Marie-Therese leaning 1939

This is Pablo Picasso’s ‘Marie-Therese leaning’, an oil on canvas. Look how he’s divided the background into two distinct colour fields, the cool lilac offset against the sharp green. It’s quite jarring, but then, so is the face! Picasso’s brushwork is soft here, but the colours are far from natural. They are heightened, acidic even. See how the pinks and reds in the face combine with those curious blue eyes to create an unsettling effect. It’s like looking into a mirror and seeing something familiar, but also completely alien. The brushstrokes in the hair give it a kind of porous, airy quality as if it might float off the canvas. I always think of Francis Picabia when I look at Picasso. They both understood that painting wasn't about perfect representation but about inventing new ways of seeing. Art is always asking us to look again, to question what we think we know.