Focus on Girl before a Mirror and explain the Interpretations.
Girl Before a Mirror has been noted for its complex symbolism. The art historian Robert Rosenblum drew attention to the duality of the subject's face, which on one side has been painted smoothly in a delicate tone and, on the other side, with a garish, bright colour. This has been considered as contrasting references to youth and old age or light and darkness. Rosenblum states that Picasso is "merging... one of the most pervasive cultural myths about women inherited from the nineteenth century, the polarity between virgin and whore, archetypes that haunted Picasso from his earliest years."Anne Umland comments on the relationship between the woman and her reflection, remarking that the image "reinvents the time-honored artistic theme of a woman before her mirror in radically modern terms, tinged by the mortal associations of traditional Vanity images and by powerful psychic overtones".Picasso's rendering of the reflection in the mirror has been described by Debbie Goldberg at the Museum of Modern Art as a depiction of Death. Picasso made reference to other artworks within his compositions and may have been influenced by a painting belonging to a friend which was an image of Death holding up a mirror to a woman. The prevailing theme of this is memento mori or "remember that life is brief". Picasso also combined the elements of sex and death in his works, most notably in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. To illustrate this theme, Picasso depicted the subject reflected in the mirror as both somber and voluptuous, indicating a transformation of the traditional subject of vanitas by combining sensuality and death.
vanitas Robert Rosenblum memento mori Museum of Modern Art Les Demoiselles d’Avignon