Mother and son with handkerchief 1903

This painting of a mother and child huddled together in a shawl was made by Picasso using muted, almost chalky blues and browns. The painting feels tentative, like it's being coaxed into existence through layers of brushstrokes, with thin paint and the canvas showing through in places. You can feel the artist searching, building, and rebuilding the forms. I bet Picasso was wondering whether he was capturing the deep connection between mother and child or something more melancholy about human touch and dependency. The gestures in the work, the delicate brushstrokes that describe the folds of the shawl, suggest a feeling of tenderness, but also a certain vulnerability and sadness in their eyes. Picasso painted many mother and child images, and I see this as his way of speaking to a long tradition of painters trying to figure out that relationship. Painters are always looking at one another and remixing approaches and styles. This is a good example of how artists work through each other.