1903, Pablo Picasso, The Soup (detail) -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: Even though it is a small painting, The Soup elevates the ordinary exchange of food between a destitute woman and child to a universal gesture of charity. Picasso clothes these figures in plain, somewhat religious costumes and situates them in an unidentifiable, empty space. The stiff, artificial poses of the pair give the impression that they are engaged in ritualistic activity. Picasso deliberately removed all references to time and place, as he wanted to equate the everyday struggles of this woman and child with the grand historical events memorialized in Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’s murals.
Link to the full painting.
1903, Pablo Picasso, The Soup (detail) -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: Even though it is a small painting, The Soup elevates the ordinary exchange of food between a destitute woman and child to a universal gesture of charity. Picasso clothes these figures in plain, somewhat religious costumes and situates them in an unidentifiable, empty space. The stiff, artificial poses of the pair give the impression that they are engaged in ritualistic activity. Picasso deliberately removed all references to time and place, as he wanted to equate the everyday struggles of this woman and child with the grand historical events memorialized in Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’s murals.
Link to the full painting.