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Woman with Folded Arms (Femme aux Bras Croisés ) was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1902 during his Blue Period.
The unknown model was an inmate of the Saint-Lazare hospital-prison in Paris - probably someone who had recently attempted suicide and now carried the blank but menacing stare of those unfortunates who found themselves at Saint-Lazare during the early 1900s.
While the identity of the woman in the painting is unknown, the inspiration for the Picasso Blue Period came from the tragic suicide of his friend and roommate Carlos Casagemas. Only 19 years old at the age of his death, the young Picasso then went through a 3 year period in which all of his paintings were awash with blue shades suggesting the misery and grief of his subjects.
