Nessus and Dejanira

Nessus and Dejanira is a commanding drawing created by Pablo Picasso on the specific date of September 9, 1920. Executed in pencil on paper, this Spanish drawing exemplifies the artist’s significant shift toward Neoclassicism during the period immediately following World War I. The subject derives from classical mythology, depicting the violent abduction attempt by the centaur Nessus against Dejanira, the wife of Heracles.

Picasso utilized the pencil medium to render the figures with monumental scale and precise, weighty outlines. This approach is characteristic of his Neoclassical phase in the early 1920s, offering a deliberate contrast to the fragmented abstraction of his preceding Cubist explorations. The artist focuses here on sculptural form, volumetric presence, and narrative clarity, favoring idealized, heavy figures that recall Greco-Roman statuary. The work conveys the myth’s drama through the depiction of powerful, muscular anatomy and strained poses.

The return to classical subject matter and form was a widespread phenomenon across European art after 1918, offering a sense of stability and permanence in response to the war’s cultural upheaval. This specific piece illustrates Picasso’s versatility and his mastery in adapting artistic languages to thematic concerns. While many of the Spanish master's works from this neoclassical moment were rendered in large-scale oil, the intimacy and immediacy of the drawing medium allow for a detailed and foundational study of classical human gesture. The drawing is a key example of Picasso’s interwar period output and resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As a significant reference point in 20th-century art history, high-quality prints and scholarly reproductions of this powerful drawing remain highly sought after.