Picasso’s Blue Period Women: Prostitutes, Prisoners, Mothers, and Beggars

Picasso: Painting the Blue Room exhibition curator Susan Behrends Frank discusses how conservation discoveries have provided new insight into Picasso’s imagery and social concerns in the years 1901-1904. Dr. Frank will show how Picasso’s imagery of women during those years was a reflection of his life experiences in Paris and Barcelona and how, in his paintings, he elevated these women on the margins of society into contemporary quasi-religious icons. 

IMAGE: Pablo Picasso, Crouching Beggarwoman, 1902, Oil on canvas, 39 7/8 x 26 in., Art Gallery of Ontario, Anonymous gift, 1963. 63/1 © 2022 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York