Middle Gate

Born in Málaga (Spain) in 1881, Pablo Picasso is without a doubt one of the most well know and influential artists of the twentieth century. His oeuvre is classified into various periods, as his style changed radically throughout his career. Style classifications include the blue period, the rose period, the cubistic period, the surrealist period, the abstract period and the later period.

Nu couché et deux personages is a drawing dating back to his later period (ca. 1954-1973). During this time, Picasso moves to the South of France and is isolated from the dominant art scene. Nevertheless, he continues working as a madman: he sometimes produced up to five drawings or paintings a day.

Typical for these later paintings is the theme of painter and his muse as well as the references to a variety of works from art history. This is clearly visible in Nu couché et deux personages: the middle character could be the artists (many regard this figure as Picasso himself), whose regard is turned towards the model. The model (the women on the right) can be interpreted as a variation on the theme of L’origine du Monde (1866) by Gustave Courbet. This painting was created three years before Picasso died. In the last years of his life, the subject of life and death was highly present in in his works: the women (similar to Courbet’s L’ origine du monde) is the fountain of life. This fountain is contrasted by the old man next to her.