Picasso painted The Tragedy in 1903 during his blue period, a somber period in which he painted almost exclusively with various shades of blue.
I saw this painting up close in Washington’s National Gallery of Art and remember examining the feet, which display Picasso’s excellent draftsmanship. He was, indeed, an excellent draftsman.
But there’s something peculiar about the draftsmanship of this painting. The painting isn’t realistic. It’s expressive.
It’s expressive not only because it’s painted almost exclusively with blues, but because of the wandering line that indicates the ocean’s horizon.
Look at the ocean’s horizon.
That’s a line that seems as if it wants to demarcate a puddle instead of an ocean.
If you put a ruler alongside the horizon, you’ll see even more clearly how much it wanders.
The horizon appears straight in photographs, even though in actuality it is curved due to the curvature of the Earth.
If Picasso were a sloppy draftsman, the irregularity of this line could be easily attributed to carelessness; but he isn’t a sloppy draftsman, and in a work of art, every detail has been carefully considered.
Picasso wanted the ocean’s horizon to wander. The question is: why?
Well, perhaps a wandering line makes the water feel more watery. Or perhaps the severity of a straight line across the painting would detract from the warm sympathy we’re meant to feel for the sorrowful people on the beach.
I’m reminded of Ingres painting, La Grande Odalisque, in which the model’s back has too many vertebrae because Ingres wanted a more dramatic and sensuous curve.
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who finds yet another woman he never knew, usually available at Amazon for $4.91.
