During this transitory time, Picasso also explored two seemingly competing styles – cubism and neo-classicism. This push and pull between the two riled critics of the artist who accused him of pandering to public taste. The aftermath of the Great War brought efforts for a “return to order” including the re-emergence of a new classicism in which Picasso participated. Nevertheless, for Picasso, who could effortlessly adopt different styles, the use of neoclassicism was a vehicle in which to investigate new themes and subjects. Of this included the subject of Les communiants, the first communion of two youths.

The communion was not just a theme that Picasso returned to but this scene in particular. In addition to the cubist style, Picasso also painted the scene using a neo-classical perspective. The two paintings share many of the same elements – the location of the two children, the clothing, the use of the chair and bible. Picasso would be no stranger to repeating the same subject in order to exhaust every possibility.

However, it is the differences which showcase the strength and spectacular vision of Picasso. In the cubist painting, Picasso has added a dynamic background and the figures become less children and more studies into time and space – a two-dimensional representation of beings that exist in three dimensions, four including time. The effect is to create figures more human, more substantial than the more representational work. Perhaps this is why Picasso chose to sign the cubist painting but never signed or exhibited the neoclassical work which now resides in the Musée Picasso in Paris.

And of the subject itself? A first communion seems at odds with what one normally considers a Picasso – women, nudes, drama. Yet, this theme of taking communion fits neatly into Picasso’s overall work and reveals his deep fascination of religion in his work. We cannot ignore his early training which included copying religious Old Master paintings as well as his upbringing in the heavily Catholic Spain. Picasso mined the corrida or bull fight for its religious connotations rooted deep within Spanish culture. The artist would also paint numerous crucifixions including his series of interpretations of Matthias Grünewald’s Crucifixion.

We must now return to our original question. What does it mean to look at a work of art? That is to say, how do we look at a painting of Picasso? Perhaps paradoxically given the words written above, we are all capable of interpreting and reflecting on art if we are willing to engage with the work – to look at it with fresh eyes, over and over.

Often dismissed as something a child could do, his works brim with meaning and complexity. Picasso drew upon not just his own life and experiences but upon the whole human experience. So, then, when we look at a work by Picasso, just the work and us, only Picasso and ourselves, each side brings with it its own histories of life.