According to Wikipedia, the demoiselles are prostitutes – and looking at the picture, it's hard to argue with that idea. Especially as we're told the name of the street they worked on.
Wikipedia goes on to state that "In this adaptation of primitivism and abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two–dimensional picture plane, Picasso makes a radical departure from traditional European painting. This proto–cubist work is widely considered to be seminal in the early development of cubism and modern art."
© Haydn Thompson 2023