Dream and Lie of Franco
1937
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
aquatint and etching
Dimensions
overall: 40.6 x 71.1 cm (16 x 28 in.) plate: 31.8 x 42.1 cm (12 1/2 x 16 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of William C. Seitz and Irma S. Seitz
Accession Number
2004.30.11
Art Historical Context
Pablo Picasso's *Dream and Lie of Franco (1937) is a powerful political print created amid the Spanish Civil War, a brutal conflict pitting Republican forces against General Francisco Franco's Nationalist rebels. Picasso, the Spanish master of Cubism and Surrealism, unleashed this scathing satire through a series of etchings and aquatints mocking Franco as a grotesque insect-like tyrant. Produced in the same year as his *Guernica*, it reflects Picasso's fervent anti-fascist stance and his use of art as a weapon against oppression. The medium—aquatint and etching—allowed Picasso to blend sharp...
About the Artist
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), born Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso in Málaga, Spain, was the son of José Ruiz Blasco, a painter and art professor who served as his first teacher. From age seven, Picasso trained under his father in figure drawing and oil painting, mastering naturalistic techniques by copying mas...