The Life of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso, was not only a Spanish painter, but also a sculptor, ceramicist, play writer, printmaker, poet, and stage designer (Pablo Picasso Fun Facts). Picasso was very talented even at a young age and his talent just continued to grow and grow into the artist we all know today. He is one of the most well-known artists in modern art and he will always be remembered for his distinctive yet astonishing techniques and artwork. He shaped modern art into what it is today and continues to do so. He created over twenty thousand pieces of artwork which included paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, costumes, ceramics, and even theater sets. Overall, Pablo Picasso was extremely influential and will never be forgotten.
Pablo Picasso was brought into this life prematurely on October twenty-fifth, 1881, in Málago, Spain. When he was born, the nurse thought that he was stillborn because of the difficult time his mother had giving birth to him and because he was such a weak baby. He was left on a table while the nurse assisted his mother and fortunately his uncle, Don Salvador, saved him when he realized he was alive. Pablo’s dad was Don José Ruiz y Blasco and his mother was María Picasso y López. Picasso was the eldest of his siblings, with two sisters, Conchita Picasso and Lola Picasso. Pablo’s father was a painter, a professor of art, and a curator of a local museum, which introduced and influenced the world of art to Pablo at a very young age. It is known that Pablo Picasso’s first word ever spoken was “piz”, short for the Spanish word lapis, which means pencil. Picasso showed his love, skill, and passion for drawing even at an early age (Pablo Picasso’s Early Life).
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All of Pablo Picasso’s art is separated among periods and his first art period was his “Early Works”. Since the age of three, Pablo displayed his ability to paint and draw. He enjoyed drawing things such as bulls, picadors, matadors, and more. By the age of seven, Pablo Picasso’s father started teaching his son how to draw and use oil paints. As a child, his father would also take him to bullfights which gave him inspiration for his first painting. In 1890, at the age of nine, Picasso finished his very first major painting, called ‘Le Picador.’ ‘Le Picador’ is a painting of a man riding a horse in a bullfight. In 1892, at the age of eleven, Picasso and his family moved to the city of La Coruna in Spain. Not even a year after Pablo and his family moved, he was accepted into the school of Fine and Applied Arts. At the age of thirteen, Pablo produced his first oil paintings and also portraits of his family. During the same year, Pablo and his family experienced some major trauma. Pablo’s seven-year-old sister has died of diphtheria, a serious infection of the nose and throat. This tragedy caused the family to move to Barcelona. (Pablo Picasso Biography).
The death of Pablo’s sister was very hard on the family, but Pablo still managed to flourish in his career, even at such a young age. His artistic talent grew at an extraordinary rate. Sometimes Pablo’s father would even ask Pablo to finish his paintings for him. By the time Pablo was thirteen, his father insisted that he entered the Barcelona Academy of Art. Most people his age were not accepted into this school but because of his extraordinary entrance exam, he was given an exception. During this time, Picasso had accomplished a very well-done drawing of a naked model. Although Pablo was a good artist, he was not the best student. He never had any desire to do any schoolwork. Pablo often failed to keep up in school because he was dyslexic and not very well behaved. He was often sent out of the classroom as a punishment for his behavior, but during those times, he would pull out a sketchbook and draw. He also would skip class, run around, and sketch his sights on the city. He spent a few years at this school before he went to another school in Madrid when he was sixteen. In Madrid, he attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando. He again skipped classes and did not pay attention in school. He did not like that at that school, the main focus was classical subjects and techniques, and he wanted to be unique. In the Spring of 1898, He became very ill with scarlet fever. After his recovery, he abandoned his education in Madrid and returned to Barcelona. In Barcelona, he fell in love with the crowd of artists and intellectuals (Pablo Picasso).
