Composition "Peasants" 1906

"Composition 'Peasants'" by Pablo Picasso is a symphony of ochre and deep reds, brought to life with gestural marks. I imagine Picasso wrestling with the canvas, layering paint, and scraping back to reveal raw texture, searching for the perfect arrangement of figures. What might he have been thinking as he painted these peasants, their bull and the big block of flowers? Maybe he saw them as symbols of fertility and abundance. I wonder if he labored over the woman's eyes, trying to capture an essence of innocence. Look how the paint is daubed on so thickly, it’s like he’s building up layers of feeling, a real emotional intensity. Picasso's figures are not just representations, but embodiments of human experience. You can see the influence of Cezanne in the solid volumes of the figures. It’s like all painters are in constant conversation, riffing off each other’s ideas through time. Painting is like thinking aloud, through the body. It embraces doubt and ambiguity, and allows for infinite ways of seeing.