With his "Channel House" (see below) of 1945 Picasso concluded the series of pictures which he started with "Guernica". The relationship between the two paintings becomes immediately obvious when we consider the rigidly limited colour scheme and the triangular composition of the centre. But the nightmare has now been overtaken by reality itself. "The Charnel House" was painted under the impact of reports from the concentration camps which had been discovered and liberated. It was not until now that people realized how many monsters had been born while reason slumbered.
The theme of death had been a key to an understanding of Picasso's subjects ever since his friend Casagemas' suicide at an early age. In "The Charnel House" this theme is, as it were, taken to its logical conclusion. There had been a lot of talk about the unity of life and art, but Picasso could not have shown it with more cynicism.
It was a time when millions of people had been literally pushed to one side - a turn of phrase which Picasso expressed rather vividly in the pile of dead bodies in his "Charnel House". The destruction of form and the stretching, or even torturing, of subjects were taken one step further. It seemed that "Guernica" with its ruthless artistic technique had still not been bold enough, because it had now found its counterpart in real life.
With his "Channel House" (see below) of 1945 Picasso concluded the series of pictures which he started with "Guernica". The relationship between the two paintings becomes immediately obvious when we consider the rigidly limited colour scheme and the triangular composition of the centre. But the nightmare has now been overtaken by reality itself. "The Charnel House" was painted under the impact of reports from the concentration camps which had been discovered and liberated. It was not until now that people realized how many monsters had been born while reason slumbered.