The Kitchen, Paris, November 1948 (oil on canvas)

In her memoirs, Francoise Gilot tells the story of their making: "Pablo executed the first version of a large-format painting called The Kitchen, which was inspired by the kitchen at the Rue des Grands-Augustins in which we sometimes ate our evening meal. The room was painted all in white, and, apart from the usual utensils, there were two birdcages in it. The only accents of colour were the three Spanish plates hung on the walls. The kitchen was basically an empty white cube, enlivened only by the birds and the colourful plates. Pablo told me one evening: 'I am going to make a painting of that - that is to say, of nothing.' And that's exactly what he did.