Seated woman 1908

This "Seated Woman" by Picasso—I don't know exactly when it was made, but it’s oil on canvas. Look at the russet and ochre tones. You can almost feel him building her with a palette knife, stroke by deliberate stroke. I imagine Picasso, brush in hand, circling the canvas, trying to resolve the volume of her body into planes. Each angled block of colour a decision, a small battle between representation and something more… abstract. What was he feeling, trying to capture her essence this way? Was he frustrated, energized, or simply lost in the puzzle of form? That dark line defining her thigh is so deliberate. It's as if he is asking, “How can I convey the most with the least?” And isn’t that what painting, what art, is all about? It’s a kind of ongoing conversation with painters who came before, and those yet to come. Each canvas an echo, an answer to a question only painting can ask.