Picasso's " boy with a pipe".Why is the boy wearing a band of flowers around his head.?

Question

Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) is a painting by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1905, during the 24-year-old artist's Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre section of Paris, France. The oil on canvas painting depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand.

Answer 1

Dre_baby has some interesting suggestions except for two things: the Black Plague and it's effects were well over (by over four hundred years) by 1900 and Paris had in-door plumbing well before 1900. Most of the people did not have showers but virtually every home and / or apartment had toilets, sinks and tubs.

As to your question about the band of roses around the young man's head try looking very closely at the painting. If I remember right the background is filled with bouquets of roses and he is sitting in front of a whole roll of roses. This would suggest to me that the young man was taking part in a ceremony (perhaps a wedding ceremony) or was sitting outside in front of an open flower market and / or perhaps was a flower seller..

Answer 2

I think back in the 1900's in paris, the plumbing system wasnt yet established so people couldn't take showers how we normally do or use the bathroom. Also, the black plague was at its strongest point. So what some people would do is have roses and poseys in their pocket or around their neck or, for the sake of the picture around the head to hide the stinch of death and the bodilyon the streets. If you remember the song "ring around the rosey", that song is about that time period.
Ring around the rosey
(people would be around the rosebushes plucking flowers)
Pockets full of posies
(they would have the flowers in their pocket to hide the smell
Ashes ashes we all fall down
(after someone passed away from either the smell or the plague, they would go down to the valley and burn the body)
Sad...I know, but true.

Answer 3

Only in 1976, and only then in the United States or in a tennis match. Doesn't work in South-Central Kidderminster I'm afraid.