Picasso summary

Picasso [Ruiz Picasso], Pablo

5. War years and later work, 1936–73.

(i) Spanish Civil War to World War II.

Events of the next years impelled Picasso towards more public meanings for his hitherto personal symbols. On 14 July 1936 he contributed to Popular Front festivities in France. An enlargement of a gouache, Composition with Minotaur (28 May 1936; Paris, Mus. Picasso), became the drop curtain for a performance of Romain Rolland’s play Le 14 juillet; although this belonged to a series of drawings on the Minotaur theme, the gestures and their context suggest a politicized imagery. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on 18 July 1936, the Republican government appointed Picasso director of the Museo del Prado. In January 1937 he etched The Dream and Lie of Franco I and II (Bloch, nos 297 and 298) and wrote an accompanying poem to be sold for the benefit of the Spanish Republic. The sequence of scenes depicts the General as a grotesque polyp reminiscent of Alfred Jarry’s Père Ubu.

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Pablo Picasso: Guernica, oil on canvas, 3.51×7.82 m, 19

The Actor

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Title:The Actor

Artist:Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)

Date:1904–5

Medium:Oil on canvas

Dimensions:77 1/4 × 45 3/8 in. (196.2 × 115.3 cm)

Classification:Paintings

Credit Line:Gift of Thelma Chrysler Foy, 1952

Object Number:52.175

Rights and Reproduction:© 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Inscription: Signed (lower right): Picasso

Frank Burty Haviland, Paris and Céret (likely acquired from the artist, ca. 1905 – 1912; sold through Joseph Brummer); [likely Brummer Frères, Paris, in co-shares with Haviland; stock no. xk21, sold in April 1912, to Feldmann]; [likely Rheinische Kunstsalon (Otto Feldmann), Cologne, April 1912; sold to Leffmann]; Alice and Paul Friedrich Leffmann, Cologne and Florence (1912 – June 1938; the canvas was left in the care of Professor Dr. Heribert Reiners, in Fribourg, Switzerland by September 7, 1932; sold through Käte Perls); [Galerie Käte Perls, Paris, acting as agent for Leff

Early Life and Work


Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, 1881–1973, Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and ceramist, who worked in France. He is generally considered in his technical virtuosity, enormous versatility, and incredible originality and prolificity to have been the foremost figure in 20th-century art.
 
A precocious draftsman, Picasso was admitted to the advanced classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Barcelona at 15. After 1900 he spent much time in Paris, remaining there from 1904 to 1947, when he moved to the South of France. His power is revealed in his very early works, some of which were influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec (such as Old Woman, 1901; Philadelphia Mus. of Art).

Picasso’s artistic production is usually described in terms of a series of overlapping periods. In his “blue period” (1901–4) he depicted the world of the poor. Predominantly in tones of blue, these melancholy paintings (such as The Old Guitarist, 1903; Art Inst. of Chicago) are among the most popular art works of the century. Canvases from Picasso’

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