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Picasso: The Artist's Studio

Understanding Picasso Through Conservation (UPTC)

The Cleveland Museum of Art

La Vie (Life), 1903


Last Moments Discovered Beneath La Vie

X-radiographs reveal the presence of a completely different painting, horizontal in format, laying beneath the surface of La Vie.

The earlier work has been identified as Last Moments, a painting Picasso exhibited at the Paris World’s Fair of 1900. Last Moments depicts a dying woman in bed attended by a priest. Some drawings also include a skeleton with a scythe representing Death.

The priest’s white collar, along with the lamp and bedside table with open drawer, are clearly visible in x-radiographs of La Vie (upper left and lower right, respectively).
<I>La Vie (Life)</I>, 1903 (oriented horizontally)<BR>Oil on canvas <BR>The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of the Hanna Fund 1945.24 <BR>[Cat. no. 5] <BR>©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
La Vie (Life), 1903 (oriented horizontally)
Oil on canvas
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of the Hanna Fund #1945.24
[Cat. no. 5]
©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
X-radiograph of <I>La Vie</I> (oriented horizontally)<BR>196.5 x 129.2 cm. © Cleveland Museum of Art
X-radiograph of La Vie (oriented horizontally)
196.5 x 129.2 cm. © Cleveland Museum of Art

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