Special Exhibitions
Picasso: The Artist's Studio
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Special Exhibitions |
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Picasso: The Artist's Studio |
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X-radiograph of Portrait of Sebastià Vidal Junyer X-radiographs of Picasso’s Portrait of Sebastià Vidal Junyer reveal that the woman seated at the café table was not part of the original composition.Instead, Junyer’s right hand rested on the back of dog, clearly visible at lower left. A second dog may have also appeared beneath Junyer’s other hand. The animal’s presence may be significant to the painting’s meaning. Picasso repeatedly depicted dogs as the companion of artists, harlequins, beggars, itinerant musicians, the insane, and other social outcasts. For Picasso, dogs served as a symbolic attribute of the bohemian artist; they also provide comfort and loyal companionship to individuals disposed of and rejected by society, as well as to those condemned to poverty and suffering. No one has yet offered an explanation for why Picasso replaced the dog with a woman. |
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