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• Pablo Picasso 1881–1973
• The Kiss (le Baiser) 1967
• Pencil on paper
• 505 x 655mm
• Bequeathed by Joanna Drew 2003, accessioned 2006
• Tate © Succession Picasso/DACS 2007
• T12203
• View work within Tate Collection

This is the fourth of seven pencil drawings on the theme of the kiss that Pablo Picasso made in Mougins on 7 October 1967. The style is characteristic of the artist's late work, and exudes a raw energy through dynamic and spontaneous mark-making. Drawn shortly before his eightysixth birthday, the work reiterates Picasso’s continued celebration of life-affirming eroticism in the face of old age. His treatment of the kiss has also been seen as expressing the violence of his eroticism, and the couple's devouring kiss may suggest a sense of struggle as well as passion.

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Click on images for more about each highlight

• Daniel Buren
  b1938
  One of the Possibilities (L'Une des possibles)
  1973
• Pablo Picasso
  1881-1973
  The Kiss (le Baiser)
  1967
• Fred Williams
  1927-82
  Riverbed D
  1981
• Marlene Dumas
  b1953
  Stern
  2004
• Marlene Dumas
  b1953
  Lucy
  2004
• Carsten Höller
  b1961
  Sliding Doors
  2003
• Gabriel Orozco
  b1962
  Carambole with Pendulum
  1996
• Stan Douglas
  b1960
  Inconsolable Memories
  2005
• Jeff Wall
  b1946
  A View from an Apartment
  2004-5