Two Girls Reading (Deux Enfants Lisant)

Due to copyright restrictions, access to this image is restricted to certain sizes outside the University of Michigan.
Two girls, depicted in bold geometric shapes and block colors, reading a book together. The figure seated at viewer's right, slightly taller, is green and wearing yellow. The figure at viewer's left has a face of blue and white and is clothed in red resting her clasped hands upon an open book.
Pablo Picasso
1934
Two girls in an embrace read a book together. The figure at the viewer's left is Picasso's mistress at the time, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The other figure is thought to be either Olga Koklova, his wife, or Marie-Thérèse's sister. The scene suggests intimacy, yet the distored shapes and vibrant colors evoke a separateness, distance, and give the piece a melancholic feel.
Painting
figure painting
Oil on canvas
Gift of The Carey Walker Foundation
1994/1.67
ARS, VAGA
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
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