Why this type of picture? Between 1921 and 1923 Picasso devoted an important group of works to the theme of motherhood. This new group of drawings and paintings reflects the artist’s joy and amazement at being a father: Paul, known as Paulo, Olga and Picasso’s son, was born in Paris on 4 February 1921. Alone, or more often nestled in his mother’s arms, the child became a favorite subject of Picasso’s paintings and drawings.
Characteristic and curiosities of the picture Mother and Child shows Olga wrapped in a large grey cloth sitting on a stone bench in front of the artist, holding Paulo in her arms. The idea for the picture was partly based on photographs that were done in Fontainebleau, where the Picasso family stayed during the summer of 1921. A drawing done on 11 July depicts the baby held between his mother’s hands. Their attitude and the way they are positioned in the work suggest a link between a photograph taken on 10 August and the final composition. Although Picasso would have consulted all these images in the preparatory stages, the painting does, in fact, differ from its sources – for example, the surroundings are totally devoid of detail. Above all, Olga’s face, perfectly recognizable in the drawings, has become thickened and depersonalized, and her body has metamorphosed into a colossal figure, reminiscent of the Greco-Roman statues he observed during a trip made to Italy (1917). The dominant tones of greys and whites, so that the young woman is transformed into an allegory of the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the cloth draped around Olga and the child’s white clothing bestow on the painting a gravity approaching that of the Mother and Child compositions. Almost certainly Renoir’s nudes, one of which Picasso owned, are the inspiration for the monumental size of the figures, the use of pinks mixed with whites, and the thick and abbreviated technique used in Mother and Child.
QUESTIONS BEFORE THE REPRESENTATION -
Why do you think Picasso painted this picture? 1- Because he was bored 2- Because he loved children 3- Because he was a father