Lamp and Cherries, painted by Pablo Picasso at the end of the Second World War, is on display at the Moncton Museum for the second time in the museum’s history.
The oil on canvas painting was a part of the museum’s first exhibit in 1973 and is once again on loan from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Both the Moncton Museum and the Transportation Discovery Centre are located in the city’s Resurgo Place.
Sophie Auffrey, the heritage development officer at Resurgo Place, said the artwork was inspired by Picasso’s reflection on death and confinement during the war, when he lost his beloved friend Max Jacob, a Jewish poet and painter who died in France in an internment camp.
The oil on canvas painting was created in 1945.
She said Picasso “reinterpreted” a few objects in his painting, such as the mirror, used as a symbol depicting the passage of time but reflecting nothing, and a lamp which gave no light.
“He did decide to add a bit of colour, he decided to add the cherries, something a little more positive, and that was to reflect on the liberation and the freedom that was to come.”
Auffrey said the painting is very precious and her team had to be thoughtful about transportation and display
It required insurance, “a really solid, well made case” to store it during the move, and “the truck had to be climate controlled and very secure,” she said.
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The painting currently has a separate room to itself, equipped with a barrier, an alarm system and signage to prevent visitors from touching it.
“When you come in, you kind of automatically have this kind of more quiet, pensive, reflective ambience going on here, so you can really spend time with the painting and sit there and contemplate,” said Auffrey.
She also highlighted the fact that the room maintains a certain temperature range and also has a limited amount of lighting, as there are restrictions to how much the painting can handle.
When the Moncton Civic Museum, as it was known then, opened in 1973, it featured an exhibition of more than 30 paintings, including the Picasso borrowed from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
So for the 50th anniversary celebration, set to take Oct. 19, the museum decided to bring back Lamp and Cherries.
“We wanted to have one highlight and have like a prominent artist that people would recognize, so we opted for the Picasso.”
The painting will remain on display at the museum until Jan. 7, 2024.