The Real Story Behind Pablo Picasso’s Most Famous Masterpiece

1.     Immortalizing the Horror on Canvas

Guernica depicts the horrors visited upon the Basque town. Twenty five and a half feet wide by eleven and a half feet tall, the composition prominently features a gored bull, a horse, plus people amidst the flames, and captures the fear and agony of innocents caught up in the chaos and devastation of war. The painting, which was exhibited at the 1937 Paris World Fair and other venues around the world, became an immediate sensation, and is Picasso’s most widely recognized work. It is considered by many art critics to be one of the most moving and powerful antiwar paintings in history. Unsurprisingly, the Germans were not thrilled with the masterpiece. After France fell to the Germans in 1940, a Gestapo officer reportedly barged into Picasso’s apartment in Paris, and pointing at a photo of Guernica, asked: “Did you do that?!” The painter coolly replied: “No. You did“.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Beevor, Antony – The Battle For Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 ­(2006)

Guardian, The, March 26^th, 2009 – In Praise of… Guernica

History Collection – 16 Times Artist Pablo Picasso Would Have Been Called Out During the #Me Too Movement

History Net – Spanish Civil War: German Condor Legion’s Tactical Air Power

Independent, The, April 27^th, 2017 – Eighty Years Later, The Nazi War Crime in Guernica Still Matters

Times, The, April 28^th, 1937 – The Tragedy of Guernica: Town Destroyed in Air Attack

ThoughtCo. – Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica