Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767" aria-label="More by Pablo Picasso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pablo Picasso</a>
Dove
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994
abstract concepts
animals: birds
dove
peace - dove
symbols and personifications
<p>Picasso’s <span>Dove</span> became a symbol for the Peace movement, and for the ideals of the Communist Party, after it was used to illustrate the poster of the World Peace Congress in Paris in April 1949. In the same month, Picasso named his fourth child ‘Paloma’, the Spanish word for ‘dove’. At the 1950 World Peace Congress in Sheffield Picasso made a brief speech recounting how his father had taught him to paint doves, which he concluded, ‘I stand for life against death; I stand for peace against war.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2004</em></p>
paper print lithograph
24 May 2004 – 8 November 2004
2004-11-08
24 May 2004
2004-05-24
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
11 December 2004
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-05-24
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
11 December 2004 – 2 May 2005
2005-05-02
2004-12-11
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2004-12-11
Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler
Collection based display
12 November 2005 – 23 April 2006
2006-04-23
12 November 2005 – 23 April 2005
2005-04-23
2005-11-12
Lowry Museum (Salford, UK)
2005-11-12
The Art of White
Loan-out
6 July 2007 – 28 October 2007
2007-10-28
6 July 2007 – 28 October 2007
2007-10-28
2007-07-06
Royal Museum (Edinburgh, U.K.)
2007-07-06
Picasso at Vallauris
Loan-out
25 September 2008 – 4 January 2009
2009-01-04
25 September 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
2008-09-25
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2008-09-25
Cold War Modern: Art and Design in a Divided World
Loan-out
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
2010-05-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
16 September 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-09-16
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
2010-05-21
Picasso: Peace and Freedom
Exhibition
21 September 2010 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
21 May 2010 – 30 August 2010
2010-08-30
2010-05-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
21 September 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-09-21
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
11 February 2011 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
2011-02-11
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark)
http://www.louisiana.dk
2010-09-21
Picasso: Peace and Freedom
Loan-out
24 May 2014 – 14 September 2014
2014-09-14
24 May 2014 – 14 September 2014
2014-09-14
2014-05-24
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
2014-05-24
The Wonder of Birds
Loan-out
11 February 2016 – 11 February 2017
2017-02-11
11 February 2016 – 11 February 2017
2017-02-11
2016-02-11
New Art Gallery Walsall (Walsall, UK)
http://www.artatwalsall.org.uk/
2016-02-11
Interventions into The Garman Ryan Collection
Loan-out
Dove
support: 567 × 760 mm
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of <a href="/search?gid=999999791" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</a>, accessioned 1994
<p>Picasso made <i>Dove</i> on 9 January 1949 in the atelier of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>printmaker</span></a> Fernand Mourlot in Paris. It was published by the Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of five artist’s proofs plus fifty signed and numbered prints on white Arches wove <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>, of which this is number nine. It is a simple yet striking <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of a white dove – an acknowledged symbol of peace – on a black background, masterfully rendered in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographic</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> wash. The printmaker Mourlot has called it ‘one of the most beautiful lithographs ever achieved; the soft <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tones</span></a> attained in the feathers ... are absolutely remarkable. This plate ... conveys the maximum that can be obtained with lithographic ink used as wash.’ (Mourlot 1970, p.123.)
<br/>
<br/>The Spanish Civil War played a crucial role in Picasso’s outlook. His dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler has stated that Picasso had hitherto been the ‘most apolitical man’ he had ever known: ‘He had never thought about politics at all, but the Franco uprising was an event that wrenched him out of this quietude and made him a defender of peace and liberty.’ (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler with Francis Crémieux, <i>My Galleries and Painters</i>, London 1971, p.108.) After he painted his famous response to the German bombing of the Basque village of Guernica in 1937, Picasso became a symbol of antifascism and specifically of the struggle against fascism of artists and intellectuals. At the end of the Second World War he joined the Communist Party and attended a number of World Peace Congresses (in Wroclaw, Paris, Sheffield and Rome) between 1948 and 1951.
<br/>
<br/><i>Dove</i> was used to illustrate the poster of the 1949 Paris Peace Congress and became not only the symbol of the Peace Congresses but also of the ideals of world Communism. The <i>Congrès mondial des Partisans de la paix</i> opened in Paris on 20 April. The day before, Picasso’s companion Françoise Gilot had given birth to his fourth child, who was named Paloma, the Spanish word for ‘dove’. At the 1950 Peace Congress in Sheffield Picasso was asked to speak and made a brief speech recounting how his father had taught him to paint doves, which he concluded, ‘I stand for life against death; I stand for peace against war.’ (Quoted in Penrose and Golding 1973, p.205.)
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Fernand Mourlot, <i>Picasso lithographe</i>, Paris 1970, reproduced p.123
<br/>Roland Penrose and John Golding, eds., <i>Picasso 1881/1973</i>, London 1973, pp.197-209, reproduced p.206
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli, ‘Pablo Picasso’, in Jennifer Mundy (ed.), <i>Cubism and its Legacy: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2004, pp.88-90, 94, reproduced p.95
<br/>
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli
<br/>February 2004</p>

Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><span>Picasso’s </span><i>Dove</i><span>
became a symbol for the Peace movement, and for the ideals of the Communist Party, after it was used to illustrate the poster of the World Peace Congress in Paris in April 1949. In the same month, Picasso named his fourth child ‘Paloma’, the Spanish word for ‘dove’. At the 1950 World Peace Congress in Sheffield Picasso made a brief speech recounting how his father had taught him to paint doves, which he concluded, ‘I stand for life against death; I stand for peace against war.’</span>
<br/></p>

Display caption
2004-05-24T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstract concepts animals: birds dove peace - dove symbols and personifications