In this artwork, how is the Description discussed?
Yo, Picasso depicts the artist as he appeared in his youth. The painting is a brightly coloured, flamboyant portrait, reminiscent of Van Gogh, which depicts the artist wearing a white shirt and a bright orange cravate around his neck, set against a blue background. The title of the painting is derived from the inscription made by Picasso on the top left of the painting. It has been described as a "a 19th-century swagger portrait" by Charles Darwent for the Independent. The Irish Times has described the portrait as, "a bohemian dandy with thick hair and an intense look". Picasso looks directly at the viewer "with supreme self-confidence", illustrated by the inscription "YO" in large capital letters. This assertion has been described as "defiant" by the Evening Standard.Picasso’s YO challenges not only us but the great Raphael portrait of Castiglione in the Louvre; make the comparison, this YO demands, my crude immediate brushwork against Raphael’s delicacy, my jarring chromatic contrasts against his tone, my furious energy against his calm, the work of half an afternoon triumphant over the work of weeks of craft and contemplation. Even the palette is not logically laid out as we might expect, but stabbed with the short strokes of colour characteristic of a finished painting — particularly of La Nana, which may be its immediate contemporary. Picasso’s was a YO about to trample all conventions.
Raphael Van Gogh Evening Standard Raphael portrait of Castiglione Raphael’s Louvre