Artist and his model 1926

Picasso made ‘Artist and his Model’ with oil on canvas. I wonder what it was like for Picasso to make this painting. The lines appear so decisive and confident. He’s really working the idea of the artist in the studio to its limit. And, then, the palette: that warm, creamy yellow in contrast with the stark, cool grays. This isn't a painting about observation so much as a painting about the studio itself. Maybe Picasso was thinking of the studio as this place where the real and the imagined intertwine. All those lines – were they first drawn, then painted? How long did it take him to get the composition right? Painting is such an act of translation. Artists make something up and then remake it on the canvas. The artist is always in conversation with other artists from the past, re-examining and updating themes that stretch back centuries.