In The Harem of 1906, Picasso moves from depicting one and two figures to several. The painting represents a scene in a brothel where a number of women are painted. The idea of the brothel is provocative and the notion of prostitutes even more. In the painting, four female figures are present. In addition, a man is seated in the right hand corner, a spectator to a sexual performance. Concentrating on the prostitutes however, we see that their faces all look alike. They do not have specific characteristics. Even their hair is identical. Yet, the similarity here does not imply commonness is the sense of lack of uniqueness of women. By making his figure’s faces look identical, Picasso manages to draw the viewer’s attention from the face to the body, preserving the anonymity of his model. Peter Rosenblum said that in The Harem, Fernande appears to be the model once again (Rosenblum 266) ). This idea makes our argument of anonymity even stronger as the model is depicted as a prostitute. That is to say, although he is inspired by his mistress in creating this erotic painting, he doesn’t want to humiliate her by revealing the fact that she is depicted as a prostitute. He has used her just as an influence, a model to achieve his goal in the painting and therefore no true reason exists in revealing her identity. Therefore, by distorting the representational characteristics of the face, Picasso manages to protect her.
We could say that Picasso has achieved his goal of being simultaneously, provocative and respectful: on the one hand his models remain sexual but on the other hand, they remain concealed. However, Picasso didn’t stop at this point. In 1907, he felt the need to become even more provoking by increasing the sexuality in his model’s figures. 
The Demoiselles d’Avignon painted in 1907 become one of the most prominent paintings where Picasso obscures the facial features due to this increase in sexuality. Similar to The Harem, the painting represents a scene in a brothel and the Demoiselles are prostitutes. As Josep Palau I Fabre wrote in his book Picasso, “The work destroys the whole western idea of beauty” ( Fabre 14). Indeed, their ugliness is unquestionable: their eyes are elliptical and dark on the inside, their noses are triangular with no evidence of any elegance, their mouths are comprised of a straight black line which demolishes any notion of the ideal female beauty. The figures are disposing themselves to the male public. There is nothing moral, respectful or descent about that, just the provokingness and sexuality of the prostitutes. But still, the faces are kept secret. Picasso is making his models unrecognizable, masking their identities metaphorically and in this case, ultimately literally as well. There is one way of understanding this distortion.
Picasso wrote in his letter to Kahnweiler that one of the prostitutes is Marc Jacob’s grandmother, who was from Avignon; another is Fernande; and a third one is Marie Laurencin (Crespelle 98). Therefore, we could conclude that, influenced greatly by women and especially Fernande in that period of time, he used their impact on him and became creative in painting a totally sexual scene. However, since the demoiselles are prostitutes, he avoided revealing their faces. He didn’t want the women closely related to him be identified as prostitutes and therefore distorted their facial characteristics even though this might mean making them look ugly and terrifying.
However, the idea of prostitution is not the only reason why Picasso distorted his figures. Conversely to most of the previous paintings such as The Harem, we see that most of demoiselles are looking right at us. They are therefore in greater contact with the viewer. This lack of “distance” between the model and the viewer in translated into a greater deformation of the model’s face. By directly looking at us she becomes more sexual but simultaneously more exposed. Therefore, Picasso feels the need to protect her from the public’s eyes and does so by rendering her unrecognizable. Therefore, these double readings of the use of masks, both literally and metaphorically, lead us to the notion that Picasso is trying to protect his women’ identities rather than presenting their ugliness. Although his figures are unattractive, possess masculine features of non-elegance and grace, their identity remain mystic; this is what makes the distinction between the false assumption of callousness and the true case of protection of his models. It can be seen that there is a progression of the distortion Picasso makes to his models. It is not just the greater sexuality inherent in their bodies and pose but also the way the artist paints the face. In other words, the model is more decent when her face is shifted away from the viewer like in The Toilet whereas it becomes more sexual when looking directly at us such as The Demoiselles.
Top Picture: Picasso Pablo. The Harem.
Bottom Picture: Picasso Pablo. The Demoiselles D’Avignon.