Girl in a Mirror - Research Paper Example

His works include art collection inspired from the works of Renaissance, Baroque and Rocco artists (Gottileb, The Journal Of Aesthetics & Art Criticism.). The uniqueness in Picasso’s work existed not in the discovery of new themes, but in the way he portrayed the existing stuff. Picasso not only popularized the art of Cubism by combining geometrical shapes and abstract forms, but also was a believer of symbolism like the famous quote he said that “It is not necessary to paint a man with a gun.

An apple can be just as revolutionary”. Picasso gave a new dimension to cubist paintings by adding human emotions to the multi faceted figure. With time Picasso experimented with Synthetic Cubism and included human forms and events with his symbolic styles. Picasso painted many women that came in his life, his famous painting “Girl before a Mirror” is from the series of paintings he made with the model Marie-Therese Walter. Marie was very young when she met Picasso, and served as his mistress for many years.

The particular painting “Girl before a Mirror”, was painted during Picasso’s cubism period and reflects his bold display with forms and colors. The painting is based upon a girl looking herself in the mirror, but the reflection she sees is in complete contrast to herself. The painting represents Picasso’s style and highlights an image of vanity. . The beautiful almond shape of her eyes is transformed into deep maroon circles. Her forehead and the upper part of the nose are in bright red color.

This distortion of her reflection makes her look ethereal and fearsome (Gottileb, The Journal Of Aesthetics & Art Criticism.). The face of the girl is composed in two parts; the profile section is in lavender pink with slight blush on the cheek while the frontal view of her face is like a crescent shaped moon with bright yellow color with makeup such as lip stick and green eye shadow applied to it. Similarly the body of the girl is also formed in two parts which visually complement each other.

These are the profile and front figure. If we see closely, there are dark black thick lines on light green base in the profile section and red curvilinear lines in the front. These might represent the ribs and vertebrae of the girl seen through flesh (Gottileb, The Journal Of Aesthetics & Art Criticism.) “Girl in a Mirror” depicts the vanity of a woman and sees herself as a death’s head. It shows Marie Walter’s self during the day and at night, it also highlights her transition from a young innocent girl to a woman who is conscious of her sexuality.

The mirror in which the girl sees her reflection is device through which we can look into her sole and inner mysteries and ambiguities. The face of the girl in the reflection is dark with hollow eyes. The feminine contours of her body are twisted and knotted. Her reflection seems older and withered. The girl reaches out to unite and embrace herself with her reflection and is in an effort to become whole. The differences in the girl’s reflections can also suggest to the fact that she is anxious and