Girl with Mandolin

In the Girl with Mandolin , the characteristic fragmentation of form is carried to almost unre-cognizable lengths. Only the mandolin is comparatively easy to identify in the lower reaches of the composition. Both the outlines of the figure and its internal drawing have been broken down into interpenetrative geometrical elements. The coloration is dominated by brown tones paling to beige. Blue-grey accents, often directly juxtaposed with dark, structural lines, imbue the painting with facet-like plasticity.

Picasso was concerned, not with the mimetic reproduction of a woman holding a musical instrument, but with the objective nature of his subject - hence, for all the painting's tendencies toward formal dissolution, its unmistakable retention of plasticity.