The Embrace

Picasso’s production during his first Parisian sojourn responded to the artistic and visual stimuli provided by his new surroundings. Characterised by the assimilation of direct sources (some of which he was already familiar with through art reviews), this context forms the backdrop of "The Embrace".
The pastel technique, previously employed by Picasso, was favoured during this stage in his career, no doubt as a result of the influence of the work of virtuosi such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas. In this pastel the leading couple is depicted by means of violent brushstrokes applied in parallel lines, and a vibrant use of colour possibly connected with the representation of a nocturnal scene. The verticality of the composition is unusual in contemporary works by Picasso. The motif evokes the iconography of artists such as Steinlen or Munch, and even the work of Rodin. Similar scenes of couples embracing in public spaces with references to the working class can be found in Steinlen’s illustrations for the review Gil Blas which, in turn, evoke the Naturalist literature of the period. Picasso would devote a number of other works to the same subject in techniques such as pencil, charcoal and oil; indeed, the presence of this motif in his oeuvre can be traced back to his Barcelona drawings of 1899–1900, currently in the museum collection, and would subsequently be consolidated in oil paintings of interior and outdoor scenes produced in Paris. Among the former, mention should be made of the pictures under the same title, "The Embrace", kept in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and in the collection of the Galerie Beyeler in Basle, while the latter include the homonymous oil painting in a private collection that recreates the composition and characters of this pastel.
The work we are examining here originally formed a part of a larger composition that was divided up, and one of the fragments separated from the main body of the work – a vertical strip depicting a building and a carriage – now belongs in a private collection. Viewed as a whole, the couple no longer features at the centre of the composition. The extension of the street gives depth to the scene and the carriage adds dynamism to a space dominated by the two figures, who merge into one motionless shape that is almost sculptural in nature. In all likelihood, this work was divided up once it had been completed, for the signatures on both fragments are almost identical.