The artwork titled “Bust of young man” is a creation of the renowned artist Pablo Picasso, dating back to circa 1895. This portrait reflects the Realism art movement and is executed using oil on canvas as the medium. It is part of the collection at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, Spain, which showcases an array of Picasso’s works.
The artwork reveals a young man captured in profile with an essence of vitality and raw realism. The brushwork is smooth and controlled, rendering the flesh tones and contours with a tangible sense of depth and form. The young man’s expression appears contemplative, with the subdued lighting accentuating his features and casting portions of his face and shoulder in shadow. The dark backdrop aids in focusing the viewer’s attention on the subject, who is portrayed with a sense of immediacy and presence that is characteristic of the Realist approach, seeking to represent subjects truthfully without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, or implausible, exotic, and supernatural elements. Despite the later association of Picasso with Cubism and abstraction, this early work reflects his proficiency and grounding in classical techniques.