Analysis of Pablo Picasso's Artwork 'The Weeping Woman'

The piece of artwork that has influenced me and my work personally the most was “The Weeping Woman” by Pablo Picasso. Picasso has been someone I’ve studied throughout my lifetime and has been a huge influence to many. There are many different styles and techniques that have been used throughout Picasso’s lifetime, but the abstractness and meaning behind “The Weeping Woman” is the most influential to me.

The context behind this painting is that after the Spanish War era of paintings Picasso made, he started to notice more feelings of his wife. And his wife had extreme crippling depression, so in order to express her sorrow he created something that resembled her in a cubic fashion. Picasso who was a Seminal Spanish painter was the pioneer of cubism, and further advanced it for his era for the time his painting was made in 1937, officially located in France. This information goes along with the content of the painting. The title “The Weeping Woman” refers to Picasso’s weeping wife who was going through major depression at the time. The painting is about his wife personally, and Picasso’s direct view of her going through tough times, which allows the interpreter to also take a look through Picasso’s lens.  The deep meaning behind the painting was the painting itself acting as a silent protest of the bombing of Guernica. It is a time of pain felt not only by his wife, but pain depicted through a lens that everyone could feel for. There is emphasis on the painting as well of the Woman’s eyes and around her cheeks, as there is a single angled tear that really catches the attention of the viewer. Picasso really aimed to make this image sorrowful, and therefore there is emphasis beyond his cubism that create sadness. With the use of cubism, it is not necessarily realistic, but the meaning it portrays is as realistic as it gets. 

The paintings composition is very subjective, as it is not necessarily focused on anything in the background or foreground, because the painting consists of nothing other than a closeup of a woman and a faint, bright background. There are unique colors involved in these areas, such as the woman’s hat near the background, and her dress near the foreground, but the main purpose of the picture is in the middle ground and has the most details of cubism. The elements of the image are clustered together in a cubic style that mashes every aspect of a face and possible recognition of a woman together in a bright, mashed up style. The other objects such as the woman’s hair or dress are dark colors, while the main focus is a bright and vivid style of colors portraying a sad message. The artworks form varies with each description as it is an abstract piece. It is a large piece of artwork and Picasso uses vivid colors around the main image, and dark colors around surrounding details to create an emphasis on the sorrowful events depicted. There are many shapes such as triangles, ovals, octagons, and squares ingrained in the painting. The surface is very flat and creates a two dimensional picture with different shapes descending down to create  a cubic masterpiece. Thick, smooth, and sharp textures are persistent throughout the painting, monitoring and changing from upside to the picture being smooth, to the middle being sharp, and it being thick at the bottom. 

Picasso used the oil painting technique along with different colors of paint on a canvas, and used several different brushes and techniques to get the exact cubic style he wanted. The mood he created throughout this painting was extremely sorrowful and sad and has many different meanings that all induce sorrow into the interpreter. Picasso uses medium colors and cubic technique such as making the center of the painting a sad blue to emphasize the deep depression era of Picasso’s painting. This painting influenced me because Picasso’s style and realistic meanings of his pictures create such a vibrant mixture of feelings into the interpreter, in this case me, and the style and texture of his paintings just bring the literal meaning of the painting to life. In my eyes, his essence of artwork has such a way of communicating thoughts and ideas throughout different aspects of painting, that he influenced my work in a positive and impactful way to a full extent. Picasso helped me create moods and settings so much better than what they were before, and this painting inspired me to do so the most. 

In conclusion, Picasso’s artwork is an influence to many and he is one of the most inspirational 1900’s artists, but the moods created by his masterpieces spoke to me on a spiritual level, and influenced me to create something more passionate, and something that truly demonstrated my sense of feeling and expression throughout my work. Without this piece of art demonstrating such deep sorrow and depression, there would be a completely different view of artwork in that era, along with Picasso’s pieces varying much differently. 

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