The American photographer Lee Miller first met Pablo Picasso in June 1937, a couple of months before this portrait was painted during a stay in the south of France. Miller is shown dressed in the traditional local costume of Arles, where the group of friends, including artists Eileen Agar, Paul Eluard and Roland Penrose, were holidaying for a month. Picasso uses extreme, imaginative colours to exaggerate aspects of Miller’s appearance – for example, her blonde hair is transformed into a turquoise-green shock of colour. The primary colours are combined and clash with sections of black and brown in the clothing, while bubble-gum pink offers an unexpected background of pure colour.