1902, Pablo Picasso, Melancholy Woman -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: This woman who sits alone in the isolation of a cell on a moonlit night is an inmate of Paris’s infamous Saint-Lazare hospital-prison. She looks down, her arms folded tightly across her chest, and appears to be absorbed in her own thoughts. The cold evening light pours down over her shoulders and onto the back of her head in a way that emphasizes her hardship, which is also suggested by the range of cool and dark blues in the painting. Conveying his empathy for her troubles, Picasso monumentalizes this incarcerated woman in a composition marked by curvilinear and geometric forms.
1902, Pablo Picasso, Melancholy Woman -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: This woman who sits alone in the isolation of a cell on a moonlit night is an inmate of Paris’s infamous Saint-Lazare hospital-prison. She looks down, her arms folded tightly across her chest, and appears to be absorbed in her own thoughts. The cold evening light pours down over her shoulders and onto the back of her head in a way that emphasizes her hardship, which is also suggested by the range of cool and dark blues in the painting. Conveying his empathy for her troubles, Picasso monumentalizes this incarcerated woman in a composition marked by curvilinear and geometric forms.