Portrait of Sebastian Juner Vidal, 1903 - Art Essay Sample for Students

Portrait of Sebastian Juner Vidal (1903) is an artwork by Pablo Picasso who was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a ceramicist. Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years that included painting in a naturalistic manner with his work now being categorized into periods. The artwork is mainly in a neoclassical style and among the most commonly accepted periods among his work which is the Blue periods that happened in the time between 1901 and 1904.

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The art was executed in strong, simplified shapes and forceful brushwork, while Juner's female companion, with a distracted gaze, appears considerably less substantial. It is a portrait that got my eye because I thought that it was very dark and gloomy compared to his other paintings. It looks like Picasso was going through a difficult or obscure time making this painting. When looking at the faces, they see vague and tired as if both and especially the lady were not interested in being there. The art is a clear indication that Picasso tries to change the styles of his art depending on his current situations and moods, something I consider to be different from other famous artists. The blue color is mainly used in this portrait different from the other paintings that he has always used different colors with different shapes.

Pablo Picasso used the painting as a way of expressing his feelings. The artwork was among Picasso's blue period paintings and most of the paintings of this period characterized sadness, expressions, loneliness, solitude, and emotions. His paintings of this period were mainly of blue shades and blue-green which were occasionally warmed by other colors. The art was based on the observations of things and humans that were around him, and this means that it depicted a deep thinking and the artistic nature. The artwork was done when Sebastia Junyer Vidal who was one of his friend and a fellow artist accompanied him to Paris, and that is when he decided to make the portrait. Basing the painting on the Picasso's life when he went to live in Paris, it is clear that after the suicide of his friend, it had a profound effect on him and that is why his blue period paintings such as this one characterized the expression of sadness, loneliness, solitude, and emotions. The image displayed a culture and period that represented a range of contemporary art of the ancient Greek. The painting was his first distinctive phase during the blue period, and it epitomizes his blue palette and the palpable and eerie loneliness on display of the time. The depiction of the artwork is executed in strong, simplified shapes and forceful brushwork that made the colors on the painting to be darker than the rest of his paintings during this period. It was a beautiful part of a painting in a bar with the subjects sitting and a woman with a red flower on her hair. The image shows Vidal with a permanently surprised expression and probably seated beside a prostitute. Picasso was so much interested in the society around him, and that is why he drew about humans and animals. I consider it to be an artwork that has never been seen before and some that have rarely been seen. It is a painting that can be deemed to renew the theme of portraiture, and besides being recognized as a portrait, it can also be more of Picasso's reaction to his model. The painting offers similar and differing uses of color, texture, form, and composition. Picasso utilizes a rough surface which allows for the more significant infusion of blues in his Blue Period. The texture used is smooth, and this contracts his painting providing a composition in the sitting posture, and also offering more significant use of colorations which is an element of cubism. Picasso relies on the understanding of his geometric structure that was more apparent during the time of the works of the Blue Period. The use of geometric form a context that reveals why the style used in the painting provide a modernist setting. Other characteristics that can be found in the painting include the twentieth-century art styles that include the Cubism, Purism, and Fauvism. The color used in the painting acts as a symbol that is symbolizing sadness. His friend committed suicide due to depression for having been rejected by a woman, and this also created some depression on Picasso which was a psychological trigger that inspired him to the Blue Period and paintings of shades of blue. The composition of the painting, therefore, conveys a mood of melancholy and pessimism. Having brief biographical information about Picasso learn and understand his different painting styles and have a greater appreciation of his work, and a better understanding of the Portrait of Sebastian Juner Vidal. It is a good art painting that creates an excellent path to find out and learning about the beginning of the Blue period and why Picasso chooses to paint in Shades of blue.