Science and Charity
Science and Charity | |
---|---|
Artist | Pablo Picasso |
Year | 1897 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 197 cm × 249.5 cm (78 in × 98.2 in) |
Location | Museu Picasso, Barcelona |
Science and Charity is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he painted in Barcelona in 1897. It is an example of one of Picasso's earliest works, as he painted it when he was only 15 years old. The painting depicts a formal composition of a sick patient in bed, attended by a doctor and a nun holding a child. It was the culmination of Picasso's academic training and displays his talent as an artist before he moved away from this style to pursue his own artistic career. The painting is housed in the collection of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
Background
José Ruiz y Blasco, Picasso's father, was a professor of painting who felt he had failed in his own attempts to become a renowned artist. Picasso's father "had a twofold problem: the inclination to be an artist but not the gifts, and the temperament of a gentleman of leisure but not the means."[1] He wanted his son to succeed in the world of professional painting and offered Picasso a strong academic background with hopes that he would be featured at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid. Picasso began his academic training in Coruña and also studied in Barcelona at the Llotja School.
Picasso was influenced by the medical profession from an early age. His paternal uncle, Dr. Salvador Ruiz, was a physician and financed Picasso's art training. When Picasso entered art school at the Instituto da Guarda at the age of ten, the director, Dr. Ramon Perez Couteles, who was also a physician, became Picasso's role model.[2]
In 1896, Picasso received rave reviews for his work The First Communion, which was presented at the Third Exhibition of Arts and Artistic Industries in Barcelona. This encouraged his father to rent a workshop for his son at No. 4 of La Plata Street in the Ribera neighbourhood, near the family home on the La Mercè Street. It was in this workshop where Picasso painted Science and Charity. He was only 15 years old.[3]
Science and Charity is the second of three paintings created by Picasso in this period that deals with disease, the others are titled The Sick Woman (1894) and Last Moments (1899). It was created during a cholera epidemic in his hometown, which apparently caused the death of one of his sisters. The painting was also produced following the death of his younger sister Conchita, who died from diphtheria at the age of seven in 1895. Unfortunately, a newly discovered antitoxin for diphtheria was only available to wealthy Spanish families and therefore Conchita could not be saved. This was a period when new hopes created by significant medical progress in fighting diseases was at the centre of public consciousness.[2]
Description
This work is related to social realism, a trending style during the second half of the nineteenth century. The expansion of the industrial revolution had consolidated the bourgeoisie need to flaunt its new status. Influenced by writers such as Emile Zola, some painters began to paint works for this new bourgeoisie, who liked social realism. An interest in science and medical topics made this theme recur across Europe, so hospital painting emerged, a subgenre of social realism, which flourished between 1880 and 1900.[4]
It is believed that the work was inspired by Enrique Paternina, Mother's Visit and A Hospital Room during the visit of the Head Doctor by the Sevillian painter Luis Jiménez Aranda. Picasso had previously painted a picture of a similar theme (The Sick Woman, painted in Coruña in 1894).[3]
To prepare the work, Picasso made several previous notes and sketches. The Museu Picasso conserves six sketches of this work that are displayed by turns in the permanent collection. One of these sketches is painted on the back of another work, the Portrait of Joan Vidal Ventosa.[3]
This is a large painting with a classical composition, where all the characters contribute towards focusing the viewer's attention on the sick patient. The light and restricted space enhance the intimate and welcoming atmosphere. Picasso used family, friends and locals as the models for this painting. José Ruiz Blasco, Picasso's father was the model for the doctor. For the sick woman and child, Picasso hired a street beggar holding a child for 10 pesetas. The model for the nun is believed to have been an adolescent dressed in a nun's habit, which was borrowed from a nun named Josefa González, who was a friend of Picasso's uncle Salvador.[3]
The painting presents a motif of the period, which promotes the professional authority of the doctor. In this scene, the doctor is depicted coldly taking the pulse of the patient, while in contrast, the nun offers the patient empathy, care and support. The apparent coldness of the doctor reinforced the prestige of the medical professional to the public at a time when few treatments were available.[2]
Significance and legacy
Picasso painted this scene when he was just 15 years old, the culmination of his academic training in Madrid. This painting was an ambitious composition for such a young painter, and it was awarded an Honorary Mention at the General Fine Arts Exhibition in Madrid in Spring 1897, followed by the Gold Medal at the Provincial Exhibition in Malaga. Despite his success, Picasso criticised his training and did not continue to paint in this formal style. Instead, he chose to pursue an artistic career that lead him away from his academic training.[3]
Pepe Serra, director of Museu Picasso commented on Picasso's early display of artistic talent stating, "In 1897, when he painted Science and Charity, Picasso did not yet exist. This is a work by Pablo Ruiz, a boy of only fifteen who was already extraordinarily gifted technically for painting".[5]
Provenance
Once completed, the painting was presented at the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1897 in Madrid, and later in the Málaga Provincial Exhibition of the same year. Once the exhibition was closed, the work would remain in Málaga, at the home of Salvador Ruiz Blasco, Picasso's uncle. When Blasco died in 1918, his widow sent the work to Barcelona, where it hung in the home of the Vilató Ruiz family on Passig de Gracia until the artist donated it to the museum in 1970, along with other works. Science and Charity entered the museum with the registration number MPB110.0465 and is exhibited in Gallery 13.
