The suicide (Casagemas) 1901

This is a portrait of Casagemas by Picasso, painted with oils on cardboard. Look at those marks! It feels like Picasso is using a very loaded brush here. I can almost feel the push and pull of the paint, the way he’s building up the surface with these short, directional strokes. There’s a kind of urgency to it, especially in the way he renders the white shirt with these quick, parallel lines. Was he capturing a likeness, or trying to process something deeper? I imagine him wrestling with the paint, trying to get a grip on something elusive. Maybe he was just trying to paint a friend, a guy he knew, and it came out like this. There’s a vulnerability in the closed eyes, the slightly parted lips. I wonder what Picasso was thinking as he painted this? I feel that sense of the artist’s hand, but also of someone reaching out, trying to connect, to understand. This feels like a really important moment for the artist and for us, don’t you think?