Oh Olga!

Pablo Picasso had many loves in his life. Marie, Dora, and Eva are just to name a few. He painted lovely pictures of them. They all last to this very day. But, it was Olga that he first married. Despite their longevity with their marriage, Picasso and Olga were not the best of friends. She was more of the posh-type and he was more laid-back and wanted his own interests in life. He even drew a picture of her as a praying mantis while on the beach during one of their many holidays in Paris, France. But, there was a time when Olga and Picasso were in love. The painting, Portrait of Olga in an Armchair, proves it. I found this painting to be pretty strange. It looks normal than his usual cubist paintings. But that’s not the only thing odd about this painting.

To me, Olga was painted a naturalistic representation of her. There is really nothing to interpret. The picture is just straight forward. Olga is just sitting on an armchair and looking at the viewer. One cannot even tell what she is thinking just by looking at her. She is just sitting in the chair with her fan. Compared to Le Reve, which is painted with a sensual tenderness, Portrait of Olga in an Armchair seems dull and lifeless in a sense. He didn’t seem to put his passion into this work like he did with Le Reve. There is nothing really to connect the viewer in any way to Olga in the painting. She and the rest of the background seem to just sit there airless and lifelessly.

Portrait of Olga in an Armchair seems to be borderline cubic. For starters, most of the armchair that Olga is sitting on is gone. She seems to be sitting on the side with her arm propped up. It would be assumed that the only way to know that the armchair actually exists in the painting is that Olga’s body has to touch it. Otherwise, it is invisible to the naked eye. Another thing that makes the painting seem close to cubist is the dark blob behind Olga and the near-invisible armchair. One would assume it’s a shadow. But it doesn’t seem that way. The gray-blue blob behind her starts out as a shadow on her left, but then it distorts itself on her right side of her head. It is as if Picasso started on the blob intending it to be a shadow, but changed his mind while still working on it. One would find these distorts a little distracting from this painting. But they are necessary to the painting. The near-invisible armchair and the half-done shadow seem to try and add a little life to an otherwise dead painting.

The fact that Portrait of Olga in an Armchair was painted from a photograph makes a subtle change to me. It explains why the painting looks so lifeless. It looks as if it was taken from a camera. A photograph is just like a painting in the element that it tells the viewer a story. But, both the photo and the portrait seem to say absolutely nothing about Olga or her thoughts. They would just be for décor in an old-time Spanish house. It could even used for an image on a trading card or postcard. Also, translating a photograph into a painting is a tricky deal. The artist has to be careful about how they execute this method and not ruin the subject altogether. Even thought Picasso did a good job with this, the results still look be dull.

This is not really my favorite painting of Picasso’s. Compared to his other paintings, Portrait of Olga in an Armchair does not seem to be Picasso’s best work. Maybe it was because this was still early in the painter’s career. But one thing stands clear, Picasso did love Olga one time at his life and this painting proves it loud and clear.