Girl before a Mirror is a painting by Pablo Picasso that was painted in March, 1932. The painting has been widely known for its varied interpretations of the lover and the beloved. Girl Before a Mirror was painted during Picasso’s cubism period.
The painting is of woman looking into a mirror and the image is different which forms the basis of the interpretation. The woman in the painting is shown to be beautiful with smooth complexion and big eyes. The colors have been given to enhance the beauty of the woman. The front part painted with choicest of colors merges with rough colors that reflect in the mirror to highlight the difference.
Picasso was married when he met Marie-Thérèse Walter who is the subject of the painting. During the 1930s, she became his favorite subject and in this painting he used colors and symbols to show the different ways he viewed her and the ways that she viewed herself. The art work is considered erotic in Picasso’s art, and received a wide range of reactions and interpretations.
How Pablo Picasso views his beloved forms the understanding of one interpretation where her beauty is the subject. The yellow side of her face represents happy times with Picasso. The bright colors represent the times together. This side of her face shows her youth in the makeup free completion. This woman is painted with colors that increase her beauty.
The reflection represents the other interpretation of how she views herself. The colors used here are dark and make her look very old. Instead of happiness the meaning here is more of hate and unhappiness, fear and as if aging is getting on to her indicative of her fear of losing her youth.
Random Writings on the Bathroom Wall 
I like abstract but haven’t really looked at a lot of Picassos work … I like this though 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
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I like the colors in this and how the image in the mirror is such a contrast of the person standing before it.
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Exactly … a true reflection … pretty deep was old Picasso 🙂
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I really, really liked the colors in this piece.
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In mirror reflection, she doesn’t look old to me, she looks like a man. But then again who am i? One thing about not being born beautiful or at least not as much as your sisters is that, there is almost no place to go but up. I agree I wouldn’t hang this in my house but I did have a female from his “blue” period in my bathroom once and that to me, looked like me much more than this one. The colors are wonderful though. ~~dru~~
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I liked this. Id hang it in my living room. 🙂
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Nah …I’m not really into Picasso. Wouldn’t hang it in my house.
Leslie
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I liked the colors.
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Colours are fine – it’s the composition that bothers me.
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why is that?
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I’m inspired by beauty.
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I found it fascinating. I thought it was fascinating to see it colorful and vibrant on one side yet the reflection in the mirror was blue and almost cold.
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The human body is distorted in it.
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Picasso was a little distorted
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He could paint realistic too. I prefer that part of his work.
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you prefer more contemporary art
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Afraid so.
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I like it. I like Picasso art because it’s so Picasso-ish. He saw the world with unique eyes. I like the disorders in the pictures and the colors. He’s trying to tell us something, I think.
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I wonder why he made one image so vibrant and warm and the reflection so blue and cold. “pling”
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I wonder that too, but I guess that is what makes the painting interesting.
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I wonder if he was thinking she realized how cold she was whenever she looked at herself? “pling”
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Or that a mirror image can never be as good as the real thing. “Pling”
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that’s an interesting interpretation “pling”
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And the “pling”
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can’t forget the “pling”
“pling”
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“Pling”
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🙂 “pling”
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