Still Life with Biscuits

1924

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, 1881–1973)

Spain, 20th century

oil, sand, other materials on canvas

Framed: 119.4 x 138.8 x 10.2 cm (47 x 54 5/8 x 4 in.); Unframed: 80.8 x 100.4 cm (31 13/16 x 39 1/2 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1978.45

Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Did You Know?

Picasso created a wide variety of textures and patterns in this still life. The off-white paint used to represent the biscuits was applied like cake frosting in smooth, thick strokes, probably with a palette knife.

Description

Pablo Picasso painted this still life in a town on the French Riviera, located on the Mediterranean coast of southeastern France, during a relatively blissful time with his first wife Olga Khokhlova and their son Paolo. Many of his paintings from this period, such as Still Life with Biscuits, express the simple pleasures of the home and kitchen. Highly experimental, Picasso produced textured effects in this still life by adding sand to his paints and mixing them with substances that later made certain areas crack, such as the pink in the upper left background.