Picasso's "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon": A Proto-Cubist Masterpiece

Referred to by many as the most important painting of the twentieth century, Picasso’s 1907 piece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon has been the centre of much speculation. Hailed as the most important painting of the twentieth century, this piece boasts a very unique combination of harsh visual aspects with a softer colour palette. This essay intends to examine the emotions Picasso had intended to invoke with his expressionist meets proto-cubist piece.At a first glance, one of the most striking things about this painting are the jagged edges added to every inch of the canvas. Barely any soft edges or curves can be found within the compilation harsh lines and edges. Also comprised of sharp edges and lines, you can see five subjects crowded in the center of the painting. They are pushed very closely together, leaving a very limited amount of negative space. The closed off interior and tightly placed together subjects gives off a sense of them being trapped, almost. These five subjects are known to be prostitutes, their setting being a brothel on a busy night on Avignon, a street in the red light district of Barcelona.

The overall anatomy of these women are extremely simplified, and space and volumes are flattened to the point where it seems like there is almost no depth left whatsoever. Three of the five women are facing the viewer straight on; however, while most of their faces are painted straight ahead, their noses are painted in profile view. Alongside this, there are many other contradicting viewpoints Les Demoiselles d’Avignon displays, that also continue to add to the mystery of it. In the very front, we see a group of fruits placed on what seems to be a surface such as a table in front of the five women. Typically, fruit placed in the environment of a painting signified fertility, desire, or lust. That could as well be the case with this painting in particular, but it has also been argued that these fruit in particular take on a darker and different meaning. It has been thought that in this scene, the fruits depict a “self-cannibalistic mode of living”, and the sacrifice of morality in order to survive. It supports the idea that these women are selling themselves to stay alive; in order to be able to stay alive they must keep working in this brothel and in order to do that, they must rid themselves of freedom, modesty, etc. On the left, the woman appears to be entering the scene, her posture very stiff and straight.

The two center figures seem to have a more relaxed disposition about them, or at least, an attitude of confidence in regards to their actions, a sense of knowing what they are doing, as they have done this many times before. These two women arThe woman sitting in the bottom right corner has been the topic of debate for quite some time; it is hard to decipher her attitude or why she was painted the way she was. For some reason, she is the only one of the five Demoiselles sitting, with her back facing the viewer, but somehow has managed to turn her head a full 180 degrees to face us. The colors used on her (her face, more specifically) contrast starkly with the ones used on the other women. Another very jarring quality of this piece are the abnormal faces of the women. It’s quite obvious that these faces weren’t painted in the way that normal, typical faces were painted at the time. Again, this was before the movement of Cubism became a widely popular style, and while this is considered the first cubist work, it never started Cubism as much as Picasso simply forewent all ways of painting from the past. After witnessing witnessing African and Iberian masks and sculpture, and claiming that African sculptures were one of the most powerful and beautiful creations he’d ever seen, he introduced his experiences and the impact those unique art forms they had on him to Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. The lineweight of the women’s faces, paired with its roughness and colors, is very reminiscent of African masks and their intricate carvings.

The face of the woman on the left is also seemingly a reflection of Egyptian coffins and statues. These non-lively portrayals of their faces have also been said to be important keys to deeper meanings. The lifelessness in the women’s eyes translate into grim, emotionless stares. These subjects are heavily de-personified in a way that almost makes them look monstrous, and it was such a dramatic bizarre change to his normal style, and the normalized style in general, as it completely contradicted the Western style of painting. On the other hand, these grotesque looking facial features (that make them look as aggressive and harsh as the many other qualities in this piece) combined with their jagged and unwelcoming body figures is an often visited trait in Picasso’s works; combining the general subject of the woman’s form with less than pleasing genres such as violence, disease, and primitivism. It could be said that this is to show their pessimistic emotions towards having to sell their bodies to be able to survive, or it could even be used as an indicator of Picasso’s possible negative feelings towards female sex workers. These characteristics give this painting an even stronger hand in affecting the viewer and triggering uneasy emotional responses. As a whole, it’s very easy to conclude with the idea that Les Demoiselles is very successful in giving off a less than pleasant aura. In fact, the intent was to make the scene so unpleasant and unwelcoming that it would give the viewer an extreme feeling of unease. Some contributing factors to the overall disconcerting composition, such as the assertively rugged lines and shapes, the less vibrant (almost sickly) color palette, the lifeless mask inspired faces, and the tight, claustrophobic space all aid in making the viewer feel unwelcome and vulnerable.

But most of all, the harsh and almost confrontational stares directed right at the canvas appear to invite the viewer into the scene, although the invitation isn’t exactly welcoming. It almost makes the viewer feel vulnerable, as if they are the one being stared at– they are the ones in this brothel, surrounded by prostitutes, and these judgemental glares of the five Demoiselles are aimed directly at them. It is almost as if the intent is, in fact, to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and uneasy, like they are in that situation, that position of being the one that these five Demoiselles’ unforgiving and cold stares are aimed at.