Image: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
View source →The Two Brothers
Pablo Picasso, 1906
Technical Details
Medium
Gouache on cardboard
Dimensions
80 × 59 cm (31.5 × 23.2 in)
Style
Post-Impressionism / Painting
Decade
1900s
About This Work
An older boy carries a younger child on his back, the two figures rendered in the warm, simplified style of the transitional period between the Rose Period and the African period. The figures' bodies are already moving toward the sculptural simplicity of the African period, their forms reduced to essential volumes. The relationship between the two brothers — protective, tender, and matter-of-fact — is conveyed with great economy.
Painted at Gósol in the summer of 1906, this work marks the beginning of Picasso's transition away from the Rose Period toward the more austere, sculptural style that would lead to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The Basel version is one of two; the other is in the Musée Picasso in Paris.
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
Keywords
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