The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher

Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher

1939
(Spanish, 1881–1973)
Framed: 85.7 x 117.2 x 7 cm (33 3/4 x 46 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 65 x 92 cm (25 9/16 x 36 1/4 in.)
© Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Description

Picasso painted this still life on January 29, 1939, just after the death of his mother and the fall of his beloved Barcelona to the fascists during the Spanish civil war. This painting expresses Picasso's despair through the bull's skull covered with decaying flesh, perhaps symbolizing brutality and darkness. Amid the horror and anguish, a flowering tree referring to the sacred oak of Guernica sprouts in the moonlight, suggesting hope for the rebirth of democracy in Spain.
  • (P. Rosenberg, New York, NY)
    1950
    Walter Bareiss [1919-2007] Greenwich, CT
    1985
    (E. V. Thaw, New York, NY, 1985, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 118, no. 26
    Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Brigitte Léal, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. Picasso and Things: The Still Lifes of Picasso. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 258-259, no. 102
    Boggs, Jean Sutherland. "Evan Turner: Colleague and Friend." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 4 (1993): 118-21. Mentioned: p. 121 www.jstor.org
    Herschel Browning Chipp, Alan Wofsy, and Fernand Mourlot. Picasso's paintings, watercolors, drawings and sculpture: a comprehensive illustrated catalogue, 1885-1973. San Francisco, CA: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1995. Reproduced: p. 216
    Nash, Steven A., Robert Rosenblum, and Brigitte Baer. Picasso and the War Years, 1937-1945. New York, NY.: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Reproduced: no. 27
    Warncke, Carsten-Peter, Ingo F. Walther, and Michael Hulse. Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973. Koln, Germany: Taschen, 1998. Mentioned: p. 37; Reproduced: p. 39
    Ocaña, Naria-Teresa. Picasso: Indoor & Outdoor Landscapes. Madrid, Spain: Electa, 1999. Reproduced: p. 39
    Robinson, William H., Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, and Josefina Alix Trueba. Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 478
    Kelly, Raymond J. To Be, or Not to Be: Four Hundred Years of Vanitas Painting. Flint, MI: Flint Institute of Arts, 2006. Reproduced: p. 45, fig. 20
    Fundación Mapfre, Antonia Castaño, M. Teresa Ocaña, Neil Cox, Brigitte Léal, Valeriano Bozal Fernández, and Christopher Green. Picasso en el taller: Madrid, Spain : Fundación MAPFRE, Instituto de Cultura, 2014.
    Fundación Mapfre, Antonia Castaño, M. Teresa Ocaña, Neil Cox, Brigitte Léal, Valeriano Bozal Fernández, Christopher Green, and Pablo Picasso. Picasso en el taller: 12 febrero-11 mayo 2014. Madrid, Spain : Fundación MAPFRE, Instituto de Cultura, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 170-171
    Robinson, William H. "Guernica and the War Years." In Picasso and Paper. William H. Robinson, et al., 202-241. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2020. Reproduced: P. 218-219, cat. no. 212
    Absolon, Kurt, Bernhard Hainz, and Stefan Üner. Kurt Absolon: Monografie und Werkverzeichnis.
    [Weitra] : Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz, 2021. Reproduced: p. 60
  • Picasso's Studio. Fundación MAPFRE (organizer) (February 10-May 11, 2014).
    Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí (1868-1939). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15, 2006-January 7, 2007); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (co-organizer) (March 4-June 3, 2007).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008).
    Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
    Picasso. Sous le soleil de Mithra. Musée National Picasso, Paris, France (organizer) (November 27, 2001-March 4, 2002).
    Picasso. Indoor, Outdoor Landscapes. Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain (organizer) (October 26, 1999-January 30, 2000).
    Picasso and the War: 1937-1945. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (October 10, 1998-January 3, 1999); Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York (January 27-April 26, 1999).
    Picasso: The Love and the Anguish--The Road to Guernica. National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (organizer); Tobu Museum of Art.
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).
  • {{cite web|title=Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher|url=false|author=Pablo Picasso|year=1939|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.57