Las Meninas [Infanta Margarita María]

Fourteen of the forty-five interpretations Picasso made of "Las Meninas" are dedicated to Princess Margarita (1651–1673), the central figure in Velázquez’s composition. The daughter of King Philip IV and Queen Mariana of Austria, she married her uncle Leopold I and thereby became Empress and Consort of the Holy Roman Empire.
Whether portraying her full length or only as a bust, Picasso used her figure to explore colour, shapes, light and rhythm, following two definite paths: from grey monochrome (grisaille) to a profusion of bright colours, and from cubistic compositions to other more schematic works based on line and colour, which eventually led to paintings of great material and chromatic exuberance.
As in the Velázquez picture, our attention is drawn to the gaze, which is emphasised by the red in one of the eyes. The character’s face is turned to the left, although her gaze is frontal. By means of this device, common in his oeuvre and known as his «faces in profile», Picasso captures the gesture of Velázquez’s infanta. The background is blurred, although sometimes it also contains discreet touches of colour that rather than define the pictorial space highlight the play of light and shadow on the figure.
In five of the works dedicated to the princess, Picasso depicts her receiving the vase from María Agustina Sarmiento, her lady-in-waiting, a feature he had found fascinating on his early visits to the Prado in 1897 and 1898. A ceramic reproduction of Infanta Margarita María made the same year as this Margarita María oil painting is in the Musée Picasso in Paris.