July 18, 1936 In Spain, a military mutiny against the Republican government precipitates the Civil War. October 1, 1936 General Francisco Franco assumes leadership of the insurgency.

Dream and Lie of Franco (Sueño y mentira de Franco), January 8-9 and June 7, 1937 Etching, sugar-lift aquatint, and scraper on copper on paper 12 1/2 x 16 5/8 each Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Study for Guernica (Head of a Horse), May 2, 1937 Oil on canvas 25 5/8 x 36 3/16 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid   March 8-18, 1937 The Battle of Madrid is fought. April 26, 1937 In support of Franco, Nazi planes bomb Guernica, a town in the Basque Country of northern Spain. July 19, 1937 Adolf Hitler's Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition opens in Munich.

March 12, 1938 Germany annexes Austria.   Seated Woman, August 29, 1938 Oil on canvas 25 5/8 x 19 3/4 Private collection

Head of a Woman (Dora Maar), March 28, 1939 Oil on wood panel 23 9/16 x 17 3/4 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, gift, Hilde Thannhauser, 1978   Flayed Head of a Sheep, October 4, 1939 Oil on canvas 19 5/8 x 24 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (on deposit from the Musée Picasso, Paris) January 26, 1939 Barcelona surrenders to Franco's Nationalist front. March 28, 1939 Madrid falls to the Nationalists. August 23, 1939 The Soviet Union and Germany sign a nonaggression pact. September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland.

May 10, 1940 Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands, and soon crosses into France. June 14, 1940 German troops enter Paris. June 25, 1940 The Armistice of Rethondes is signed by Hitler and Marshal Pétain, dividing France into a German-occupied zone in the north and a free zone in the south controlled by the collaborationist government at Vichy. September 27, 1940 The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo pact is signed. October 3, 1940 The Statut des Juifs is passed by the Vichy government, authorizing the internment of Jews.

Death's Head, 1941 (?) Bronze and copper 9 7/8 x 8 1/4 x 12 5/8 Musée Picasso, Paris Still Life with a Pigeon, November 13, 1941 Oil on canvas 23 5/8 x 28 3/4 Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum   Still Life with Blood Sausage, May 10, 1941 Oil on canvas 36 1/2 x 25 7/8 Collection of Tony and Gail Ganz June 22, 1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union. September 24, 1941 In London, General Charles de Gaulle creates the organization known as Free French. December 7, 1941 The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

November 8, 1942 The Allies invade French North Africa, causing the Germans to seize the unoccupied zone in France.

Man with a Lamb, ca. March 1943 Bronze 87 1/2 x 30 3/4 x 30 3/4 Philadelphia Museum of Art, gift of R. Sturgis and Marion B. F. Ingersoll February 2, 1943 Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrenders the German Sixth Army in Russia after the Battle of Stalingrad. July 10, 1943 Allied forces land in Sicily. July 25, 1943 Benito Mussolini is relieved of power in Rome.

June 6, 1944 The Allies land at Normandy. August 25, 1944 General Jacques Leclerc leads French forces into Paris for the Liberation. Cock of the Liberation, November 23, 1944 Oil on canvas 39 1/2 x 31 3/4 Milwaukee Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley

Still Life with Skull, Leeks, and Pitcher, March 14, 1945 Oil on canvas 29 x 45 7/8 Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, Whitney Warren, Jr., Fund, in memory of Mrs. Adolph B. Spreckels, Grover A. Magnin Bequest Fund, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Income Fund, and bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick J. Hellman by exchange Monument to the Spanish Who Died for France (Monument aux Espagnols morts pour la France), 1945-47 Oil on canvas 76 3/4 x 51 1/4 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid March 22-23, 1945 Allied armies under General George Patton cross the Rhine. April 30, 1945 Hitler commits suicide. May 7, 1945 The German army surrenders. July 17, 1945 The Potsdam Conference begins. It ends August 2, resulting in agreement between the Allies on the partition of Germany. August 6 and 9, 1945 Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. August 14, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announces the surrender of Japan. All works by Pablo Picasso © 1999 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York