The aggressive style of Picasso’s courtesans and the overtly negative impression of his prostitute-victims are precursors to Demoiselles d’Avignon, however, in both 1901-02 series, the artist has created a setting in which he and the viewer are distant onlookers, sympathetic, at most, to the agony and scourge of prostitution. This separation between the passive (viewed) and the active (viewer) — as is traditional with nude female figures — is not only absent in the final version of Demoiselles d’Avignon, but it’s annihilated to the point that the inanimate figures (prostitutes) have forced passivity onto the viewer. This expunging of the traditional passive and active roles was an ever-evolving development.

            Prior to Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso completed a similarly themed painting, The Harem in 1906. This painting, like Demoiselles, presented a group of four odalisques, a decrepit poet and a oversize kindly male figure. The four women, all modeled after Fernande, Picasso’s mistress at the time, are depicted with a sense of gentleness, benevolence, and, even, joviality. The women are also unquestionably passive, unaware of the viewer’s presence.

            The first composition of Demoiselles d’Avignon, like The Harem, places a group of women (offering sex as a service) in a space with two male figures — a sailor and a medical student. Also like the odalisques in The Harem, the prostitutes “seem benign, self-involved, and oblivious of spectators” (pg143). However, Picasso did depart from his previous painting, evolving the figures into short, squat, and thick women, each positioned within her own illusionistic space. While creating them, Picasso endowed each demoiselle with her own identity. This, along with the elimination of the two male figures, and the rejection of an illusionistic space allowed Picasso to focus his emotion on the women. He emphasized their hostility by moving them ever closer to the boundary of the painting, including Iberian masks — adding both savagery and androgyny— and creating direct eye contact between the prostitutes and the viewer. Picasso’s figures were complete. 

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Source review: Mary Mathew Gedo's coverage of Picasso's biography and paintings are clear, extensive, and well-researched. I have only included my summary and analysis of Gedo's interpretation as it relates to the physical representation of the female figure. She discusses, in length, Picasso's possible role as both the male figures, what they might represent, as well as how Picasso's personal relationships may have been a determining factor in the final painting.

"Looking at Art from the Inside Out — Abe Books