Homme au Maillot Rayé (Man with the Striped Shirt) is a remarkable work from Pablo Picasso’s late period, created in 1964 when he was in his eighties. Using a combination of etching and coloured crayon, this portrait exemplifies the dynamism, playfulness, and formal economy that defined Picasso’s approach to printmaking during his final decades. The portrait, at once bold and whimsical, reflects the artist’s enduring fascination with identity, self-representation, and the expressive potential of colour and line.

This highly stylised male head—frontal, mask-like, and full of colour—is rendered with an economy of gesture but bursting with vitality. A jagged line of electric blue diagonally divides the face, separating it into two halves—one marked by yellow and orange, the other by cool pastels and black. The asymmetry reinforces the Cubist principle of multiple perspectives, a concept Picasso returned to even in his most simplified works.

The eyes are differently treated: the left eye (on the viewer's right) is a stark black dot set in yellow, while the right eye is rendered as a swirling yellow-orange iris framed by green. The eyebrows, hair, and shirt are sketched in bold, crayon-like strokes, recalling a childlike sense of spontaneity. The palette is vivid—green, yellow, pink, blue, black, and orange—applied in unblended crayon strokes that seem almost impulsive, yet remain formally balanced.

The striped shirt at the bottom of the composition, composed of horizontal blue lines, reinforces the identity of the figure—likely a mariner or perhaps Picasso himself, as he often wore such shirts. The combination of bold colour blocks and linear features transforms the subject into a symbol rather than a direct likeness.

Picasso often explored the archetype of the “man in the striped shirt” in his late years—an image rooted in self-reflection, Mediterranean life, and his identification with sailors, poets, and outlaws. In this portrait, the sitter may represent Picasso himself or a timeless masculine figure distilled to pure graphic energy. The division of the face suggests psychological duality—youth and age, joy and tension, creation and contemplation.

There is a childlike quality to the execution that belies the sophistication of the composition. This duality—between innocence and mastery—is characteristic of Picasso’s late style, where formal looseness conceals deep structural harmony.

By the 1960s, Picasso was immersed in a prolific period of printmaking, especially in lithography, linocut, and etching. He collaborated extensively with printers like Aldo Crommelynck, constantly innovating new techniques and combining media. In works like Tête d’Homme au Maillot Rayé, he blurred the boundaries between drawing, painting, and print—treating the plate like a sketchbook page or a canvas.

Rather than striving for photographic realism or polished finish, Picasso prioritised directness of expression. His portraits of this era often celebrate graphic immediacy, emotion, and symbolic resonance.

Homme au Maillot Rayé exemplifies Picasso’s unique printmaking philosophy: treat every medium as a space of invention. Etching, traditionally associated with fine detail and laborious process, is here paired with expressive crayon lines—bridging the gap between the permanency of intaglio and the spontaneity of drawing.

The result is a portrait that is not a reproduction, but a living thing—vibrating with colour, movement, and character.

Tête d’Homme au Maillot Rayé is a vivid testament to Picasso’s genius in his final decades. With little more than a few lines and flashes of colour, he summons a presence that is both iconic and intimate. It is the work of an artist who, late in life, had nothing to prove but everything still to say—through colour, line, and the fearless spirit of invention.

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