Garcon a la Pipe

This painting comes from the phase in Picasso's career called the Rose Period. His work from that phase (1905-6), which immediately followed his Blue Period (1903-5), are more cheerful than those of the previous era, with colors such as orange, red, and pink features or predominant. 

In 1905 Picasso was living in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, where he liked to spend time with actors, clowns, and acrobats; they were his inspiration. Soon the subject of clowns and acrobats in paintings became his hallmark. The biggest mystery of this painting is that nobody knows the identity of this boy sitting with a pipe! He couldn't be any random young man; we even see him again in another piece, called "Les Deux Saltimbanques Avec Un Chien." Picasso himself made the situation even more enigmatic, saying that he was just one of the local boys, and that he just loved to sit around with Picasso and watch him work. The boy's mesmerizing face adds to the whole mystery, making this painting unforgettable.