Picasso's African Period Picasso's African Period Picasso's African Period, which was three years long, lasted from 1906 to 1909, was the period when Pablo Picasso painted in a style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture and particularly traditional African masks. This proto-Cubist period following Picasso's Blue Period and Rose Period has also been called the Negro Period, or Black Period. In the early 20th century, African artworks were being brought back to Paris museums in consequence of the expansion of the French empire into Sub-Saharan Africa. The press was abuzz with exaggerated stories of cannibalism and exotic tales about the African kingdom
Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon (or Portrait of a Man with a Blue Hood, earlier Portrait of a Jeweler or Man with a Ring) is a very small (22.5 cm x 16.6 cm with frame) oil on panel portrait of an unidentified man attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. The painting was commissioned and completed sometime around 1430. It contains a number of elements typical of van Eyck's secular portraits, including a slightly oversized head, a dark and flat background, forensic attention to the small details