Largest Picasso Painting Goes on Display after 70 Years in Storage

Pablo Picasso's largest work measures 34 by 38 feet. The painting, consisting of gouache on canvas, was created as a theatrical backdrop for the Russian ballet director Serge Diaghilev. It's been in storage since 1939 and has only now gone on public display at the Victoria and Albert Museum:

It took a tower of scaffolding, five riggers pulling it up and ten museum staff unrolling it down to hang the front cloth this morning.

A front cloth is a theatrical creation, designed to hang just behind the red velvet curtain and to be viewed by an audience while musicians play the overture.

This particular piece was designed for the Ballets Russes performance of Le Train Bleu, in Paris, in 1924.


You can view several large images at the link.

Link via The Presurfer | Image: Getty

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I read the article. Picasso painted a much smaller version of this. A theater production artist copied the piece and enlarged it. Certainly a great technical feat but not by any means a Picasso painting -- it's a copy of a Picasso painting that Picasso thought was impressive and, thus, signed his name to.
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