My Woman with a Book by Picasso

Oil on Canvas
Painting inspired by “Woman with a Book” by Pablo Picasso

Picasso has been my favorite artist and idol for a long time, and it is no wonder that I have chosen to create a piece based on one of his paintings. Picasso successfully changed his painting styles many times during his long artistic carrier but the artwork I like most is from early 1932. At that time he painted a number of large canvases of women, brightly colored and elaborately drawn in heavy dark lines which flow into great sweeping curves. “Woman with a Book” is a typical example of this style.

The model for this painting was Picasso’s mistress, Marie-Therèse Walte, but Picasso based this painting on Dominique Ingres’ “Madame Moitessier”. There are clearly noticeable similarities between those two paintings - the pose, graceful lines, mirror reflection and the armchair. But Picasso transformed the earnestness of the typical mid-nineteenth century woman’s portrait into a dreamy mysterious creation.

My oil reproduction of this painting has been carefully recreated detail-by-detail, color-by-color to near perfection in order to preserve the sentiment and splendor of the original. I had a great time working on this painting which is full of curved shapes circles ovals and arcs. Notice that the black lines vary in thickness making them more effective to render the forms. The color scheme of this piece is brilliant: the figure is painted predominantly in cool colors which nicely contrast with the warm colors of the chair. I believe that my final creation has the same emotions and beauty as the original.

For printed versions of this artwork, please visit my full collection of prints here: https://alexandra.pixels.com/