Picasso's Bestiary

The 1934 Drawing and its Correspondences in Picasso's Oeuvre

Picasso's Bestiary

There are a vast range of works by Picasso that feature animals and from time to time these relate closely to important themes.

A wide range of concealed animal forms are also present in the 1934 drawing, including bulls, owls, fish, birds, a horse, a dog, a wolf and even a spider.

The drawing almost certainly contains the highest concentration and variety of animals in any single work by Picasso and it mysteriously prefigures his 1936 Illustrations for Ambroise Vollard's special edition of Buffon's, "Histoire Naturelle."

The concealed animals in the drawing appear on the whole to relate to the two important and interrelated Picasso themes of death and sexuality.

© Mark Harris 1996, 1997

Related Picassos

• The Burial of Casagemas (Evocation), 1901
• The Embrace, 1901
• La Vie, 1903
• Phallus and Nude, 1903
• The Mackerel, 1903
• Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
• Curtain Design for Parade, 1917
• Pantomime Horse Studies for Parade, 1917 - Related Puppetry Imagery
• Costume Studies for Pulchinella, 1920
• The Three Dancers, 1925
  • The Three Dancers in depth
• La Statuaire, 1925
• The Studio, 1925
• Crucifixion, 1930
• Crucifixion Studies of the 1930's
• The Vollard Suite
• Classical Prints of the 1920's and 1930's
• The Dream, 1932
• Le Meurtre, 1934 and The Death of Marat, 1934
• Minotaur with Javelin, 1934
• Minotauromachy, 1936
• Picasso's illustrations of Paul Eluard's poem, "La Barre d'Appui", 1936
• Guernica, 1937
• Guernica in depth
• Picasso's Secret Guernica
• Night Fishing in Antibes, 1939
• Curtain Design for Romain Rolland's Play,"Le 14 Juillet", 1936
• Grand air, Les yeux fertiles, 1936
• Erotic Compositions of the 1950's and 1960's
• Peace, 1952
• Picasso's Bestiary

Next Section: Themes of the 1934 Drawing

In general copyright of works by Pablo Picasso are the property of the heirs to the Pablo Picasso estate