All of this had happened before Pablo was even nineteen years old! During this period, Pablo had already created so many fantastic pieces of art and he still had a life ahead of him to continue to do so. One of the many important artworks that Pablo created was the ‘Man in a Beret’. He painted this portrait at the age of fourteen. This portrait was made with oils in a slightly superior format that was out of Pablo’s comfort zone. Another work of art that Pablo created was Pigeons, which was created in 1890 with a pencil and paper. He drew portraits of his family, such as a portrait of his mother. In 1897, he painted a big picture known as Science and Charity which can be both a genre and symbolic painting. He painted ‘Profile of Human rights’ in 1892, ‘Study for a Torso’ in 1892, ‘The Barefoot Girl’ in 1895, ‘Alicante Saw the Boat’ in 1895, ‘First Communion’ in 1896, ‘Matador’ in 1897, ‘Naked Woman Sitting’ in 1899, ‘The Kiss’ in 1899, and many more. All of these pieces of art with true meanings behind them are known as the pieces in his Early Works and they started his career (Skanska).
In 1901, at the age of twenty, Pablo became extremely depressed because of the death of his friend. His very close friend, Carlos Casagemas, committed suicide. Carlos Casagemas was a Catalan artist, writer, and poet. He was known for his friendship with Picasso and they even traveled around Spain and Paris together. The two even lived together in a vacant studio. Picasso painted many portraits of Carlos. Carlos’s suicide was the result of a failed romance. The action of his friend’s suicide inspired Pablo’s Blue Period, which is period two of his artwork. The Blue Period consisted of monochromatic artwork in the shades of blue, green, and grey. At this time period, Picasso became very depressed, and this depression lasted for four years. During this period, Pablo painted things such as his experience with poverty, prostitutes, mothers, and their children, old people, blind people, people who lived on the streets, drunks, and even beggars. Some of the works he created during the Blue Period included ‘Poor People’, ‘The Old Guitarist’, ‘Death of Casagemas’, ‘Absinthe Drinker’, ‘Le Gourmet’, ‘The Visit’, ‘Head of a Woman, ‘Breakfast of a Blind Man, ‘Drunk Woman is Tired’, ‘The Tragedy’, and many more. His depressed state ended in 1904 (Art Dependence).
Pablo Picasso’s next major art period was known as the “Rose” period. This period lasted from the fall of 1904 only until the end 0f 1906. During this time, Pablo had permanently moved to Paris. “This period signifies the time when the style of Pablo Picasso's painting used cheerful orange and pink colors in contrast to the cool, somber tones of the previous Blue Period” (Pablo Picasso). During this time period, Picasso was no longer depressed and actually happy. He was in a relationship with Fernanda Olivier, a French artist, and Model, and some people wonder if she was the reason for his changed style of painting. She was a great factor in influencing not only his life but his work. His paintings consisted of romance and joy. This period was not quite as popular as his Blue period but it was a huge impact on the developments of modern art and will always be remembered. Some of his paintings were filled with clowns, actors, athletes, carnivals, and circuses. Some paintings that were created during this period include ‘Girl in a Chemise’, ‘Acrobat on a Ball’, ‘Acrobat and Young Harlequin’, ‘Woman with Fan’, ‘Young Nude’, and several more. This period was the start of a legacy (“Rose” Period).
Very shortly after Picasso’s Rose period, the African Period came along. During this period, his paintings were strongly influenced by African artworks. In the early twentieth century, France expanded its colonization in Africa bringing back many pieces of African Art and putting them into Paris Museums. In Paris, at the Museum of the Trocadero, Pablo was first introduced to African art and he instantly admired it. He discovered forms of ancient idols, sculptures, masks, and many more artistic artifacts that pulled him in. He saw deep messages in these pieces of art and saw them as magic. He started to paint using shapes and making his characters look like wooden idols and faces started to represent masks. “His aim was to create an illusion of three-dimensional space populated by deformed beings at the two-dimensional plane of the canvas. The second half of 1907 was the birth of a string of distorted characters with more or less horrible African masks replacing their faces” (African Period).
During this period, Pablo met Georges Braque, a French painter, collagist, printmaker, and sculptor. The two, later on, will discover cubism together. This period only lasted for a couple of years but during this period he created several pieces of art and some of these included ‘Three Women’, ‘Farmer’s Wife’, ‘Self-Portrait’, and ‘Dance of the Veils’ (Picasso).
