Pablo Picasso

EARLY YEARS

  • Pablo Diego Jose Santiago Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispin Crispiniano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco Picasso y Lopez (his real full name) was born October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain

 

1885 (Age 4)

 

 

  • His mother was Maria Picasso y Lopez.  His father, José Ruiz y Blasco, was a painter and a professor of art at Spanish colleges.  It was from his father that Picasso learned the basics of formal academic art training.

 

 

Picasso's Portrait of the Artist's Mother & Portrait of the Artist's Father.  1896

 

  • Had two siblings, Lola and Concepción (Conchita).  Conchita died at the age of 8. 

   

Right to Left: 7 year old Picasso with sister Lola (1888); Picasso's sketch of Conchita.  1894; Picasso's Portrait of Lola (The Artist's Sister).  1899

 

 

  • He began painting at the age of 10 and by the age of 15 was already technically skilled in drawing and painting. 

One of Picasso's first paintings, Le Picador.  1899

 

 

  • In 1895,  Picasso’s father received a professorship at the School of  Fine Arts in Barcelona.  Pablo was admitted to the advanced classes in classical art and still life at the same school his father taught.  Although only 15, Picasso was better than the senior students in their final exam projects.

1896 (Age 15)

 

 

  • In 1896 Pablo’s first large “academic” oil painting, “The First Communion,” appeared in an exhibition in Barcelona while his second large oil painting, “Science and Charity,” won a gold medal.

 

Left:  The First Communion.  1896;  Right:  Science and Charity.  1897

 

  • In 1897, Picasso attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid but left after less than a year.  He began skipping his classes for everyday visits to the Museo del Prado to study the old masters, at first imitating their style and later using them as a source for new ideas for his own original paintings.

 

  • Picasso had to leave Madrid and return to Barcelona in the summer of 1898 when he came down with scarlet fever.

 

  • In 1900, Picasso left for Paris and opened a studio in Montmarte.

 

  • In his early years he signed his name Ruiz Blasco until 1901 when he decided to use his mother’s name, thus being known as Pablo Picasso.

 

 1904 (Age 23)

 

   

Left to Right:  1912 (Age 31); 1915 (Age 34); 1916 (Age 35)

 

1922 (Age 41)


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