Le Bonheur de vivre, also called The Joy of Life

October 1905–March 1906

Oil on canvas, 176.5 × 240.7 cm. Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Sixteen figures dance, make music and rest in a glade ringed by pink, orange and green trees. Its effect on Picasso is widely seen as the start of the two painters' rivalry.

Shown at the 1906 Salon des Indépendants, where Leo Stein bought it from the artist.
Look at the ring of small dancers in the distance, set against the large reclining figures in front.
Paint lies thin and even across most areas, so the lines carry much of the drawing.
Broad, flat fields of color, with almost no shading on figures or ground, turn an imagined paradise into a decorative surface.
Albert C. Barnes bought it in 1923 through the dealer Paul Guillaume.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-old-70