Crytical Essay on Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror

Introduction

Vanity is found in the reflection of a mirror. Pablo Picasso thought so-or did he? We all look in the mirror, and it is not the reflection we see, but what we think we see. Is it not true that most people judge themselves as to how people view or think about them just by looking into the mirror? The girl before a Mirror is a painting by Pablo Picasso created in March 1932. The medium of this painting is oil on canvas, and its dimension is 162.3 by 130.2 cm. The art emphasizes the vanity and futility within one's physical appearance that everybody will continue to age as life goes on regardless of the unseen.

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At first glance, the colors of the painting are not as lively as they seem in contrast with the lighter colors. Upon observing the art, we see a series of shapes which come together forming a girl looking at her reflection in a mirror. The girl extends her arm and is seen to touch her reflection on the mirror. It is closely cropped in, centered on the figure of the girl. From the paint, we can see that the girl herself and her reflection occupy almost the entire canvas. The painting is bright with: colors are at full intensity and are arranged next to their compliments with the left being brighter than the image on the right which is all dull and gloomy. It is noticeable almost immediately that the piece of art incorporates the use of lines drawn in freehand technique. Also, the lines do not appear straight enough since some seem to be curved lines. The juxtaposition of both yellow and lavender found at the image on the left suggests the features of a girl's face. The background contains a crisscross pattern of diamond figures painted in a variety of colors.

From the painting, a repetitive pattern and contrast of colors are dominant. The girl and her reflection exhibit contrast colors. The artist, Picasso, integrated warm colors such as yellow and light pink to the girl. Besides, he also used dark red, blue and green, which are dark colors. The different colors united well and make harmony together. Also, he made geometric shapes by using hatching lines. The use of contrast color of the lines and the background makes it possible to predict the mood of the painting. The other art principle Picasso used was the symmetrical balance, where one side is supposed to imitate the other through the mirror. The girl is composed of two halves adjacent to one another, the girl standing on the left and her reflection in the mirror. The painter used geometric shapes for the background, and he used circles to emphasize on the main in the painting. The difference in the pattern of the background from the foreground allows a focus on the two-dimensional subjects. Geometric shapes and patterns play an important role in what the viewer sees. Picasso uses an array of complementary and analogous colors characterized by a range of hue values, and light to create a dramatic difference between the two subjects.

Some people find that beauty is mirrored from the heart while others thrive to become more attractive or appealing. The woman on the painting is seen to have all the brightness in the world shown by the light surrounding her head, looks and feels that there is still an insufficiency. Further, the fact that she has to become a mother is shown through her reflection which loses the beauty and natural shine. The intensity of yellow bursting like the sun on the left side of her face suggests a feeling of warmth. Otherwise, the lavender-pink side of the face suggests darkness bringing a sense of serenity at night. It is this ideology that has encroached her mind, resulting in her feeling vain. The black lines outlining the mirror suggest a tone of death that frames the image of the self in the coming years. The portrait on the right is painted with dark colors. The eyes appear to be hollow painted in brown with a dark shadow. This shows the gradual death of luminosity and womanhood. The design of the background is in such a way that every block appears as an eye watching the woman. This reflects on the girl who begins to notice faults in her body and beauty.

The piece of art is a simple kind of painting, and from it, the girl in the mirror can be viewed as a total success. However, the art portrays some emotions through fewer objects with lots of art elements and principles.