Exhibitions
- 2010 – "Science and Charity, revealed", Musée Picasso, Barcelona[6][7]
- 1980 – Pablo Picasso: A retrospective. Museum of Modern Art, New York (May to September)
- 1982 – Picasso 1981–1973. Retrospective exhibition. Museu Picasso, Barcelona (January–February)
See also
- Le petit picador jaune
- Child with a Dove
- La Gommeuse
- Picasso's Blue Period
- Picasso's Rose Period
Bibliography
- Rafart Panas, Claustre (1998). Museu Picasso Guide. Barcelona: Barcelona City Council. p. 21. ISBN 84-7609-869-3.
- DDAA (2010). Ciencia y caridad al descubierto. Col·lecció Focus. Barcelona: Museu Picasso, Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-9850-277-0.
External links
- Science and Charity at Museu Picasso de Barcelona
References
- ^ Richardson, John (1991). A life of Picasso: The prodigy, 1881-1906, Volume I. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 17.
- ^ a b c Katz, Joel (9 March 2016). "Picasso's Science and Charity: Paternalism Versus Humanism in Medical Practice". Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 3 (4): ofw056. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofw056. PMC 5063546. PMID 27747249.
- ^ a b c d e "File of the work Science and Charity on the Museu Picasso website". Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
- ^ "Social Realism". Museu Picasso. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "El moll de l'os de 'Ciència i caritat'". Ara.cat. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "El Museu Picasso centra la programación en la investigación sobre la figura y a obra del artista malagueño". 3cat24.cat.
- ^ "Science and Charity Revealed". Musée Picasso. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- v
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- Le petit picador jaune (1889)
- Science and Charity (1897)
- Le Moulin de la Galette (1900)
- The Appointment (1901)
- Child with a Dove (1901)
- La Gommeuse (1901)
- Yo, Picasso (1901)
- Portrait of Jaime Sabartés (1901)
- The Blue Room (1901)
- Femme aux Bras Croisés (1901-02)
- Old Jewish Man with a Boy (1903)
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- La Vie (1903)
- Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto (1903)
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- Head of a Young Woman (1906)
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- Girl with a Mandolin (1910)
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910)
- Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910)
- The Accordionist (1911)
- Le pigeon aux petits pois (1911)
- La Coiffeuse (1911)
- Violon et Raisins (1912)
- Bottle, Glass, Fork (1912)
- Ma Jolie (1912)
- Arlequin (1913)
- Ma Jolie (1914)
- Three Musicians (1921)
- Reading the Letter (c. 1921)
- The Pipes of Pan (1923)
- The Three Dancers (1925)
- Woman in a Red Armchair (1929)
- Le Repos (1932)
- Girl before a Mirror (1932)
- La Lecture (1932)
- Le Rêve (1932)
- Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)
- Nude in a Black Armchair (1932)
- Femme à la montre (1932)
- Two Girls Reading (1934)
- Jeune Fille Endormie (1935)
- Guernica (1937)
- Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)
- Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937)
- The Weeping Woman (1937)
- Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom (1937)
- Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937)
- Maya with Doll (1938)
- Woman's Head (1939)
- Dora Maar au Chat (1941)
- The Charnel House (1944–1945)
- Nature morte au poron (1948)
- Massacre in Korea (1951)
- Les Femmes d'Alger series (1955)
- Las Meninas (1957)
- The Fall of Icarus (1958)
- Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) (1960)
- Jacqueline (1961)
- Femme au Chien (1962)
- Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse) (1931)
- Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (1941)
- Bull's Head (1942)
- Baboon and Young (1951)
- Figure découpée (1963, 1964, 1965)
- Chicago Picasso (1967)
- Sylvette (1970)
- Vollard Suite (1930–1937)
- Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl (1933)
- Minotauromachy (1935)
- The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937)
- 347 Series (1968)
- Girl from Majorca (1905)
- Don Quixote (1955)
- Toros y toreros (1961)
- Le Taureau (1945-1946)
- Dove (1949)
- Desire Caught by the Tail (c. 1941)
- The Four Little Girls (c. 1947–48)
- Picasso and the Ballets Russes
- Parade
- The Three-Cornered Hat
- Pulcinella
- Le Train Bleu
- Mercure
- Musée Picasso (Paris)
- Musée Picasso (Antibes)
- Museu Picasso (Barcelona)
- Museo Picasso Málaga (Malaga)
- Museo Casa Natal (Malaga)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Normandy)
- Olga Khokhlova (first wife)
- Jacqueline Roque (second wife)
- Maya Widmaier-Picasso (daughter)
- Claude Picasso (son)
- Paloma Picasso (daughter)
- Diana Widmaier Picasso (granddaughter)
- Marina Picasso (granddaughter)
- Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (grandson)
- José Ruiz y Blasco (father)
(France)
- Bateau-Lavoir (Montmartre Paris)
- Villa La Vigie (Juan-les-Pins, Summer 1924)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Gisors, 1930-1937)
- Château of Vauvenargues (Vauvenargues, 1958-1962)
- Villa La Californie (Cannes, 1955-1961)
- Château de Vie (Mougins, 1961-1973)
television about
- Visit to Picasso (1949)
- Guernica (1950)
- The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
- The Adventures of Picasso (1978)
- Surviving Picasso (1996)
- Picasso: Magic, Sex & Death (2001)
- Modigliani (2004)
- Genius (2018 TV series)
- Carles Casagemas
- Carl Nesjar
- Lydia Corbett
- Lump (dog)
- Fundación Picasso
- Picasso. In the heart of darkness (1939-1945) (2019-2020 exhibition)
- Picasso & Lump (2006 book)
- Picasso referendum of Basel
- Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria
- Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1915 painting)
- "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1924 poem)
- Woman, Bird, Star (Homage to Pablo Picasso) (1973 painting)
- "Pablo Picasso" (1976 song)
- The Blue Guitar (1977 etchings)
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993 play)
- Picasso (crater)