Embrace

When Pablo Picasso executed this painting, he was ninety years old. That time was of the essence in this struggle with painting is evident from the vehemence of the rendering. The quick manner and brusque handling manifest his wish to identify things quickly, painting and drawing at the same time: “I want to say the nude, I don’t want to make just a nude as a nude; I want to say just breast, say foot, say hand, belly.” This is less an Embrace than the portrait of a couple, side by side. Here, Picasso does not make use of masks and disguises as elsewhere: there is no characteristic here but sexuality. In their nobleness and monumental nudity, this couple expresses profound anxiety.