Sponsored Story
Sponsored Story

On the Beach, 1937 by Pablo Picasso

On the Beach (Bothinq) also draws upon aspects of Surrealism, Here we are once more confronted with two female forms constructed from an assemblage of peculiar biomorphic forms. The figures appear to be at the edge of the sea and one lowers a small toy boat into the water. Another, similar form rises above the horizon, as if watching the activity of the foreground figures. However, as this figure is represented as approximately the same scale as the foreground figures, its presence on the horizon implies that it is a gigantic and threatening being.

The work is full of narratives incongruities. Why are two grown women playing with a boat? Who - or what - is the form on the horizon, and what is its relationship to the two foreground women? This destabilizing sense of threat and uncertainty recalls similar strategies deployed in the Surrealist paintings of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali, The anthropomorphic forms also recall the earlier sculptural work of Jeon (Hans) Arp (1887-1966), and resemble the early sculptures of Henry Moore (1898-1986).

Masterpieces of Pablo Picasso

  • Guernica
    Guernica
  • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
    Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
  • The Old Guitarist
    The Old Guitarist
  • Girl Before a Mirror
    Girl Before a Mirror
  • Three Musicians
    Three Musicians
  • Blue Nude
    Blue Nude
  • The Weeping Woman
    The Weeping Woman
  • The Dream
    The Dream
  • La Vie
    La Vie
  • The Women of Algiers
    The Women of Algiers
  • Ma Jolie
    Ma Jolie
  • Don Quixote
    Girl with Mandolin
  • Portrait of Gertrude Stein
    Portrait of Gertrude Stein
  • Family of Saltimbanques
    Family of Saltimbanques
  • Portrait of Ambroise Vollard
    Portrait of Ambroise Vollard
  • Massacre in Korea
    Massacre in Korea
  • Dora Maar Au Chat
    Dora Maar Au Chat
  • Seated Woman
    Seated Woman
  • Chicago Picasso
    Chicago Picasso
Sponsored Story
Sponsored Story