Blanquita Suárez

For Picasso, the six months he spent in Barcelona during 1917 meant reuniting with family and friends. They received him with triumphant honours, organised gatherings and tributes, and articles were written about him in various publications of the time, including “Vell i Nou” and “L’Esquella de la Torratxa”. In this sense, the article titled “Banquete a Picasso” and published in “La Publicidad” on 14 June, one day after the banquet that friends and admirers organised for him at the Au Lyon d’Or café-restaurant, is very significant. In Barcelona, Picasso frequented different entertainment venues, as is revealed by this oil painting featuring Blanquita Suárez, the comedic actress and soprano who in June of that year premiered the show “La gatita blanca” at the Tívoli theatre, and who in August returned to the city with a new show at the Eldorado.
The artist places the singer at the centre of the action, performing on a stage structured on the basis of superimposed geometric planes whose play of tones works to create the effect of perspective. The singer’s figure is also shaped by superimposing planes, although the painter tones down the geometric rigour here by applying more modulated and curved lines to mark certain points of the body that, combined with the more angular lines, manage to convey the sensation of movement and rhythm inherent to dancing―a notebook that Picasso filled out during his stay in Barcelona and which is now kept at the Musée Picasso in Paris contains the sketches of a dancer who is most likely Blanquita Suárez. The use of colour, dominated by black, brown, green and white, with subtle violet touches in certain areas, contributes to providing harmony between the rigour and severity of its structure and the airiness and spontaneity of the moment the painting captures.