Pablo Picasso

The present work dates from 1919, during a period when Picasso's work incorporated the clear, precise and proportioned aesthetic of French neo-classical painting.  This style was a response to a cultural movement promoted by members of post-war French society who were determined to link themselves with the nobility and clarity of the classical age. Beginning around 1917 and until the mid-1920s, Picasso created an impressive production of "neo-classical" works, including this portrait of an unidentified family, that demonstrate a stylistic deftness and precision of draftsmanship akin to that of Poussin, Corot and Ingres. 

Even though Picasso’s neo-classical portraits drew clear parallels to traditionalist approaches to draftsmanship, there is something distinctly modern about these pictures.   In the present work, a certain 'photographic' effect is evident in the liberties he has taken in accentuating the realism of some parts of the picture, while leaving other areas out of focus. When asked about this drawing, the artist remembered executing it after a photograph but could not recall the identity of the family.  Picasso was fascinated by photography, and incorporated the highly-mannered positioning, selective focus and crisp qualities of photo-portraits into his drawings. But the drawings that were inspired by photographs were, more than anything, indicative of the eclectic influences of both "high" and "low" art that were at play in his production during this important period of his career. According to Kenneth Silver, "Picasso is truly an eclectic during and after the Great War. The brilliance of his eclecticism is of course unmistakable: perhaps at no other moment does he seem to be so many different and consummate artists at once" (Kenneth E. Silver, Esprit de Corps, Princeton, 1989, p. 135).