‘When Picasso was Young, he made a practice of painting and drawing family members as his models. In this composition he shows his younger sister Lola seated in a chair, with a large doll on her lap. Both the sitter and the doll face the artist, who makes much of the contrast between the inanimate plaything and the features of his sister. For instance, he plays off the doll’s curly strawberry-blonde hair, beneath a little hat, with Lola’s dark hair, which is drawn tightly back behind her head. As for their clothes, Lola wears a loose-fitting white dress with puffy sleeves, which are gathered beneath a ruffle at the shoulder and also at the cuff. Her ruffle and sleeves are mirrored in the doll’s gaily coloured outfit. Lola is also shown wearing black shoes, which contrast with the brown soles of the shoes of the doll.
Behind Lola, hanging on the Wall is another doll, but this one is Japanese and is dressed in a kimono. A large oriental fan and a parasol also hang above the doll. The size of the two dolls and the lavish way in which each is costumed suggests that they are rather expensive imported tows, possibly studio props. Other details provide information about the room: a dark sideboard appears at the left, above which is a mirror and what looks like a tambourine, both hanging on the wall.
This painting was done in Barcelona, probably in 1896, while Picasso was an art student at the local academy, known as “La Llotja”. This is his first major portrait of Lola, although a drawing [Lola, the Artist’s Sister, with a Doll, La Coruña, ca. 1895], which was made in La Coruña before the family period moved to the Catalan capital in 1895, can be seen to anticipate the present composition. In the drawing, the eleven-year old Lola wears a similar white dress, with dark shoes and stockings, and she is shown playing with a dark-haired doll on her lap. A later drawing [Lola, the Artist’s Sister, Barcelona], done in 1898, in which she definitely looks older, also features Lola wearing a similar dress.
In his early years, Picasso’s choice of materials was largely governed by what his art-teacher father made available to him. Here, the oil painting is executed on wood. Sometimes the pieces of wood are recycled from old bits of furniture and prepared for the artist by his father. In the case of Lola with a Doll (The Artist’s Sister), the pine support appears to be a standard artist’s panel.
Text: GODEFROY, Cécile y Marilyn McCully (dirs.). Pablo Picasso: 43 Works. [Exb. cat.: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2010]. Malaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2010, p. 21.