The next, and maybe most important period of art for Picasso, was his Cubism period. This period lasted from 1907 to 1917, even though the majority of Picasso’s works of art are considered cubism. Pablo was known to be the father of cubism. Cubism used geometric shapes and planes to create art. “Pablo Picasso pioneered the Cubism movement, a revolutionary style of modern art that Picasso formed in response to the rapidly changing modern world” (MWFA). Through the making of cubism, he had his friend Georges Braque help him. He wanted to see art that reflected a more modern time period and that is just what he did. He wanted to do something that did not copy nature and he wanted something unique. “He felt that we do not see an object from one angle or perspective, but rather from many angles selected by sight and movement. As a result of this belief, Cubism became about how to see an object or figure rather than what the artist was looking at” (Pablo Picasso and Cubism). During this time period, it was separated into two different types of cubism. The first one is Analytical cubism and the second is Synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism lasted from 1907 to 1912 and it was known as “the early phase of cubism, chiefly characterized by a pronounced use of geometric shapes and by a tendency toward a monochromatic use of color” (dictionary). The second type of cubism, Synthetic cubism, incorporated things such as patterns, newspaper scraps, and even textures into his work. Many artists, even to this day, followed his artistic movement (Pablo Picasso and Cubism).
Pablo Picasso’s next art period was known as his Classicism period. This art period was influenced by Roman and Greek art. During this period, Picasso’s art became more realistic looking and his focus was mainly on drawing and painting. He also began to take interest in photography. Although this was a shorter period, from 1917-1925, Picasso created many pieces of art. A few examples of the art he created during this period were ‘The Pan Flute’, ‘Picassos Mother’, ‘Paul as a Pierrot’, ‘Two Bathers’, ‘Woman with Blue Hat Flowers’, ‘Mother and Child, ‘Portrait of Olga in the Armchair’, and ‘Sketch of Set for the Parade’. In 1926, shortly after the Classicism period, the Surrealism Period began. If you don’t know what surrealism is, it is not only just art but also music, literature, music, philosophy, and theatre, it is known as visual artwork. Pablo painted ‘The Three Dancers’, ‘The Face’, ‘Woman in an Armchair’, ‘Nude on a Beach’, ‘Nude in an Armchair’, and many more paintings during this art period. Pablo summarizes this period as his paintings are not paintings of what he sees, but what he thinks (Surrealism).
In 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War, Picasso was 54 years old. Pablo Picasso’s art during this period focused on the victims of the war, people such as suffering women, children, and even horses, “his canvas was his battlefield, and his weapons were the brush and paints” (War Years). Picasso began painting things such as scenes demonstrating the suffering of the Spanish people. He painted burning houses, corpses, crying women, and more. He screamed about the horrors of the war and the war was a huge inspiration for a lot of his artwork. He painted the ‘Weeping Woman’, ‘Guernica’, ‘Portrait of Maya with her Doll’, ‘The Hairstyle’, ‘Wounded Bird and Cat’, ‘Female Bust, and many more. In 1946, after the war years, Picasso started painting more calm and peaceful paintings that brought joy to people. He painted things such as fauns, naked women, and fairy-tale paintings. He painted ‘Woman-Flower’, ‘Massacre in Korea’, ‘Paloma Blue’, ‘Wool-Owl Woman’, and ‘Claude, Son of Picasso’ (After War).
Throughout Picasso’s life filled with so much art, he still managed to have a very interesting love life. Picasso Is very well-known for his deep desire and love for women, but he did not always have the best relationships. He was known to be with multiple women, all at the same time and he was also known to be abusive. He had many lovers but only eight muses. The first significant lover of Picasso was Laure Germaine Gargallo Pichot. The two met through Picasso’s friend Carlos Casagemos. She was Carlos’s girlfriend at the time. After Carlos committed suicide, Picasso got with Laure, not even a year after. The relationship ended with Germaine marrying Picasso’s friend, Roman Pichot. The next love interest of Picasso was Madeleine. Madeleine was a model who would pose for Picasso and later on became his mistress in 1904. There is not much information on Madeleine but all we know is that she was pregnant with Picasso’s baby but then had an abortion. This caused Picasso to paint many images of mothers and their babies. Picasso’s very first muse was Fernande Olivier, a French artist, and model, she was his first long-term partner. She is known to be the inspira
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