Picasso's Child with a Dove, 1901

This early work of Picasso has a serene beauty, melancholy, tenderness the way I see and understand it.I was fascinated with the simplicity and yet so much emotional background that I couldn't resist trying it in oil pastels on Canson Mi-teintes pad 8x11in.I finished it in less than 40 minutes and more than form and color I was interested in retaining the intimate bond between child and dove.To me this work speaks of those pious Renaissance scenes in which the gesture of the hands in prayer the child here suggests.