Pablo Picasso Woman in an Armchair

Annessa Chan:

Picasso drew inspiration from the people around him, most often his lovers. From the date of this work, we know he is painting Françoise Gilot, his companion at the time. The two met in 1943, when she was 21 and he was 61.

In this portrait, we are looking at Gilot through Picasso’s gaze. Gilot’s body is becoming one with the chair, as if the armchair is embracing her, or at the same time, trapping her.

The reality of their relationship was much more painful. Picasso was abusive and repeatedly unfaithful to Gilot. In 1953, the fiercely independent Gilot ended their turbulent relationship. She was the only woman to walk away from him. After the split, she was ostracised by French art circles, with Picasso openly disparaging her. Despite this, Gilot rebuilt her life and career in the United States and became a successful artist. Not one to be silenced, she published the book Life with Picasso in 1964, recounting her relationship with the artist, which caused a stir at the time.

NARRATOR:

Woman in an Armchair is an oil painting created by Pablo Picasso in 1946, measuring approximately 130 centimetres in height and ninety-seven centimetres in width.

Picasso used geometric shapes to illustrate a dark room with a woman resting in an armchair. Her figure occupies nearly the entire canvas, and she appears to be wearing a grey, inverted triangular mask. The walls, flooring, and window are portrayed in large blocks of colour applied with sweeping brushstrokes.

The woman has luscious, curly red hair that reaches her broad shoulders. Her waist is slim in contrast, creating a voluptuous silhouette. At the top of her triangular mask is a small round face, with eyes, nose, and mouth illustrated in simple lines, while the mask itself features triangular and elongated oval patterns.

On either side of the mask are blue circles, roughly the same size as her face, which seem to be the woman’s shoulders. Between them, two larger circles symbolise her breasts, with the left one painted beige and the right one in blue. These colours are applied unevenly with thin brushstrokes, and the black shadows beneath the spheres accentuate their volume. A slender column extends downward between the breasts, shaping the woman’s narrow torso, which flares into a triangle at the waist. The column is in blue and black and seem to represent the woman’s dress—blue for the illuminated left side and black for the shadowed right side.

Beneath the hem of the dress, her feet are painted purple. The woman’s hands are also purple: she rests one on the armrest, while the other is on the edge of the chair. The chair has a yellow-green frame and a dark grey backrest and seat.

The woman is in a room with greyish-black walls and flooring. In the upper left, a beige rectangle suggests the presence of a window. The right side of the wall and the lower left corner of the floor are illuminated in bright yellow, creating the impression of sunlight beaming through the window, while the rest of the room remains dark.