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>
Black Jug and Skull
Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994
anxiety
Bible: Old Testament
birth to death
birth to death
body
book - non-specific
death - skull / skull and crossbones
Ecclesiastes, chapter 1
emotional states and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
history
jug
menace
military: World War II
mortality
objects
people
pleasure - wine jug
pride - book
reading, writing, printed matter
religion and belief
skull
society
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
vessels and containers
World War II - non-specific
<p>This sombre lithograph is in the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch still lifes known as <span>vanitas</span>, which comment on the transitoriness of worldly pleasures. A book traditionally alludes to excessive pride through learning, and a wine jug to temporary pleasure. The skull is a <span>memento mori</span>, or reminder of death. Picasso was superstitious about death and kept a skull in his own studio, which appeared in a number of his works. Made on 20 February 1946, this print is inevitably associated with the widespread suffering caused by the Second World War.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 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
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
25 January 2020 – 23 March 2025
2025-03-23
25 January 2020 – 2 August 2020
2020-08-02
2020-01-25
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
2020-01-25
Picasso and Paper
Loan-out
Black Jug and Skull
image: 322 × 440 mm
support: 330 × 440 mm
frame: 556 × 676 × 55 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>This <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>lithograph</span></a> depicts a jug, a human skull and an open book on a table. Picasso made it in the studio of the lithographer Fernand Mourlot in Paris using lithographic crayon and <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>, which he scraped back with a tool in a number of areas to create highlights and sharp definition.
<br/>
<br/>All angular rhythms, sharp edges and strongly contrasting areas of black and white, this macabre <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>print</span></a> was made on 20 February 1946 and can be seen as associated with the suffering and death of the Second World War. On the same day Picasso made another lithograph entitled <i>Composition with Skull</i>. Although identical in composition to <i>Black Jug and Skull</i> this second print was made with a lighter, more immediate touch, using lithographic crayon only, and does not convey the same menacing atmosphere.
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<br/>The scene depicted here is sombre and restrained; it belongs to the tradition of the seventeenth-century Dutch <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still lifes</span></a> known as <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/memento-mori" title="Glossary definition for 'Memento Mori'"><span>vanitas</span></a></i>. The name of these still lifes comes from the Old Testament’s Book of Ecclesiastes (1:2), ‘Vanitas vanitatum ... et omnia vanitas’ (‘Vanity of vanities ... all is vanity’). <i>Vanitas</i> still lifes comment on the transitoriness of worldly pleasures and the inevitability of death through objects that function symbolically. The book traditionally alludes to excessive pride through learning and the wine jug to the transitoriness of worldly pleasures. The skull is a <i>memento mori</i>, a reminder of the inevitable approach of death. Picasso was superstitious about death, kept a skull in his studio and had included human or animal skulls in his work as early as 1908 (see <i>Composition with Skull</i>, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg).
<br/>
<br/>This print was published by the Galerie Louise Leiris 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> 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> that comprised eighteen artist’s proofs plus fifty signed and numbered prints, of which this is number thirty-nine.
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<br/><b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Fernand Mourlot, <i>Picasso Lithographe</i>, Paris 1970, reproduced p.43
<br/>Brigitte Baer, <i>Picasso the Printmaker: Graphics from the Marina Picasso Collection</i>, exhibition catalogue, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas 1983
<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, reproduced p.91
<br/>
<br/>Giorgia Bottinelli
<br/>August 2004</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><span>This sombre <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>lithograph</span></a> is in the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still lifes</span></a> known as </span><i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/memento-mori" title="Glossary definition for 'Memento Mori'"><span>vanitas</span></a></i><span>, which comment on the transitoriness of worldly pleasures. A book traditionally alludes to excessive pride through learning, and a wine jug to temporary pleasure. The skull is a </span><i>memento mori</i><span>, or reminder of death. Picasso was superstitious about death and kept a skull in his own studio, which appeared in a number of his works. Made on 20 February 1946, this <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>print</span></a> is inevitably associated with the widespread suffering caused by the Second World War.</span></p>

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2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
anxiety Bible: Old Testament birth to death birth to death body book - non-specific death - skull / skull and crossbones Ecclesiastes, chapter 1 emotional states and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas history jug menace military: World War II mortality objects people pleasure - wine jug pride - book reading, writing, printed matter religion and belief skull society symbols and personifications universal concepts vessels and containers World War II - non-specific