Explore the Description and history of this artwork, La Vie (painting).
La Vie (The Life) was painted in Barcelona in May 1903. It is 196.5 by 129.2 centimetres (6.45 ft × 4.24 ft) and portrays two pairs of people, a naked couple confronting a mother bearing a child in her arms. In the background of the room, apparently a studio, there are two paintings within the painting, the upper one showing a crouching and embracing nude couple, the lower one showing a lonesome crouching nude person very similar to Sorrow by Vincent van Gogh. With this Picasso repainted another motif, a birdsman who attacks a reclining naked woman, traces of which are visible to the naked eye. Preparatory studies are: Private collection, Zervos XXII 44; Paris, Musée Picasso, MPP 473; Barcelona, Museu Picasso, MPB 101.507; Barcelona, Museu Picasso, MPB 101.508.It was painted at a time when Picasso was having no financial success. In contrast, the new painting sold only a month after it was finished, to a French art dealer, Jean Saint Gaudens. The sale was reported in the Barcelona newspaper, Liberal. With La Vie Picasso repainted the canvas of The derniers Moments from 1899, a painting that he had presented at the Paris International Exhibition 1900.The painting was given by the Hanna fund to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio in 1945 and is in their permanent collection.In 2020, the painting was loaned to the Royal Academy of Arts in London as part of the 'Picasso and Paper' exhibition, where it was displayed with preparatory drawings and other works on paper exploring corresponding themes of poverty, despair and social alienation.
Royal Academy of Arts Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland Barcelona Museu Picasso Ohio Musée Picasso Vincent van Gogh Zervos