The 'Divan Japonais' 1901

Picasso made this painting of the ‘Divan Japonais’ with oil on cardboard, but the date is unknown. Look at how he's swiping and scrubbing the paint around to get these mottled effects, that lemon yellow cloak and the red and green in her hair. It's a little like he's just pushing the colours around, trying to figure out what they can do. You can almost feel his hand moving as he feels his way through the image. And what about the stage on the right-hand side? The paint is so thin, almost like watercolour, it feels like a fleeting glimpse. I keep thinking about Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, they had a thing for showing the theatre and cabaret life too. But Picasso's version feels different, more raw, like he's not trying to capture the scene perfectly, just the feeling of being there, caught in the moment. It leaves you with more questions than answers, which is kind of the point of art, right?