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Details / Information for La Vie

La Vie

1903
(Spanish, 1881–1973)
Spain
oil on canvas
Framed: 239 x 170 x 10 cm (94 1/8 x 66 15/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 196.5 x 129.2 cm (77 3/8 x 50 7/8 in.)
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1945.24
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: Zervos I.179; Sutton/Lecaldano 89; Daix, Boudaille, Rosselet IX.13; Palau i Fabre: 882; PP 1903-071
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

Picasso began drawing as a child and studying at an art school at age eleven. He later remarked that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."

Description

In 1901, depressed over the suicide of his close friend, poet and painter Carles Casagemas, Picasso launched into the melancholic paintings of his Blue Period (1901–4). Only 21 years old and struggling to support himself, he restricted his palette to cool colors suggestive of night, mystery, dreams, and death. His interest in themes of human misery and social alienation reached its climax with this painting. The subject has been interpreted variously as a symbolic representation of sacred and profane love or the cycle of life, or a realistic portrayal of a working-class couple facing the hazards of real life.
Vertically oriented painting in blue tones of seven people with light skin tones. On our right, a person wrapped in a blue cloak holds a sleeping baby and looks at two people on the left, one nude and leaning on the chest of another only wearing underwear. In the background, two people sit, one curling in to the chest of the other as they embrace. Below, a single person rests their head on their knees.

La Vie

1903

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)
Spain

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