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View source →Faun with Stars
Pablo Picasso, 1955
Technical Details
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
91.4 × 72.4 cm (36 × 28.5 in)
Style
Neo-Cubism
Decade
1950s
About This Work
Executed in 1955, Faun with Stars is a captivating oil painting on canvas by Pablo Picasso measuring 91.4 by 72.4 centimeters, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The composition portrays a whimsical mythological scene featuring a grizzled, starry-eyed faun alongside a companion playing a pipe. Picasso employs a decorative and playful graphic quality characterized by bold contours, expressive brushwork, and flattened pictorial space that relates closely to the painted ceramics he produced during the post-war era. The vibrant chromatic interplay and simplified figural forms highlight the enduring vitality of his late style. Mythological characters such as fauns and nymphs frequently appeared throughout his oeuvre, serving as playful allegorical devices that blended theatricality with intense psychological presence. Through its lively rhythm and expressive freedom, the canvas captures the exuberant, imaginative spirit that animated Picasso’s artistic investigations during the mid-1950s.
Created in 1955, Faun with Stars dates to the height of Pablo Picasso’s romance with Jacqueline Roque, whom he later married in 1961. During this period at Villa La Californie in Cannes, Picasso frequently drew upon classical and mythological narratives, transforming traditional figures into intimate personal symbols. The grizzled faun and the piping nymph often functioned as veiled self-portraits exploring themes of love, desire, and aging in relation to his young muse. These classical tropes also bridged his lifelong fascination with antiquity and his contemporaneous experiments in ceramics and printmaking. Acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970 as a gift from Joseph H. Hazen, the work exemplifies the rich biographical and art-historical resonance of Picasso’s late output. It reflects how the master continually reinvigorated his iconography by merging personal romance with timeless mythological archetypes in post-war France.
Current Location
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Collection record status
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Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* 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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Picasso: A Life Documentary
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