Blog #4: La Vie

Picasso's La Vie

  Picasso's La Vie, painted in 1903 during his blue period, depicts a man with his lover in his arms, in a confrontation with a woman holding a child.
  I interpret the painting as a woman catching her husband and father of her child. with another woman. The older woman is looking disdainfully at a man about her age in the embrace of a young girl. It seems like the younger woman is latching on to the man, frightened, looking for protection from an understandably angry wife. Also there are clear parallels between the embrace of the mother and daughter on the right, and that of the lovers on the left, both showing an adult holding a younger, innocent looking person. Also they are arranged symmetrically, taking up the same amount of space on each side. This may be Picasso's way of showing that the man has abandoned his family, giving his mistress the care he should be giving to his child. It also may show how much the woman relies on the man, like a child to their mother. While the composition of the two sides are similar there is a strong color contrast between the stark white nudity of the two on the left, and the dark cloak on the right side. This could represent the man moving away from the conservative values of a traditional family life, represented by the fully clothed wife, to a new life with his young lover, represented by their nudity.