Giclée, cotton paper, 63 x 76 cm; framed; stamped on the reverse with "Succ. Pablo Picasso Coll. Marina Picasso"
SIAE license based on the estate of Marina Picasso – 1999.
The original is housed at the Picasso Museum in Paris. This painting was created in Dinard, a seaside resort in Brittany on the English Channel coast near Fontainebleau, where Picasso lived for a time with his wife Olga Khokhlova and their one-and-a-half-year-old son Paul. Two years later, this work was reproduced on the curtain for the ballet *Le Train Bleu* (*The Blue Train*). Gertrude Stein called Picasso’s classical period “the period of the large women,” when, alongside realistic portraits of Olga, he painted such exaggeratedly obese female figures.
“Two Women Running on the Beach,” painted in 1922, is a perfect example of Picasso’s neoclassical phase. This work depicts two robust, dynamic female figures running joyfully along the beach with their arms outstretched toward the open sky. The women are depicted with exaggerated, muscular figures, embodying vitality, freedom, and movement. The blue sky and minimalist sandy background set the figures off, emphasizing their sense of liberation and strength. The style of the painting contrasts with Picasso’s earlier Cubist works, as it marks a return to more traditional, naturalistic forms, albeit with a powerful and monumental touch.
The work captures the postwar spirit of renewal and optimism, reflecting Picasso’s interest in classical themes during this period.
