onlyoldphotography:

Man Ray: Pablo Picasso, 1933

If photography had been invented explicitly to limn the self as conscious of its social impersonation, it could not do so more accurately. Here is the artist in charge of his public identity. He wears a modified trench coat - the functional civilian adaptation of the officer’s standard issue in World War I - clean linen, and a wedding band. He is well fed and certain that he deserves our attention. On the evidence of this portrait, we should be more surprised to see Picasso at work than being chauffeured to a reception in his Hispano-Suiza.

Happy birthday, Pablo!