He was a misogynist who, by his own admission, used women until they broke and then abandoned them. I'll let wikipedia summarize:
Picasso has been characterised as a womaniser and a misogynist, being quoted as saying to long-time partner Françoise Gilot that "women are machines for suffering."[136] He later allegedly told her, "For me there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats."[137] In her memoir, Picasso, My Grandfather, Marina Picasso writes of his treatment of women, "He submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas. After he had spent many nights extracting their essence, once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them."[138]
Of the several important women in his life, two – lover Marie-Thèrése Walter and his second wife Jacqueline Roque – died by suicide. Others, notably his first wife Olga Khokhlova and lover Dora Maar, succumbed to nervous breakdowns.
Picasso has been characterised as a womaniser and a misogynist, being quoted as saying to long-time partner Françoise Gilot that "women are machines for suffering."[136] He later allegedly told her, "For me there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats."[137] In her memoir, Picasso, My Grandfather, Marina Picasso writes of his treatment of women, "He submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas. After he had spent many nights extracting their essence, once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them."[138]
I don’t know the correct terms to explain why I like it so much. Something to do with the simplicity of it. Yet the skin of the face almost looks like an old photo - realistic but slightly blurred/lacking finer details. Haunting is the perfect way to describe it.
I've seen similar pictures drawn by artists that passed away from Alzheimer's and it really shows how sad mental illnesses are for those afflicted by it.
[Three self portraits of Pablo Picasso are shown. The first is a grayscale drawing with realistic form. The second is in color and is a blocky-looking human in a suit of some kind. The third is a highly abstract color drawing with almost zero realism.]