Sebastià Junyent i Sans

Picasso’s stay in Barcelona between mid-January 1903 and 12 April 1904, when he left the city for good to settle in Paris, was his most prolific time for painting portraits during the blue period. One of the most accomplished is this one, dedicated to his friend Sebastià Junyent i Sans (Barcelona, 1865–1908), a painter, illustrator, designer and art critic for publications as prominent during that period as the weekly “Joventut”, clearly oriented towards Catalanism and in which Picasso published some illustrations, undoubtedly through Junyent’s invitation. Financially well-off thanks to an inheritance that his uncle had left him, Junyent supported Picasso on more than one occasion: it is documented that he covered three months of studio rent and acquired twenty drawings from him, as well as such outstanding canvases from the blue period as “Life”, “The Old Jew” and “The Madman” (MPB 4272). This makes him Picasso’s first major collector, despite the fact that the collection ended up getting dispersed over time. Additionally, Picasso, who shared Junyent’s admiration for El Greco’s style of painting, worked for a short time in the studio the latter had on Carrer Bonavista, in the Gràcia neighbourhood in Barcelona, where the two friends dedicated a portrait in blue to each other: Junyent portrayed Picasso in front of the large canvas that occupied his time at that moment, “Life”, while Picasso immortalised his friend and patron on this canvas, with a melancholic facial expression undoubtedly derived from the blue hue that invades everything except his face, highlighted by red brushstrokes that suffuse the cheeks and lips with life. Junyent’s imposing figure, outlined by succinct black lines, presents a delicate subtlety in the figuration of the face in general, and of the hair and beard in particular, which contrasts with the large blue mass of the coat, made with fluid brushstrokes that reverberate against the saturated patch of the deepest blue in the background, techniques by which Picasso manages to bring out his friend’s seasoned face, as he follows the eyes of the observer with his gaze.