Museo Picasso Málaga
© Sucesión Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
The Portrait of Lola (1894) is a significant work in Pablo Picasso's early career. In it, the artist portrayed his sister María Dolores Ruiz Picasso, familiarly known as Lola.
Painted when Picasso was only thirteen years old, this work reveals the young artist's sophistication and talent, especially in details such as the tuft of hair escaping behind the ear and the seriousness of the mouth. The portrait was completed in La Coruña in 1894, where the Picasso family settled in 1891 after the father, José, obtained a post as a drawing teacher.
It is a crucial piece in Picasso's artistic journey and is one of the first oil portraits he painted. As his career progressed, Picasso developed his own unique style and moved away from early influences, but this early portrait shows us his talent from the very beginning.
The painting shows a resemblance to the techniques used by Spanish Baroque masters such as Zurbarán and Ribera, whose colour palette is present in Portrait of Lola (1894). It is likely that these influences were passed on by his father, who was also a painter and taught at the school Picasso attended.
In 1895 the family decided to move to Barcelona, where Picasso continued his academic training in painting at the La Llotja school of fine arts. It was at this stage that he began to develop his own style and to experiment with various artistic techniques and approaches.
Between 1899 and 1900, the Malaga-born painter portrayed Lola in a series of works signed "P Ruiz Picasso". Notable among them are the charcoal and pencil drawing entitled Lola, the artist's sister (Museu Picasso, Barcelona) and the oil painting Lola, the artist's sister (Cleveland Museum of Art).
Portrait of Lola (1894) was part of the exhibition Picasso blanco en el recuerdo azul, at the Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña, which was open from March to June. The exhibition explored the relationship between the Malaga-born artist and his period in A Coruña, where he lived between 1891 and 1895, a fundamental stage in his artistic development.
Sources:
Museo de Belas Artes de A Coruña
https://museobelasartescoruna.xunta.gal/es/picasso/poeticas-de-autoafirmacion-retrato-y-autorretrato
Museo Picasso Málaga
https://www.museopicassomalaga.org/coleccion/retrato-de-lola
Museu Picasso Barcelona