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Transcript
Marilee Talkington: "Courtesan with Hat", from 1901, is an oil painting on paperboard by Pablo Picasso measuring just over two feet high by one and a half feet wide. Thick dabs of paint in short brushstrokes alternate directions throughout the painting, creating a lively and animated surface.

A feminine-presenting figure at the center of the painting rests their chin on their left hand, gazing toward the right side of the composition, their face in profile. The only visible body parts of the figure are its head and hand. The figure wears a light-colored, patterned dress, which fills much of the painting, leaving the corners and band a few inches wide along the right edge in open blocks of bright blendings of colors. Dark hair is loosely piled atop the figure’s head, partially covering the ear and eyebrow, and creating a wide rim around the figure’s upper face that is echoed on top by their large, white, wide-brimmed hat.

Yellow accents frame the top edges of the dress, the brim of the large white hat, and along the figure’s profile. Dark accents frame the torso and cluster throughout the dress, perhaps to indicate a pattern or texture, with a light blush of pink at the figure’s chest. A wide, dark line of a high collar or necklace covers the figure’s throat.

The figure seems to blend in with flowers clustered on the bottom-left corner of the composition, as if sinking into a garden. Red flowers accented in blue sit among a flurry of green, black, and white brushstrokes. Patches of color frame the figure: on the bottom right, a yellowish tan; on the upper right, a blend of yellows, greens, and blues; and in the upper-left corner, a dark bluish black.

At the bottom right is Picasso’s underlined signature in dark paint.

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