In this artwork, how is the Description discussed?
Shortly after meeting Stein in 1905, Picasso began to paint her portrait. According to Stein, the process took "eighty or ninety sittings". She recalled how during one session, when the sittings were nearly coming to an end in the winter, Picasso suddenly painted out the head and irritably said, "I can't see you any longer when I look." The portrait was left in this condition until the following autumn, when Stein returned to Paris. After returning from a trip to Spain, Picasso completed the head without even seeing Stein again. When the portrait was complete, both were content with the finished work. Stein said of the portrait, "I was and I still am satisfied with my portrait, for me, it is I, and it is the only reproduction of me which is always I, for me."Picasso's painting challenged the traditional ideas of portraiture, by depicting the subject as a large, hulking figure who stares blankly across the image, rather than towards the viewer. Her body is a round mass, as she leans forward and leans her arms weightily on her knees. In contrast to the work of Henri Matisse, Picasso uses dark, subdued hues of brown and red, rather than bright colours to portray his subject. Stein's physical details are not depicted realistically – her face has a mask-like appearance, with geometric features. This angular distortion is characteristic of his later Cubist works and is a notable contrast to the rounded, flat rendering of the rest of her body. The portrait's primitive style is inspired perhaps by Picasso's interest in African and Iberian art. The purpose of this was to convey Stein as she really was, and not simply to portray her physical appearance.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Director of the Museum of Modern Art, commented on the significance of the repainting of the head in Stein's portrait.During the period between painting out the portrait's face and painting it in again a change of great importance took place in Picasso's art. The original style of the portrait had been naturalistic, comparatively soft and flat, as you can still see in the costume and background. But the repainted face is in the new style, suggesting a sculptured mask with severely drawn, boldly modeled features, rather like the faces of some ancient Spanish sculptures which Picasso had just seen in the Louvre. This change of style turned out to be of great historic importance for it showed the direction Picasso was to follow step by step until it led to cubism.
African Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Museum of Modern Art Henri Matisse