The Origins of Cubism

The concept of the ‘first’ cubist artwork has been a subject of debate within the art world. Today, large art institutions such as the Tate are proponents of the view that the origins of cubism can be traced back to 1907, with the creation of Picasso’s groundbreaking artwork Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon.

Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’ Avignon, 1907

From a formalist perspective, it can be argued that Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon was the first cubist painting. Indeed, the lack of a unified perspective, the fragmented space, the geometric form of the women being depicted, and lack of unified perspective are all clear characteristics of cubism which Picasso and Braque would go on to develop in their later works. Notably, the muted color palette peaches and blues also signifies a great departure from the vivid, aggressive colors of fauvism that began only two years earlier. Hence, in terms of formal elements, Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon is clearly the precursor of cubism.

Many have also pointed out the distinct style discrepancy between the two sides of the canvas as an indication of the fusion of different cultural elements. On the very left, woman stands rigidly with her eyes depicted from a frontal perspective despite her head being a perfect side profile, reminiscent of Egyptian figures. The two other women next to her also share the same large almond shaped eyes and broad, flat looking nose. Many have pointed out that these stylistic characteristics were a result of Picasso’s interest in the archaic Iberian sculpture that was being exhibited at the Louvre at the time. In comparison, the faces of the two women at the right of the canvas are even more abstracted with protruding block noses, rendered as if they were wearing African masks. This is representative of Picasso’s interest in African art after he encountered it at the Musee d’Ethnographic du Trocadero in late 1906 (Harris and Zucker, 2015). It would signal the start of Picasso’s usage of primitivist, non-western elements to contend against what they deemed as the repressive, conventions of naturalism in traditional European art.

When looking beyond the formal elements, it can also be argued that Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon represents anxieties about death and sex. By adopting a psychoanalytic approach, Bois suggests that it is the art of beholding (Foster et al, 2004). Indeed, the figures do not interact with each other but rather gazes singly and directly towards the spectator. The aggression behind the gaze makes the women seem as if they are accusing the viewer of their gaze. Much like Manet’s Olympia which taunted traditional art conventions by directly confronting the viewer’s gaze, the woman depicted in Demoiselles D’ Avignon subvert the traditional perception of the female as an object of passive admiration by taking back the control of their body and autonomy through their bold gaze (Bernheimer, 1989). Thus, through the gaze of the women, Picasso indirectly argues for the power of visual images.

Diving deeper into Freudian psychoanalysis also reveals the importance of the gaze in structuring subconscious fears concerning gender. The confrontation gaze of the women is a visual allusion to the myth of Medusa (Bois). Medusa’s hair full of writhing snakes is a phallic symbol (Coriat, 1941). Therefore, combined with her power to turn any spectator how meets her eye to stone, Medusa is representative of the male anxiety of castration, a sharp reminder to the male spectator that his position outside of the narrative scene is not as comfortable or safe as it seems. Thus, Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon is also symbolic of Picasso’s anxieties towards women amid a world of changing gender dynamics. Indeed, Picasso was from Southern Spain, where at the time during the late 1800s was a place still deeply entrenched by traditional gender values, causing women to be largely subdued to the dominance of men and disempowered (Beltrán Tapia, 2017). However, upon moving to Paris in 1904, Picasso encountered the ‘new’ women, who enjoyed more rights in speech, and influenced by the suffragettes at the time, were bolder in voicing their thoughts and opinions. For example, the writer Gertrude Stein, who was his friend, was an eccentric, pioneering, and central figure in the Avant Garde art scene (The Poetry Foundation, 2025). Her confident personality and lesbian identity meant that she did not need to rely on men, further subverting traditional gender standards for women. As a result, Picasso’s preconceived notions of gender was overturned; in Demoiselles D’ Avignon he reexamines and explores his positionality amid a new world with changing gender stature and relationships.

A sense of insecurity and apprehension can also be felt in his attitudes towards this new world where women have a place: Picasso depicts prostitutes, the group of women who are the most socially vulnerable and must make their living satisfying the sexual desires of men. In essence, they are under male control, and Picasso attempts to translate this power onto Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon to create a fantasy where he can control the prostitutes on his canvas. However, his unconscious fear towards women is revealed through the contradiction between the low status of the prostitutes and their defiant, hostile gaze.

Between 1908 – 1912, the first phase of cubism, analytical cubism, began to develop under the efforts of Picasso and Braque. It is termed analytical cubism because of its structured dissection of the subject, viewpoint-by-viewpoint, resulting in a fragmentary image of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes (Tate, 2025). Other distinguishing features of analytical cubism were a simplified palette of colors, so the viewer was not distracted from the structure of the form, and the density of the image at the center of the canvas. Braque‘s Glass on a Table (1909–10) is an excellent example.

Georges Braque, Glass on a Table (1909–10), Tate © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2025

Gone were the sensuous curves, exuberant colors, and celebration of emotions and subjectivity found in fauvism; analytical cubism had a muted color palette of monochrome grays and blacks, and there was a radical flattening of visual space. At its core, it was an artistic movement based on logic, science, and intellectual pursuits (Foster et al, 2004). With the invention of photography in 1822, which was able to capture perceptual realism far better than any painting, the naturalistic pursuits of the traditional western art world were put into question. Artists such as Picasso and Braque wanted to posit the intellectual superiority of painting over photography by making their analytical cubism artworks more akin to a moving image. The traditional pursuit of naturalism in western art meant that the depiction of a three-dimensional object was limited to a single vantage point. The cubists were able to transcend this visual constraint by creating a fragmented image of multiple perspectives and planes, therefore allowing the viewer to gain the same conceptual knowledge of the subject if they were to walk around it. Thus, cubism became an ingenious way represent the dimensions of time and space.

Bibliography

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Harris, B. and Zucker, S., (2015), "Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon," in Smarthistory, accessed February 5, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/pablo-picasso-les-demoiselles-davignon/.

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The Poetry Foundation, Gertrude Stein. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gertrude-stein. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.