A master of self-projection and self-transformation, here Picasso has cast himself in a number of symbolic guises: as the figure of a sailor, a member of the Resistance, and, perhaps most simply yet powerfully of all, as a man and artist living under wartime oppression. With a deep sense of melancholy and angst combined with a sense of stoic, resilient resolve, this rare portrait is one of only a few male figures that Picasso painted during the war years. While Picasso most frequently…