Mother and child on the beach 1902

Here is an image of a mother and child on the beach, painted by Picasso. It's all in blues, greens, and greys, a very somber palette, with the exception of a small red flower. I can imagine Picasso thinking about other mothers and children in art history, like Raphael's. Here, the mother has this monumental, sculptural presence, but the colors and the surface of the paint are subdued and muted, which gives it this really strange, dreamy quality. The painting is flat. It’s like the figures have been pressed against the surface. They're looming, but somehow also distant, as if they're part of a memory, or a dream. I wonder what it was like for Picasso to make this? How he mixed that blue, and then decided to put that tiny, vibrant red flower right in the center? Picasso is in a conversation with all the art that has come before him, twisting it, challenging it, and always making it new.