Picasso: Painting the Blue Period - Described audio transcript

1. The Coiffure, 1899–1900, pastel and watercolour on paper, and the size is 46.7 by 29.5 cm.

This loosely drawn scene shows a woman standing at a vanity, styling her hair in her bedroom. Behind her a picture hangs in the upper right corner of the painting on a deep blue wall; its subject matter is indistinct. In front of the wall, there is a bed with brown sheets and a white cushion. A chamber pot sits under the bed. Filling the foreground, the woman is dressed in a white petticoat that reaches to her ankles. She wears a tight brown corset over the petticoat, creating her hourglass figure. She reaches to fix her dark hair up into a bun on top of her head. Her elbows point out sharply as she gazes into a vanity mirror. Various containers sit on top of the vanity table. The reflective surface of the mirror faces the woman, not the viewer. Picasso does not finish the bottom of the scene; he leaves the paper exposed through loose brushstrokes and light pastel marks, adding to the overall sketchy feeling of the artwork. This is an intimate domestic scene capturing a woman attending to her appearance.