Seated woman 1953

Pablo Picasso’s ‘Seated Woman’ is painted in oil on canvas using a limited palette of blues, browns, and creams. I wonder what it was like to be Picasso, wrestling with angles and perspective, trying to show us more than one side of this woman at once. The paint is applied in flat planes, creating a fragmented and geometric form. It’s like he is building her up, block by block. The hands especially are fascinating. They’re almost claw-like, gripping her leg. What’s going through her head? Is she pensive, defiant, or simply lost in thought? Picasso is obviously working through something here, pushing the boundaries of representation, not just showing us what he sees, but how he sees. Picasso’s work reminds us that painting is not just about capturing reality, but about inventing new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.