Guernica is one of Pablo Picasso’s best-known works, regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history. It was painted in 1937 in response to the bombing of Guernica in northern Spain by Nazi Germany. Picasso wanted to show the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. Picasso did not want the painting delivered to Spain until liberty and democracy had been re-established in the country—a delivery that did not occur until September 1981.