Portrait of Allan Stein 1906

This is Picasso’s ‘Portrait of Allan Stein’, and you can see that he’s working with a pretty limited palette of browns and creams. The way he’s layering these shades, it's like he’s feeling his way through the process. Look closely at the neck, there's this beautiful rawness to it, these strokes that aren’t quite blended, that show you how it was made. He's not trying to hide the work. He's using the paint almost like a drawing medium, scratching into it and letting the texture of the surface do some of the talking. It makes the portrait feel so alive, almost like Allan is right there in front of you. This reminds me of Cezanne, who was also interested in portraiture, and making the process of painting itself part of the subject. In the end, all of these choices make you wonder, what is a portrait anyway? Is it about likeness, or something else entirely?