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Collection 1880–1950

523

Portraits in Wartime

Ongoing

MoMA

Pablo Picasso. Woman Dressing Her Hair. 1940. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 38 1/4" (130.1 x 97.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Louise Reinhardt Smith Bequest. © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • MoMA, Floor 5, 523 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

In the late 1930s and ’40s, Europe was torn apart by war. Though some artists secured passage to leave the continent, others lived through the upheaval and destruction. This gallery brings together examples of portraits by those who stayed behind, including Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. The works evidence how these artists transformed the traditional genre of portraiture as they reflected on the anxieties of wartime.

Paintings by Miró and the other artists in this gallery offered a vision of the future during a time of turmoil. In 1941 art historian James Johnson Sweeney wrote that Miró’s work “belongs to the youth of a period that is opening, rather than the old age of a closing one.”

Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture with Rachel Remick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting & Sculpture and Curatorial Affairs

4 works online

Support for the collection is provided by the Annual Exhibition Fund, with leadership contributions generously provided by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Eyal and Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation, the Noel and Harriette Levine Endowment, Jerry Speyer and Katherine Farley, Alice and Tom Tisch, the Marella and Giovanni Agnelli Fund for Exhibitions, Eva and Glenn Dubin, Mimi Haas, the William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund for Photography, The David Rockefeller Council, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, Kenneth C. Griffin, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Ronald S. and Jo Carole Lauder.

Artists

Installation images

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

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