Picasso’s “Guernica”
Kenneth G. Hay
Professor Emeritus of Contemporary
Art Practice, The University of Leeds,
UK
“Guernica”, 1937: Spanish Pavilion, Paris World Fair
Oil on Canvas, 394 x 776 cm; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.
Paris World Fair, 1937. Spanish Pavilion, top centre-right
Josep Lluís Sert & Luis LaCasa, Spanish Pavilion, (1937)
Paris World Fair: Spanish Pavilion, 1937
Spanish Pavilion, 1937
“New Woman” Photo Panel
• The Spanish Pavilion used
its space to demonsrate the
modernity of the social
changes it was inaugurating
in Spain, a country steeped in
traditional methods and
mind-sets.
• Here, the emancipation of
women is being celebrated.
Bombing of Guernica, 26 April 1936
“The Dream and Lie of Franco”, Plate 1, 1937
Guernica, Preliminary Drawing,
Dora Maar, “Picasso painting
Guernica”
• Picasso at work on Guernica in
Paris.
• There is no colour in Guernica Picasso
has chosen to limit himself
to black, grey and white, with
various half-tones provided by
areas of stippling and all-over
pattern.
• Here, he is using a feather duster to
soften the charcoal lines, so as to
prevent smudging when he comes
to paint with liquid oil colours.
Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937
Wailing Woman, Study 23 for
Guernica, 13 May1937
• The clustering of the eyes at
the top left renders the
expanse of face and
particularly the mouth more
in evidence. It is the mouth,
wailing, that Picasso wants
to emphasise here. Where,
previously such apparent
‘distortions’ might have
seemed arbitrary or
decorative, here they are put
to dramatic use.
Wailing Woman, Study 30 for
Guernica, 20 May1937
• For four days, tales of the terrible
human suffering dominated the
news reports coming out of Spain
of the Bombing of Guernica,.
• As Picasso was hearing them, he
began a series of drawings on paper
with coloured crayons, depicting
the heads of women, wounded,
dying or cradling their dead infants
on their knees.
• We can follow the development of
his ideas literally day by day, as he
has signed and dated each work in
sequence.
Mother and Dead Child, Study 36 for Guernica,28 May 1937
Wailing Woman, Study 39 for Guernica, 31 May 1937
Wailing Woman,Study 40 for Guernica, 3 June, 1937
The “Mater Dolorosa” (Virgin of
Sorrows) by Pedro de Mena, (1670-5)
reveals an intense preoccupation with
veracity typical of the Spanish Baroque.
• Real hairs for her eyelashes were
inserted into the eyelids, and ivory teeth
and glass eyes were glued into position
behind her delicately modelled and
beautifully carved and painted wooden
face. Even the paths of her tears are
visible, made from a glue or resin
painted over the skin colour, and the
tears themselves were moulded in glass
to catch the light, and glued on to the
cheeks.
• The paint colours in the polychromy
around her eyes acutely renders the way
in which her tears alter the tone of her
skin between the eyesockets and the
nose.
Wailing Woman and Dead Child, Plate
16 from “The Dream & Lie of Franco”,
9 January 1937
• The theme of the wailing
woman, head uplifted in
grief, in profile, with her
dead infant on her knees
appears already in “The
Dream and Lie of Franco”
• Even the burning building
is there, prophetically in
January 1937.
• Picasso recognised early
on the implications of
Franco’s rule.
Wailing Woman with Dead Child, Study for “Guernica”, 1937
“Composition, Death of Marat”, 1934
Wailing Woman with Dead Child, Study
21 for Guernica,10 May 1937
• Four out of five of the
adults figured in ‘Guernica’
are women. Initial reports
of the attack remarked on
how the women and
children tried to flee the
bombing to the countryside,
thus exposing themselves to
further attacks, dangers and
hunger.
“Guernica”, Wailing Woman
with Dead Child, 1937
• This image, deriving from
Christian imagery of the
Virgin Mary with the dead
Christ (the Pietà) is a
constant in European
religious art. (Michelangelo’s
sculpture is the best example)
• Picasso has transformed it,
via Cubism into a timeless
image of grief and suffering.
The absence of colour makes
it even more stark.
Study 12 for Guernica: Bull, Wounded Horse and Fallen Warrior, 8 May 1937
Crying Horse, Study for
Guernica, 2 May 1937
• Picasso began
sketching the head of
the wounded horse in
early May and worked
through several
versions before
producing a fully
worked out oil study,
for which this is a
sketch.
“Wounded Horse”, oil on canvas, 2 May 1937.
• The image of the
horse being wounded
by the bull recurs in
Picasso’s art as a
symbol of elemental
suffering.
• In “Guernica”, the
wounded horse is
taken out of the
Corrida and inserted
into the centre of the
mural as yet another
victim of the atrocity.
Guernica, Horse, 1937
• In the final version,
the Horse’s head has
been turned backwards
and horizontal.
• The head-uplifted,
mouth-open,
screaming pose has
been reserved for the
Woman with dead
infant to the right.
Guernica, “Wounded Horse”, Centre
Guernica, Explosion and torch,
Centre top
Horse & Bull, Study 11 for
Guernica, 1937
• While the theme of the
suffering horse and the
triumphant bull appears in the
sketches for “Guernica”, in the
final painting the animals do
not directly confront each other.
• The Horse’s expression of
terror is not caused by the bull
but by the explosion above him,
and whilst frightened, the horse
nevertheless appears still to
have the strength to continue
and resist.
“Minotauromachia”, Etching, 1936
Bull, Detail of “Guernica”, 1937
Study 10 for Guernica, 2 May 1937
Plate 8 from “The Dream and Lie of Franco”, 1937.
Guernica, Fallen Warrior
Bottom Left
Guernica, Fallen Warrior,
Bottom right
Sketch for “Guernica”, 1 May, 1937
Study 15 for “Guernica”, 9 May 1937
Guernica, Left section
“Guernica”, Right side
Guernica,Woman in a burning building, far right
“Guernica”, Woman, Left, centre, 1937
“Guernica”, 1937: Spanish Pavilion, Paris World Fair
“Guernica Tapestry”, Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach, UN Head Quarters NY
(1985-2009); Whitechapel Gallery London (2009)