Guernica is a monumental oil work by Picasso, created in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts the chaos, suffering, and terror of war through distorted, dramatic figures of people and animals such as a bull, horse, woman with a dead child, dead soldier, and other symbols. The composition is rendered in a monochromatic palette of black, white, and gray, emphasizing the drama and severity of the message.

Portrait of the Creator

  • Artist

    Pablo Picasso

  • Date of birth and death

    25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973

  • Natinality

    Spanish

  • Style

    Blue and Rose Periods, Cubism, Surrealism, Neoclassicism, Modernism

  • Significant works

    Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Guernica, The Old Guitarist, Three Musicians, Girl before a Mirror

Information about the work

  • Year:

    1937

  • Execution technique:

    oil on canvas

  • Location:

    Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain

  • Theme:

    war, suffering, terror, protest against violence, anti-war manifesto

Internal Narrative and Creative Framework

  • Inner Narrative

    The painting is a universal symbol against the barbarity of war and contains numerous symbolic elements – the bull representing masculinity and brutality, the horse symbolizing innocent victims, the woman with the dead child as a pietà, fire embodying destruction and chaos. The monochromatic color scheme adds to the work's suggestiveness and brutal charm.

The key to interpreting the work

For proper interpretation, Guernica should be understood as a universal protest against violence and war, and attention should be given to the use of fragmented, cubist forms and the symbolism of motifs, which enhance the emotional strength of the piece.

See other works by this artist

Female nude from back

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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The barefoot girl

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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The old fisherman

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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Alicante, view of boats

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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View of the port of Valencia

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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Artist's Mother

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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First Communion

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Head of a child

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Portrait of aunt Pepa

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Portrait of the Artist's Mother

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Quarries

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Self-Portrait

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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The altarboy

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1896
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Advertisement for tavern "Four cats"

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1897
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Science and Charity

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1897
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Child with dove

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1901
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The old blind guitarist

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1903
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Girl on the ball

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1905
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The Girls of Avignon

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1907
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Portrait of Ambroise Vollard

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1910
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Figures at the Seaside

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1931
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Portrait of Dora Maar

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1937
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Cat catching a bird

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1939
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Bull's Head

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1942
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The picador

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1890
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House in the field

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1893
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Plaster male torso

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1893
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Academical study

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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Bust of young man

  • Artist: Pablo Picasso
  • Year: 1895
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