Portrait of Sebastià Junyent Sans 1904

This is Pablo Picasso's oil on canvas portrait of Sebastià Junyent Sans, the artist's friend and fellow painter. Picasso has used very traditional materials here, but with an interesting handling. We see that he's laid down the blue background very thinly, letting the texture of the canvas show through, while the figure of Junyer is built up with thicker, more gestural strokes, especially around the face. The background is thinly sketched in, and there's the bare minimum of modeling of the face. It's almost as if Picasso is saying: the quick, decisive brushwork that builds up the face is the essence of a portrait. Everything else is just support. The use of materials and the process of applying paint, therefore, become paramount in understanding Picasso's intent. He challenges the conventional notion of portraiture, inviting us to reconsider the relationship between the artist, the sitter, and the act of painting itself.