Here Picasso made a line drawing in charcoal on canvas then painted up to, not over, the lines, maintaining bare margins around them and creating small areas of subtly raised paint. In the bold curves of the instrument's body he created more dramatic relief by applying a mixture of grit and commercial spackle in an unusually rough crust of impasto. These heterogeneous ingredients, rarely associated with fine art, mark this painting as among the most materially radical in Picasso's long career. The abutting rectangular shapes at the composition's center seem to project and recede in turn, creating a spatial incongruity similar to that of the artist's constructed instruments. The wainscoting—a favorite motif—was a real decorative element in Picasso's studio and home during this period.
