KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: Pablo Picasso was just 24 years old when he painted this canvas for Frédé Gérard in 1905. Frédé, as he was universally known, was the charismatic proprietor of Le Lapin Agile, a bohemian nightspot in Paris. He is the figure playing guitar at left in the painting.

ASHER MILLER: Picasso's work wasn't worth much at the time, and it's likely that Frédé commissioned this painting in exchange for meals. In a reversal of the typical visual relationship between patron and painter, Picasso camouflaged the diminutive Frédé against the back wall and positioned his own likeness prominently in the foreground. From 1905 until Frédé Gérard sold it in 1912, this was the only work by Picasso on permanent view in Paris.

KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: Picasso depicts himself as harlequin, a stock figure from Italian theater, known for his lustiness.

ASHER MILLER: Indeed, Picasso identified the woman in the painting as a former lover, Germaine Pichot. When Picasso had first visited Paris with his close friend Carlos Casagemas in 1900, Casagemas had fallen in love with Germaine. But, feeling rejected by her, he became distraught and committed suicide in early 1901. The death haunted Picasso for decades, and Germaine is thus present here as a femme fatale. It was executed quickly and with great focus, in a single bravura act of painting, probably in a single sitting. Picasso initially outlined the figures in blue paint, blocking out the background in shades of brown, and then painting in the figures themselves. Yet, through the entire exercise, he left the primed canvas in reserve to underscore Germaine's pallor and her demimonde status.