Pablo Picasso Two Youths

A nude boy or young man sits on a gray box and hunches over his foot, next to a second nude boy who stands facing us in this loosely painted, vertical scene. Both boys have light skin with a yellow cast, and their bodies are outlined with delicate brown lines. They both have short-cropped brown hair, and their facial features are sketched in with brown paint. To our left, the boy sitting on the box looks down at his right foot, on our left, which he holds up on the box with both hands. Next to him, the second boy stands with his arms down by his sides and he looks off into the distance to our right. The room is undefined but has a pale, rust-red floor. Behind them, a terracotta-red urn and jug sit on a platform, possibly in a niche in the silvery-gray wall. Brushstrokes are visible throughout. The artist signed the painting in red letters in the upper left corner: “Picasso.”