The Absinthe Drinker 1901

Pablo Picasso made "The Absinthe Drinker," an oil painting, sometime in the early 1900s. Look at how he builds up the image with all these tiny, regular marks, like he's knitting it together. It's not about hiding the process, but about making the process itself visible. There's a real tension here between the colours, that cool, almost icy blue of the absinthe bottle, and the warmer hues of the background. See how the woman's face is kind of mask-like? Picasso really lays bare the emotional intensity of this solitary moment. It feels like the painting is about more than just a woman drinking, it's about alienation, maybe even despair. You can see echoes of artists like Degas, especially in the subject matter – the isolation of modern life. But Picasso’s pushing it further, into a more psychological space. "The Absinthe Drinker" feels like an invitation to ponder the layers of meaning and feeling that art can hold.