Pablo Picasso, “Night Fishing at Antibes”, 1939, Oil on Canvas, 205.8 x 345.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Picasso spent the months just before the outbreak of the Second World War at Antibcs on the Mediterranean. Here he painted this large composition, which is an exception among his works.

At the center is a boat with two fishermen spearing fish by the light of two gas lamps. This central motif is framed by others: at the right we see two girls standing on the breakwater, one of the girls is holding onto her bicycle while licking an ice-cream cone. At the upper left we can recognize the old town of Antibes; in the center above there is a bright moon in the sky. The work displays a range of colors that has never before appeared in Picasso’s paintings: dark blues and violets are contrasted with various shades of green, and this curious dark triad is brightened by a few yellow accents – which gives it a ghost-like quality.

This painting is exceptional in Picasso’s work, both as a nocturnal scene and for its ghostly colors; it is also unusual in that the artist had rarely before attempted to combine figure and landscape – a combination which is particularly convincing here. The freedom of the composition is in curious contrast with the rigorous architecture of Guernica, so that at first sight the work seems a brilliant improvisation. But closer scrutiny reveals that it, too, has been carefully constructed and organized, and that in its details it recalls many earlier paintings. Like Three Musicians, this work sums up and at the same time marks the end of a period.