Woman in blue, Reina Sofía National Art Museum, Madrid at Spain is culture.

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Outstanding works / Modernism and avant-garde movements / Reina Sofía National Art Museum

Woman in blue

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Pablo Ruiz Picasso. ‘Woman in Blue’. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Madrid © De las reproducciones autorizadas, VEGAP, 2011

Category

Painting

Date

20th century (1901)

Artist

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Cultural background

Avant-garde

Original title

Mujer en azul

Reina Sofía National Art Museum
Madrid
Madrid

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This work was painted during the brief period Picasso spent in Madrid between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and has an interesting history.

The painter from Malaga presented it at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in 1901. At the end of the show, when he received nothing more than a special mention, he declined to go and collect it. After a time the painting was located by the Spanish art historian Enrique Lafuente Ferrari.

In his memoirs, Pío Baroja describes the atmosphere and the period when Picasso painted this type of female portraits: "Pablo Picasso, when he was in Madrid, had taken a studio near the Calle de Zurbano, and spent his time painting Parisian-style women from memory, with round red mouths like a wafer... ". This “Woman in blue”, with her voluminous dress and enigmatic eyes, is one of the most attractive of these figures.