Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The Charnel House
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Not on view
Picasso referred to The Charnel House as the "massacre," but its subject remains up for debate. Some claim its source to be information about Nazi concentration camps; others point to a film the artist may have seen about the murder of a Republican family by Spain’s fascist government. Documentary photographs of the work in progress, taken in 1945, reveal the evolving facial expressions of the contorted figures, which were rendered in charcoal: Picasso applied paint only after fleshing out the bones of the picture. With its exposed areas of canvas and visible compositional changes, the work seems incomplete, yet Picasso considered it finished enough to donate to the National Association of Veterans of the Resistance in 1946. That same year, however, he asked for its return, ostensibly to make alterations. The painting remained with the artist until 1954, when it was sold to an American collector. If Picasso made any changes after 1946, they were minute.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
