Behind the Paint and Letters: Uncovering the Parallels between Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso

The fun of Cubism is that many people can look at the same painting done by Pablo Picasso, and everyone can see something completely different or find different truths behind the paint and canvas. Artists other than Picasso use the same idea of warped perspectives, allowing different views and time-telling underlying truths to create artistic masterpieces. Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso use their artistic works, including Mrs. Dalloway and Cubism, to show varied perspectives and distorted perceptions of time to display post-war uncertainty and not one clear answer to their artistic purpose.

Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso both play with the viewer’s perception of perspective, allowing for questions of interpretation and purpose. This leaves the viewer guessing what the artist thinks and searching for answers. There are almost 8 billion people in the world, and not everyone has the same brain as someone else or sees things the same way. Everyone has a different perspective on the world and what they see. Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso utilize this idea of varied perspectives in their artistic works to show that nothing is clear or clean-cut. Virginia Woolf does not use a linear storytelling style but instead loves to jump from many points of view or perspectives and many different timelines. Woolf shows the characters’ different perspectives in Mrs. Dalloway when the passersby on the street all look up at the sky as a plane is flying by, creating shapes and letters in the sky. They see different letters depending on where the character stands and how they see the clouds. As the plane passed, "everyone looked up… but what letters? A C was it? An E, then an L?" (16). The varied perspectives allow for multiple narratives of the shapes in the sky. Virginia Woolf does this to show that there is not necessarily one correct answer, and many people can interpret things differently without a clear-cut correct answer. The characters observe the sky, and "as they looked, the whole world became perfectly silent, and a flight of gulls crossed the sky, first one gull leading, then another, and in this extraordinary silence and peace, in this pallor, in this purity, bells struck eleven times, the sound fading up there among the gulls" (16). This relates to the postwar uncertainty during the time and seeking for answers. Taking a minute to look at the sky creates a moment of "extraordinary silence and peace," considering that the war is over and accepting the unclear answers or letters. Different perspectives resulting in unique opinions are what Pablo Picasso's paintings do best. "Still Life with a Bottle of Rum" by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in 1911 displays the varied perspectives accurately. Alongside Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso painted this still-life of a round table with stemmed glass, a bottle of rum, and a pipe on display. Oil on canvas creates these deep, rigid, earthy shapes that break up the subject in every way. The painting demonstrates looking at the subject from every angle possible and combining them using linear and spherical shapes to create this work of art. While hanging at The Met, 500 people could visit this painting a day, and not a single person will interpret it the same way or find/relate to its underlying meaning. Pablo Picasso creates a sense of uncertainty when allowing his painting to have multiple interpretations and no clear-cut answer. Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso play with the viewer’s perception of perspective, allowing for questions of interpretation and purpose, leaving the viewer guessing what the artist is thinking and searching for answers.

Virginia Woolf uses her writing skills as a time machine, transporting us to the past and distorting our perceptions of reality to create abstract imagery. Mrs. Dalloway and Cubism took place in similar time-frames, with Virginia Woolf writing Mrs. Dalloway in 1923 after World War 1 and Cubism starting in 1907. Both artists use their writing and painting skills to reject old artistic traditions to create a new modern way of thinking. Virginia Woolf denies the idea of a linear storyline and follows one perspective. Jumping back in time and from character to character's point of view is how she writes her novels. Woolf seamlessly jumps into the past by describing how “the doors would be taken off their hinges… What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air”(3). Mrs. Dalloway is thinking about the door hinges, and it gives her dejà vu, plunging her into the past. Here, Woolf simultaneously can transport the reading to the past. At times, Mrs. Dalloway’s memories of the past can be distorted or abstract. Clarissa is “looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rocks rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, “Musing among vegetables?”- was that it?- “I prefer men to cauliflower”- was that it?” (3). With this, Clarissa tries to remember past moments, but they come across as fuzzy or abstract as she tries to recall the vegetables. Jumping back into the past when narrating a story is something Virginia Woolf does frequently. When remembering things, the memories can be blurred, creating a new sense of reality. For example, when trying to remember a specific moment years ago, the vision of those memories becomes less clear and abstract. This can be seen visually in one of Pablo Picasso's paintings, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," which shows multiple women with altered or distorted heads. This could visually show the distortion of the past when Virginia Woolf jumps back into the past while telling a story. Life after WW1 was not neat; it was disjointed and disfigured, just like a cubist painting. Picasso rejects the idea that things must be or look as they seem. Painting realistic objects by looking at their simplified shape, primary lighting, and varied perspectives gives Picasso's cubist paintings a modern feel. Woolf uses her writing skills as a time machine, transporting us to the past and distorting our perceptions of reality to create abstract imagery. By showing memories in the past, Woolf shows us the whole picture of what is going on, just as Pablo Picasso does with Cubism when showing all angles of a subject to make a complete picture. 

When comparing art forms' meanings from writing to painting, one can find similarities in how the artist chooses to portray their overall theme or leave it up for interpretation. Both artists described can play with the viewer’s perception of perspective, allowing for questions of interpretation and purpose, leaving the viewer guessing what the artist is thinking and searching for answers. Virginia Woolf can also show us the whole picture of what is going on by jumping into the past, just as Pablo Picasso does with Cubism when showing all angles of a subject to make a complete picture. Picasso and Virginia Woolf explore various perspectives and distorted perceptions of time to display postwar uncertainty and not one clear answer to their artistic purpose.

Works Cited

2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. W.W. Norton and Company, 1923.