Picasso - Study for "The Harem"

The canvas, held vertically, depicts six characters in an empty room, with walls and floor in an almost vaporous powder pink. In the foreground, a man is leaning against the wall, thighs apart, holding a porron in one hand; he is watching four naked women, busy with their toilet. In the back of the room, an elderly woman watches the scene. The atmosphere is relaxed, the bodies are languid. Warm colors largely dominate, contrasting with the canvases of the blue period. The bodies are treated in a realistic way, bringing a certain freshness to the female figures and a feeling of majesty to the seated man. The composition is punctuated by a diagonal rising towards the left, led by the male gaze that brushes the heads of two young women towards the one who is delicately stretching.

The Harem, 1906

© Picasso Administration