Pablo Picasso

Girl Before A Mirror

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist who was one of the most famous and influential

during the 20th century.

Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. He was the son of a professor of

drawing. Pacassios father used his knowledge of art to teach Pablo how to paint and draw at a

very young age. By the time Picasso was thirteen years old, his skill level had already

outperformed that of his fathers, and his father felt very humbled by his sons natural talent for

artwork. When he was fourteen, his family moved to Barcelona, Spain. (1895). There he

instantly applied for the very distinquished School of Fine Arts. Picassos application was so

exceptional that he recieved admission to the school. This was rare because the school was

known to accept students several years older than him. Also, at fourteen, Picasso painted a

striking portrait that is said to be one of the best in Spanish history. At sixteen, Picasso then
moved to another major city of Spain, Madrid, and there he attended Spains foremost art school,

the Royal Academy of San Fernando. (1897). He didnt much enjoy the proper instructions of

this school, so he made the decision to stop attending just shortly after he had arrived. Instead, he

enjoyed wandering the streets of the beautiful city and painting his surroundings. In 1899, he

then moved back to Barcelona. When he made this move, he found a group of inventive artists

who brought him out of the shell of classical art. Picasso begin to be innovative and experimental

with his art creations. Then, at the turn of the twentieth century, Picasso moved to the known

cultural hearth of European art, Paris. In Paris, Picasso created his own art studio.

Historians and art critics usually break Picassos adult career in periods. The first being

titled the Blue Period. In this period (1901-1904), it is said that Pablo reflected a deep sense of

depression in his art pieces. He used the darker colors during this time. Pablo was in a depression

because his close friend had just passed, and he was living in poverty. The next period was the

Rose Period (1904-1906). At this point, he had overcome the depression, and he started

intoducing warmer colors like beige, pink, and red. Pablo produced many famous paintings

during this period of time. Then, in 1907, Picasso produced a very special painting that would

influence the direction of twientieth century art. This time period in the life of Pablo Picasso is

known as Cubism. Cubism was a popular style of painting in Paris at the turn of the century.

The idea of Cubism is to take an object, break it down into simple shapes, and then recreate those

shapes on a canvas, presenting multiple perspectives at the same time. The painting above, Girl

Before A Mirror, was created by Picasso during this time. Girl Before A Mirror was painted in

March 1932. This painting shows young mistress Marie-Thrse Walter, a figure used in many

works by Picasso in the early 1930s. The whole focal point of the painting is that vanity is found

in the reflection of a mirror. It presents a girl looking into a mirror and eventually after seeing her
reflection for so long, she starts to pick out flaws. Although Marie-Thrse was a fetching young

woman, in the mirror she saw flaws in her physical beauty. This painting really explains most

every girl, unhappy with her reflection. Picassos painting strategies in this work bring out

specific details with the shaps in the background also.

Works Cited

http://www.pablopicasso.org/girl-before-mirror.jsp

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78311

http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021

http://www.pablopicasso.org/