Image: Image rights controlled by holding collection — see source
View source →The Soup
Pablo Picasso, 1902–1903
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
38.5 × 46 cm (15.2 × 18.1 in)
Style
Blue Period
Decade
1900s
About This Work
The Soup shows a child reaching toward a bowl held by a solemnly posed woman. The Art Gallery of Ontario describes the visible surface as predominantly blue, white, and earth-toned, with the elongated exchange between their hands forming the composition’s central line. Rather than treating the subject as a generic illustration of poverty, the painting’s reduced setting and carefully staged gesture focus attention on care, distance, and the material presence of the bowl between the two figures.
AGO’s technical study identifies the work as La Soupe (1902–03) and reveals extensive changes beneath its surface. Hyperspectral infrared reflectography and x-ray fluorescence uncovered an earlier back-facing woman between the visible figures, an amphora beneath the steam, and altered positions for the woman’s hand and the child’s head and foot. These findings make the painting a record of revision as well as a Blue Period image: Picasso repeatedly adjusted the relationship between the figures before arriving at the final composition. The work entered AGO as a 1983 gift from Margaret Dunlap Crang.
Current Location
Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
$20–35 million (est.)
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
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