Pablo Picasso | La Fosse Commune (1947)

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
La Fosse Commune (1947)
Etching

La Fosse Commune — The Common Grave — is one of Picasso's most directly political graphic works, produced in 1947 in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust, in a period when the artist was profoundly engaged with the political implications of what Europe had just experienced. Picasso had joined the Communist Party in 1944 and his post-war graphic work reflects a sustained engagement with themes of collective death, political violence, and the responsibility of art to bear witness to historical atrocity.

The etching medium gives La Fosse Commune the quality of documentary precision that the subject demands — the needle on the plate creating marks of great formal clarity in a composition of unusual emotional directness. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London. Private viewings by appointment.

Etching | 1947
Certificate of Authenticity