The artwork titled “Woman with a Fan” is a piece created by the renowned artist Pablo Picasso in 1907. This oil-on-canvas painting measures 152 by 101 cm and belongs to the Cubist movement, a revolutionary approach to visual representation pioneered by Picasso and his peers. This portrait is part of the collection at the Hermitage Museum located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The artwork presents a distorted yet recognizable female figure, a portrait imbued with the angular geometry and fragmented perspective characteristic of Cubism. The woman’s face is a confluence of light and dark hues, her features delineated with sharp, delineating lines that segment her countenance into distinct planes and shapes. Her gaze is indirect, abstracted in form, and providing an allusion of depth within the flattened pictorial space.
She holds a fan – a traditional symbol of femininity and flirtation – which is depicted in a similarly fractured manner. Its pleats are starkly defined, contributing to the dynamic interplay of pattern and form. The painting’s palette is notably composed of earthy tones, with ochre, gray, and brown predominating, adding to the sense of solidity and weight of the composition.
This pioneering work illustrates Picasso’s exploration of new modes of representation, breaking away from the conventions of classical portraiture and pushing the boundaries of artistic expression in the early 20th century.
