Picasso Facing Death

PABLO PICASSO – Self-Portrait Facing Death – 90 years old, June 30, 1972

Self-portraits emphasise an artist’s work and skill. It is an exercise in self-analysis and introspection as well as a means of achieving immortality, revealing consciously and unconsciously the artist’s physical appearance and personality, often expressing their deepest desires and anxieties.

In this haunting late self-portrait of Picasso, we see a close-cropped straight-on view of Picasso’s face and shoulders with a skull and skeletal look of an x-ray, a glimpse into his inner structure and inner soul which makes this not just a surface visual of skin but an interior view too. This imparts a deeper and more meaningful sense of self, more than a photo or realist painting can do.

The large penetrating sad, pitiful, frightened eyes hypnotically reflect back not only a portrait of Picasso but a reflection of my personal sad, regrets, fears and loneliness. A double introspection, one of Picasso and one of my own.

A bulbous nose, a straight wide mouth indicating no smile but neither a sad droop but a matter-of-fact acceptance. His head sits almost neckless on skeletal shoulders. There is a pallor of impending death.

The limited sickly colour range, mainly green and red sets up a dynamic of colour contrasts as well as a dynamic of direct and rapid scribbling with overlays of colour. The forceful yet child-like mark-making truly reflects his famous words “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”. For me, this suggests that he learnt the nuts and bolts of the craft of painting quickly but a lifetime of exploring and learning to develop the ease of creative simplicity and freedom of expression that seems to come so naturally to a child.

This is truly a magnificent self-portrait but is also universal as well as deeply personal to me. I look deep into those large eyes and I see a reflection of myself a reflection of my own sense of encroaching end of life. It is a real reflection of my own fears and regrets of old age and looming death.

This drawing is probably Picasso’s best-known late portrait but it is not his last.

Picasso’s Final Portrait.