Reading at a Table

Pablo Picasso Spanish

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 900

In this painting of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter reading a book, Picasso returns to a favored subject: a woman seated alone. The darkened room and glow from the lamp give her an ethereal presence, while her alabaster skin, blonde hair, and floral crown enhance her youth. Though she featured prominently in Picasso’s work at the time, their relationship was the least public of Picasso’s many amatory alliances, a fact that imbues this painting with a sense of tender intimacy. The canvas, one of several similar compositions Picasso painted of Walter, is a poem by a man in love.

#1905. Reading at a Table

0:00
0:00
Reading at a Table, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Oil on canvas

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.