Early Cubism: Picasso's "Women with a Black Hat, 1909"

Fernande Oliver, his first mistress, recalls for Toledo viewers having sat for the portrait as she claims her part in the movement.

"Cubism freed artists from depicting the
visible world from a single point of view..."
("Picasso Work is Acquired By
Art Museum," Toledo daily paper)

Let me count the ways
(Mrs. Browning)

Painted in Paris, it hangs here in Ohio.
I trust the Midwest won't remember me
Merely from photographs - the flattery
Of my face and hair enhanced by a white chapeau.
Pablo knew (he was a Scorpio)
That lust has many faces; and soulfully,
He brushed my features through geometry.
Several points of view are apropos:
My illegitimate birth (you disapprove?)
My promiscuity; his brothels, kiss
And jealous rage; the studio altar, above
The cutter, he raised to me. Oh why dismiss
The opium that taught us how to love?
Counting all those things, I looked like this.

Jack Troutner

from May, 2000 issue