TR 1.3 - "NIght Fishing at Antibes"

[Jed Kelestron]

Yet this painting, abstract in terms of form, is a depiction of people
and events very concrete in Picasso's experience.

"Given the associative relation of Picasso's forms to the emotional
content, he succeeds in presenting things which are fundamentally open
to analogy - the aim of figurative painting. But the Picasso style is
actually far richer in technical scope, and in a position to
reformulate the traditional aims of visual presentation - without by
any means dropping historical work, genre scenes or other conventional
types of painting.
    A signal example of this is "Night Fishing at Antibes", a large
composition painted in 1939. Real experience lay behind it; Picasso
spent the last summer of peace with Dora Maar at Antibes on the Cote
d'Azur, and in the evenings he would watch the fishermen going out to
fish by acetylene lamp. The painting that resulted is anecdotal at
heart. Dora Maar is to be seen to the right of the harbour, with her
bike, eating an ice cream. Beside her is Breton's wife Jacqueline
Lamba, and at the very back we can make out the Palais Grimaldi. The
centre of the picture is occupied by the fishermen, spearing
childishly-scrawled fish from the deep green waters. The contrast of
darkness and colour establishes a nighttime scene both cheerful and
yet enigmatic."
http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/picasso12.html