In Le Repos (Picasso), how is the Description discussed?
Le Repos was one of several paintings that Picasso created of Walter in the first half of 1932. It is a small canvas, measuring 46 cm x 46 cm. It demonstrates the formidable influence of Walter on Picasso's personal life and art during this period. Walter is depicted asleep, with her head facing upwards and resting on her hands, which are clasped together. This sleeping state would become her signature image. In contrast to other full portraits that Picasso produced of his model, he chose to focus this painting on her facial features, providing an incredibly intimate portrait. By depicting his subject asleep, Picasso conveys both her physical attractiveness and her innocence, a combination which he found particularly alluring.The sleeping woman was a theme that Picasso explored in numerous works of this period. He said, "When a man watches a woman asleep, he tries to understand". This theme explored the depiction of Walter lost in her subconscious, drawing connections with Picasso's Surrealist works. Picasso was intrigued by dreams and the subconscious, and depicted Walter free of constraint, as an image of serenity and calm.This set of paintings that focus on Le Repos are differentiated from other portraits by their extreme close ups of the subject's face. The rest of Walter's body has been completely removed from the composition. Picasso filled these paintings entirely with Walter's face, conveying the intimacy of the portraits from the close proximity of her lover's gaze.
During this period, Picasso enjoyed experimenting with a much freer composition to his previous work, categorised by rich colours and sweeping brushwork. This new style represents the renewed energy and romance within his personal life. Picasso particularly made use of yellow and violet hues to convey Walter's hair and skin, and placed her head between complimentary shades of red and green. In an exhibition catalogue for the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne & Art Gallery of New South Wales, Patrick McCaughey noted the evolution of Picasso's art in terms of form.Marie-Thérèse embodied for Picasso an ideal type – love, model and goddess. She offered him a release into sensuality and inspired the series of reclining, sleeping nudes of the early 1930s. Through Marie-Thérèse, Picasso discovered a new amplitude of form; less solemn than the monumental neo-classical nudes of the 1920s and with a promise of abundance and pleasure.
Surrealist