of Picasso’s
rarely shown erotic paintings were shown in Picasso
Erotique at the Montreal Museum in 2001.
Picasso stated, “when asked about his views on art and sexuality,
‘They're the same thing.’” Though some of the images shown in the exhibition
were from his earlier years in Barcelona, the development of his erotic sketches
and paintings flourished during his time in France, “The exhibition [shows the]
increasingly sophisticated forms that Picasso's erotic oeuvre took during the
decades leading up to World War II.” In fact, a large sum of the works of
erotic art in the exhibition were from the same time period he painted Girl Before a Mirror;
"A
number of erotic works dating from the late 1920s and early 1930s reflect his
interest in Surrealism, which advocated the reconstruction of nature according
to one's imaginative fantasies. For Picasso, these fantasies were often of a
sexual nature - "Why not the sex organs in place of the eyes, and the eyes
between the legs?" he once wondered - and the result is a series of hybrid
and often playfully erotic creatures. In Figures by the Seashore (1931), for
example, some protuberances and orifices are anatomically recognizable, some
are not; but collectively the entwining forms are an eloquent expression of
sexual union. In addition to drawings and paintings, the exhibition also
includes a number of sculptures dating from the artist's Surrealist phase,
including The Couple (1930), Head of a Woman (1931) and Bather (1931).” (“Erotique”)
Picasso continued to
produce very sensual pieces, whether blatantly erotic or subtly sexual like Girl Before a Mirror throughout the
remainder of his life, which continued to spend in France.
Works
Cited
"Erotique." Picasso Show at Picasso.com. Picasso.com, n.d.
Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
"Fine Art Terms Glossary." Art Dictionary - Fine Art Terms
Glossary. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar.
2014.
<http://www.stars21.com/arts/art_dictionary.html>.
"Great Depression in France." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Mar.
2014.
Harmon, Alison. "Paris in the 1930s: Art and History." Page
Not Found. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar.
2014.
"Pablo Picasso." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d.
Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Subjective Interpretation of “Girl
Before a Mirror”
Pablo Picasso’s Girl
Before a Mirror shows a woman gazing at her reflection in a mirror she’s
holding before her. Her reflection, however, is painted noticeably different
from the girl herself. Not only the color scheme, but the form itself is not
the same in the mirror image of the girl. Some suggest that the mirror image
depicts the girl’s alter-ego, and some suggest an even deeper meaning that has
to do with Picasso’s own identity.
Picasso’s
favored models for his paintings paintings during the 30s was his mistress,
Marie- Therese Walter. Several interpretations involve Picasso depicting how
Marie-Therese might’ve seen herself. One source suggests, “One way of
interpreting the painting is when the woman looks at herself in the mirror; she
is seeing herself as an old woman. From the green discoloration on her
forehead, darkening of her facial features to the lines that show that her
young body has been distorted, and gravity has taken its rightful place.
Another way of viewing the painting is that she is self-conscious, and she sees
all the flaws in herself that the world doesn't see,” ("Girl Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso").
Though
Marie-Therese was far from old, it is not uncommon to hear a woman, no matter
her age, to complain about experiencing the affects of getting older. Maybe she
voiced her concerns to Picasso, and he painted the piece to express her
feelings. It’s also not uncommon to hear a woman talk about her flaws, which
may be unseen to everyone else. If this was his intended meaning behind the
portrait, it could explain why he painted Marie-Therese so beautifully on the
left, and so differently and dark in the image of herself that she is seeing. Similar
to these interpretations, some believe that Picasso painted the image to
represent Marie-Therese Walter’s fate, “It is also a complex
variant on the traditional Vanity—the image of a woman confronting her
mortality in a mirror, which reflects her as a death's head. On the right, the
mirror reflection suggests a supernatural x-ray of the girl's soul, her future,
her fate. Her face is darkened, her eyes are round and hollow, and her
intensely feminine body is twisted and contorted. She seems older and more
anxious. The girl reaches out to the reflection, as if trying to unite her
different "selves." The diamond-patterned wallpaper recalls the
costume of the Harlequin, the comic character from the commedia dell'arte with
whom Picasso often identified himself—here a silent witness to the girl's psychic
and physical transformations,” ("Pablo
Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)”).
Other
assumptions advocate that the image could be a representation of Walter’s “day
and night selves.” One source states, “Girl
Before a Mirror shows Picasso's young mistress
Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of his favorite subjects in the early 1930s. Her
white-haloed profile, rendered in a smooth lavender pink, appears serene. But
it merges with a more roughly painted, frontal view of her face—a crescent,
like the moon, yet intensely yellow, like the sun, and "made up" with
a gilding of rouge, lipstick, and green eye-shadow. Perhaps the painting
suggests both Walter's day-self and her night-self, both her tranquillity and
her vitality, but also the transition from an innocent girl to a worldly woman
aware of her own sexuality,” ("Pablo
Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)”). In
agreement, another source states, “When you look closely
at the image, you can interpret many different symbols within different parts
of the painting. The woman's face for one; is painted with a side profile and a
full frontal image. One side shows the day time where she seems more like a
woman, dolled up with her make up done. The other side with the rough charcoal
texture portrays her at night. When she takes off the mask of makeup, and is more
vulnerable as a young lady,” ("Girl
Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso")
Picasso
may not have painted her alter-ego in the mirror, but instead may have painted
a woman that he believed she wasn’t.
However,
the most interesting interpretation of Girl
Before a Mirror that I came across in my research was that the picture was
actually a depiction of Picasso and essentially had nothing to do with his
lover, aside from a few borrowed features. The source states, “He borrowed the
features of his blonde mistress Marie-Thérèse and turned her, as Manet had done
another woman, into an artist in front of a metaphoric easel. Her arm is
stretched out in front of her like a painter’s. The long, floppy fingers even
emulate the feel and look of a paintbrush, the hand a suitable symbol for the
brush. Though a woman, she is still a self-representation of the male artist as
Picasso goes on to remind us. Picasso confirmed his self-identification
with Marie-Thérèse by shaping the mirror that frames her ‘painted’ figure
into the top half of a P for Picasso, minus
its stem. Picasso so often used various forms of the letter P to
indicate himself that its presence here is unmistakeable,” ("Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror (1932)").
This
painting means something far more personal to me. My older sister had a poster
of Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror hanging
in her room, placed so that it was the first thing you saw when you opened her
door. It was a large poster, and the vibrant colors and patterns beautifully
contrasted with the stark-white wall she hung it on. Every time I walked into
her room, I would awe over the painting. I credit that poster of Girl Before a Mirror with being the
first thing that sparked my artistic interest. I’m forever grateful for that
poster, and foremost, the painting itself. Without the intriguing nature of the
image, I don’t know if I would have ever truly found my passion for art and
everything that goes into creating it.
Works
Cited
"Girl Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso." Pablo Picasso.
N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.
"Pablo Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)." MoMA.org.
N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.
"Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror (1932)." EPPH. N.p., n.d.
Web. 07 May 2014.
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