The Absinthe Drinker (Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto) 1903

Picasso painted 'The Absinthe Drinker' with oils in a private collection. Look closely, and you can almost feel the weight of each brushstroke, the impasto creating a surface that's both tactile and emotionally charged. The somber palette—mostly blues and blacks—sets a melancholic tone, but there are also flashes of pale skin tones that seem to glow from within. Focus on the way Picasso renders the hands. There's a certain awkwardness, a deliberate crudeness, that makes them feel so real, so human. They're not idealized; they're the hands of someone who's lived, who's felt. This painting reminds me of Van Gogh, particularly his portraits, in the way it captures the inner life of the sitter through raw, expressive brushwork. It's a painting that invites us to linger, to question, and to find our own meaning within its enigmatic depths.