A native citizen of Spain and a recognized king of bohemian Paris, Pablo Picasso was a bright example of versatile talent and fantastic commitment to his lifework. He continuously tried new styles and forms, looked for new color compositions, used unusual materials, and, when two-dimensional images started to seem him boring, founded cubism to give them a new dimension. Together with Georges Braque, Picasso massively determined art development of the twentieth century. The widely recognized ancestor of Picasso’s cubism is his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) created in 1907 during the African period of creative work. However, over the course of his life, Picasso made a lot of art pieces of cubism, and one of them was Woman with Pears (summer 1909, oil on canvas) that belongs to the series of portraits of Fernande Olivier.
Fernande Olivier was a “professional” artist’s model; Picasso met her when moved to Paris and settled in Montmartre in the residence for artists in Le Bateau-Lavoir. Or rather, she had no profession and just posed to various artists from time to time. Indeed, she also had affairs with them, and the same happened with Picasso. He met her near the fountain and was impressed with her beauty: Fernande Olivier was tall, red-haired, and very bright with bright and dominant demeanor. When they started to date and lived together and when nobody except Picasso had a right to paint her, Olivier naturally wanted to see the reflection of her beauty on his paintings, but it was impossible with a person like Picasso. Their affair covered the days from the end of the “blue” period till the middle of cubism, and she could just accept the painting style of her lover and got used to his “deformed” vision.
Woman with Pears belongs to analytical cubism and was made during the summer of 1909, when Picasso and Olivier were in the village of Horta de Sant Joan in Spain. The work is one of the artworks of Picasso’s era of the early cubism, the days of jazz on the canvas. On the contrary with the traditional painting of artist’s model, Picasso makes the model just the major reef, the guide that gives him inspiration and allows making improvisations. He uses the method of dramatic analysis and moves deeper into the shapes thus coming closer to abstract art and standing away from his colleague and the other founder of cubism Braque who focuses on figurative objectives. Generally, analytical cubism has several features that distinct it from the second stage of cubism development, synthetic cubism. First of all, it concentrates on the analysis of natural forms, “reduces the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane” (“Pablo Picasso’s Cubism Period – 1909 to 1912”). Also, analytical cubism places colors on the back burner: paintings of that period are made with a monochromatic scheme that included blue, gray, and ochre. Instead of colors, analytical cubists use geometric shapes such as cylinders and spheres to represent their perception of the world around. As one can observe, Woman with Pears is done in line with the mentioned features.
The first that catches the eye is the geometry of the portrait. Picasso uses clear lines and angles and creates the image of Fernande Olivier mostly with cones and cubes. The woman has a massive, masculine neck and sloping shoulders painted with strong black lines. The neck segues to head; her nose, lips, chin, and cheekbones are conical, while eyes, forehead, and bridge of the nose are painted with the use of cubes. Olivier’s ears are ellipsoidal, and her hair is made with ellipses, pyramids, and frustums. Such separation of solid volumes allows “an alternative to the traditional illusionistic and perspectival approach to depicting three–dimensional space on a two–dimensional surface” (MoMA). At the same time, the pears in the background are done in the round; they remind about the traditional style of painting and oppose geometric shapes of the woman. The table, the wall, and the curtain are also fragmented and done with geometric shapes. The correct use of geometric lines and shapes gives the impression that the painting is three-dimensional, while indeed it is made on the two-dimensional picture plane. One can observe the similar fragmentation on the other artworks of Picasso created during the era of cubism. For instance, Fan, Salt Box, Melon (1909, oil on canvas) introduces fragmentation on small cubes, cones, and rectangular blocks, and Head of a Woman (1909, oil on canvas) that also depicts Fernande Olivier is done mostly with pyramids and cones. Cubism challenged the depiction of perspective that had been used since the days of Renaissance and explored new forms and a new approach to the depiction of space; as one can notice, on the painting, Fernande seems to be in front of the table and the pears, and she seems volumetric as well as the background. The same can be seen on Head of a Woman, where Picasso achieves the position and three-dimensional image of Fernando due to her detailed draughtsmanship that opposes the plane background. At the same time, the perspective of Fan, Salt Box, Melon goes far beyond simple three-dimensionality and determines the following direction of Picasso’s development: he does not separate textures, mixes background and foreground, and shows the plain view of the table and frontal view of the things on it.
Furthermore, one should note the color range of the painting. Picasso uses a lot of monochromatic colors such as variations of ochre and gray. Fernande’s skin is painted in the shades of brown, orange, and yellow with the addition of gray, black, and white for the creation of the volume. The background is also done with gray and brown shades, and the curtain is green. Black, white, and gray add to the three-dimensional geometric shapes and allow Picasso to create a three-dimensional image of Fernande, the pears, the table, the wall, and the curtain. Moreover, it is important to mention that the whole color range is neutral; Picasso took the view that colors weakened the paintings and abandoned the ones that created a mood (Guggenheim). One could trace the color range of Woman with Pears in other works of Picasso; he painted the green tablecloth on Fan, Salt Box, Melon that is similar to the green curtain and used the same combination of colors for Head of a Woman.
In general, Woman with Pears gives a rather inconsistent impression. Picasso painted the woman he loved, but the viewers cannot see the traditional feminine beauty; at first sight, the portrait seems conversely horrifying. One can trace the same on the earlier works of the painter and especially on the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon that was the starting point of cubism. It seems that Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has no subject, but at the same time, it is filled with another mystical, “looking-glass” sense. The full transformation of the human body has no prettiness and no smoothing angles; it is enough just to look in the terrible frightening eyes. Such depiction increases tensions and demonstrates the clash of the good and the evil and the duality of the style. At the same time, the action of the painting seems theatrical and thus covers the second interest of Picasso: the theater. As well as other cubism artworks of Picasso, Woman with Pears keeps the sense of the theatrical and the duality of the painting making the viewers think about the artist’s vision of the world.
Picasso’s cubism is the combination of two things he loved most of all: the theater and painting. The longer the viewers examine the painting, the more they are able to see and understand, and in such a way, cubism connects the minds of the artist and the viewers and makes the latter think. Woman with Pears is one of the greatest examples of the early days of Picasso’s cubism that answers the common features of analytical cubism including the range of colors, fragmentation, and geometric shapes and shows the duality of the style. Fernande Olivier is Picasso’s lover, but her portrait is ugly, horrifying, and “deformed.” However, after continuous looking, one can change the first impression and see the depth of Picasso’s attitude and feelings. He showed not the outer beauty but the image in his head, “To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” (“Pablo Picasso - Quotes”). The ability to understand the artist from different points of view definitely became one of the most significant advantages of cubism.
Illustrations
Picasso, Pablo. Woman with Pears. 1909, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Museum of Modern Art. MoMA, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
Picasso, Pablo. Fan, Salt Box, Melon. 1909, oil on canvas, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Cleveland Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
Picasso, Pablo. Head of a Woman. 1909, oil on canvas, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago. Art Institute Chicago. , Chicago Art Institute, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
Picasso, Pablo. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. 1907, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Museum of Modern Art. MoMA, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
Works Cited
“Pablo Picasso. Woman with Pears.” Museum of Modern Art. MoMA, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
“Pablo Picasso’s Cubism Period – 1909 to 1912.” Pablo Picasso: Paintings, Quotes, and Biography. PabloPicasso.org, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
“Pablo Picasso – Quotes, p.1.” Goodreads. Goodreads, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
“Picasso: Black & White.” Guggenheim. Guggenheim, n. d. Web. Accessed 8 Jan 2017.
