Half-Length Female Nude

From 1904 through 1906, Pablo Picasso moved away from the melancholic subjects of his Blue Period to the more optimistic themes of his Rose Period. In the summer of 1906, the artist traveled to the Catalan village of Gósol; upon his return to Paris that autumn, he painted Half-Length Female Nude. In stark contrast to the gaunt visage of The Old Guitarist, the angular, masklike qualities of the figure’s face reveal Picasso’s growing interest in ancient Iberian sculpture and non-Western art. In this way, the work anticipates his breakthrough to Cubism in 1907.