Pablo Picasso’s Femme du barbu of 1953 is a playful fusion of delicate femininity and utilitarian pottery, rendered in earthen glazes and red Vallauris clay. A female visage emerges from the front face of the pitcher, while flowing lines follow the bulbous body, accentuating its shape. Testament to Picasso’s unique artistic vision, the harmony between ornamentation and form makes Femme du barbu a compelling example of Picasso’s enduring relationship with pottery, embracing the changes within the kiln as a form of creative liberation.

Working within the ancient Mediterranean tradition, Picasso fused antiquity into his everyday practice. The stylistic lineage of archaic vocabulary reinvigorated his modern ceramics, often echoing the formal elements of Greek and Roman pitchers. While referencing ancient tradition, the artist infused his playful personality into his ceramics creating a style in clay that was at once reminiscent of a bygone era but distinctly and recognizably "Picasso". Replicating the pursed lips and elongated handle of the ancient pitcher, Picasso then accentuated its curvature while exaggerating the protuberant body, replacing the decorative motifs in clay with a decorative face in glaze.

The motif of a "bearded man" has appeared in many of Picasso’s works, often taking the form of mythological fauns and satyrs. Explored in both ceramic and print, Picasso was entranced by Greek bacchanalia, where drunken bodies come together in celebration. Therefore, in entitling this piece "Femme de barbu", Picasso implies that the woman depicted is perhaps mythological, inspired by an ancient fable. Picasso also probed ancient sources such as Ovid’s Metamophoses (8 AD) that told stories of inanimate objects transforming into enlivened entities, embodied here in the anthropomorphic transformation of a jug into the form of a female visage. Furthermore, Picasso’s ceramics additionally speak to the notion of transformation itself. Inconsistent shifting from one state to another – malleable to solid, clay to ceramic, human to object – reflecting the unpredictable nature of the firing process. In this way, Picasso’s continual conversation with classical imagery was not a retreat into antiquity, but a reassertion that objects from the past have a living presence.