Portrait of bearded man leaning on cradle 1920

This portrait of a bearded man leaning on a cradle was made by Pablo Picasso, using loose expressive lines drawn on a rough textured card. I can imagine Picasso here, really looking at the old guy, trying to get a sense of who he is. You know? He's not just copying what he sees; he’s feeling it out, using the line to explore the character. It reminds me a little of Matisse, that kind of searching, simple, directness. The brown card is like the ground of the image, the support that everything else depends upon. I like how Picasso leaves the support so visible. That’s so much of what painting is about, anyway—a conversation between what you put down and what's already there, a back and forth between intention and accident, control and chance. We’re all inspired by one another and that's how we keep the conversation going.