“Woman with a Crow”
The panting “Woman with a Crow” Is one of the many works of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. This painting is currently on display at the Toledo Museum of Art and viewed personally on the 25th of September in Toledo, Ohio. Picasso’s vision that is shown in the piece is one of the more emotive pieces located in the museum.
On its face this piece is fairly straightforward in what it represents. The general representation is that of an elderly woman embracing a crow in her arms. However, what would art be, if it were just that simple? Picasso’s use of contrasting elements provides a bit of depth to the piece. The background of the painting is a rich blue color that could be described as being somewhere between “Dodger” blue and royal blue in terms of its hue. While the color of the woman’s blouse seemed to be that of a dingy and rusty blend of red and orange. Her face is exhibited by a pale hue of a whitish skin tone shade, surrounded by a head of straw colored hair. Conversely, her hands are a darker more of an earth-tone shade of brown and beige. Obviously the crow, being a crow, is black. However, in art black is never black, as nothing in nature is pure black, consequently the same must be true of anything representing nature. Because of this, the crow seems to be shaded in a deep blackish brown combination that offers a dull and depressing tone to the bird. Finally as a point of contrast, Picasso chose to color the table top that the bird and the lady’s elbow were resting upon a drab combination of yellows, greens and browns to create a table the provides a foundation for the picture if you will.
This application of contrasting colors seems to evoke various different emotions upon viewing. While everyone’s impression of a painting varies to some degree, it would be relatively safe to assume that there are some general feelings felt while viewing this painting. However, this may be wrong. It seems that the use of a profoundly rich backdrop to the painting serves a dual purpose. First, grabbing the viewer’s attention and then directing it to the image that it encapsulates. In this case the image is that of an aged and weathered woman who seems to be lamenting over something. The use of the crow, which is a ubiquitous symbol of loss, sorrow, and death, seems to bring out the feeling of mortality. When the icon of the crow is mixed with the emotions expressed on the face of the woman, it seems to communicate a feeling of saudade1. A feeling which if ever felt is one that immediately relatable and profound. Even though the overall theme of the painting is seemingly that of nostalgia, sorrow, and loss it seems that maybe there might be a glimmer of hope in it somewhere. Albeit this view might be biased by knowledge of Picasso’s personal history, it seems that the use of two highly emotive color schemes, blue and red, exhibit hope may be coming out of the darkness. The fact that the blue surrounds an area of red supported by a base of yellow seems to provide symbolistic representation of a sunrise and then consequently hope for a new day. These to themes seem to bring a rather humanistic aspect to this painting by bringing a dualistic attribute to the painting. On one had there is a saudadistic view of life, all the while the feeling of hope is still present. The feelings brought by viewing this painting are, by all means, turbulent but, they still bring out a sense of humanity in an expressionistic fashion, thus visually representing an abstract feeling is a physical way.
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