Picasso - The Musicians

This is one of my Picasso's favorites as it's less violent and yet still passionate (if I may use the terms) compared to his earlier pieces... I can feel a sense of calmer disposition in the Artist... the same way I feel at this stage in life.  Not that one becomes dispassionate advancing in years, but the passion is based on a more stable foundation, I think.

"The three musicians and dog conjure a bygone period of bohemian life, enjoyed here by Picasso in the guise of a Harlequin flanked by two figures who may represent poet–friends of the artist's: Guillaume Apollinaire, who was recently deceased, and Max Jacob. The patterned flatness of the work is derived from cut–and–pasted paper, and stands in stark contrast to the sculptural monumentality of Picasso's Three Women at the Spring, also painted in the summer of 1921."

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). Three Musicians. Fontainebleau, summer 1921. Oil on canvas, 6' 7" x 7' 3 3/4" (200.7 x 222.9 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. © 2008 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York