Portrait of Sebastia Junyer-Vidal 1902

This portrait of Sebastia Junyer-Vidal by Picasso in Barcelona is a whole symphony in blues and greens, underpinned with a yellow ochre. Can you imagine the decisions Picasso was making? The whole portrait is imbued with the weight and the mood of the blue period. It's a sombre palette. It feels like the painting came into being through feeling. You can sense the artist in the act of looking, responding, and transcribing, then stepping back, looking again, and then responding some more. The brushstrokes are loose and searching as if Picasso is looking for the essence of his sitter, making the painting a conversation. Just look at the mustache, those dark brushstrokes forming a dramatic contrast to the lightness of the face. You can sense his own style emerging as he makes marks that add to the painting's strange quality. It is like he's creating a puzzle, that is both unsettling and deeply, deeply human.