Young Woman Seated in an Armchair 1921 - 1922

This is Pablo Picasso's Young Woman Seated in an Armchair, and it's got me thinking about the way artists look at their subjects. The drawing is made with broad strokes of diluted paint and ink, and the woman almost seems to emerge from the page. It must have been a meditative act, gently coaxing the form into being through layers of washes and lines. I wonder what Picasso was thinking at the time? Was he trying to capture her likeness, or was he more interested in the play of light and shadow on her face? The cool palette gives the picture a certain stillness, and yet the brushstrokes are so alive. I'm particularly drawn to the way he renders her hands, with a kind of elegant restraint. It reminds me of other drawings of the figure by artists like Matisse and Giacometti. They're all part of this conversation about how we see and represent the human form, and how the simplest of gestures can convey so much. It's this constant dialogue that keeps art moving forward, inspiring artists to experiment, break the rules, and find new ways of seeing.