Throughout the life of any artist, as usual, changes in handwriting, character, or even style can be traced. This phenomenon can be seen in the most famous painters - from Monet's almost forced transition to abstraction at the end of his life, to the transition to a pronounced color palette. Although such changes are typical for most masters of painting, they are especially noticeable in paintings.

His career, which spanned almost 80 years, was successful not only in painting, but also in sculpture, ceramics, design and stage performance. Therefore, Picasso’s desire for experimentation is not surprising. To trace the stylistic evolution of Pablo Picasso, art historians divide his work into several periods: “early period”, “blue period”, “rose period”, “African period”, “cubism”, “classical period”, “surrealism”, war and post-war periods and the period of later works.

Early period

Picasso began painting in early childhood - in his first paintings, the images had the maximum resemblance to the original, as did the color palette.

Early paintings

"Blue" period

From 1902, Pablo Picasso began to paint in a style that strongly expressed themes of old age, death, poverty and sadness. Blue shades began to predominate in the artist’s color palette. During this period, Pablo painted mainly images of the lower strata of society: alcoholics, prostitutes, beggars and other people.

Paintings of the "blue" period

"Pink" period

In 1904, Pablo Picasso began to give preference to pink tones, creating images from the world of theater and circus. His characters were mainly traveling performers - clowns, acrobats or dancers.

Paintings of the “pink” period

"African" period

The short period, which occurred in 1907-1908, was inspired by the archaic art of Africa, which Picasso became acquainted with at an exhibition at the Trocadéro Museum. For the artist, this was a real discovery - the simple, and in some places even primitive, forms of ancient sculptures seemed to Pablo Picasso an amazing feature that carried a huge artistic charge.

Paintings from the "African" period

Pablo's passion for African sculpture led him to a completely new genre. The refusal to realistically imitate the surrounding world led the artist to simplify the outlines of human images and objects, which then began to turn into geometric blocks. Together with the French artist Georges Braco, Pablo Picasso became the founder of Cubism, a movement that rejected the traditions of naturalism.

"Classical" period

The transition from cubism to painting that would be more “readable” was influenced by both Picasso’s internal needs and external factors. During this period, the artist collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet troupe, and also married Olga Khokhlova. It is not surprising that she would like to recognize herself in portraits, but her wife’s wish alone would not have influenced Picasso’s work in any way if not for his desire for change.

Paintings of the "classical" period

Acquaintance with Maria Teresa Walter, as well as communication with surrealists, turned Pablo Picasso towards surrealism. The transition to this direction can be described by his own expression: “I depict objects the way I think about them, and not the way I see them.”

War and post-war period

The threat hanging over Europe, as well as the fear of war, forced Picasso, if not directly reflecting the mood on the canvas, then to give the paintings gloom and tragedy. The artist’s post-war work can be called happy - wit and the absence of gloomy subjects can be seen in the artist’s works.

Name: Pablo Picasso

Age: 91 years old

Place of Birth: Malaga, Spain

A place of death: Mougins, France

Activity: spanish artist

Family status: was married

Pablo Picasso - biography

Everything that concerns Picasso has never been simple... His unusual fate - biography was programmed from the very moment of his birth: October 25, 1881 in house 15 on Plaza de la Merced in Malaga. The child was stillborn. His uncle, Doctor Salvador, who was present at the birth, acted in the most shocking way in this fatal situation - he calmly lit a Havana cigar and exhaled acrid smoke into the baby’s face. Everyone screamed in horror, including the newborn.

Pablo Picasso - childhood

At baptism, the baby received the name Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Crispin Crispignano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. According to Spanish custom, the parents included in this list the names of all their distant ancestors. Among them in this impoverished noble family were the Archbishop of Lima and the Viceroy of Peru. There was only one artist in the family - Pablo's father. Jose Ruiz, however, did not achieve any significant success in this field. In the end, he became the caretaker of the municipal art museum with a meager salary and a lot of bad habits. Therefore, the family relied mainly on little Pablo’s mother, the energetic and strong-willed Maria Picasso Lopez.

Fate did not spoil this woman. Her father, Don Francisco Picasso Guardena, was considered a rich man in Malaga - he owned vineyards on the slope of Mount Gibralfaro. But, having heard enough stories about America, he left his wife and three daughters in Malaga and went to make money in Cuba, where he soon died of yellow fever. As a result, his family was forced to earn a living by doing laundry and sewing. At the age of 25, Maria married Don Jose, a year later her first child Pablo was born, followed by two sisters, Dolores and Conchita. But Pablo was still his favorite child.

According to Doña Maria, “he was so beautiful, like an angel and a demon at the same time, that you could not take your eyes off him.” It was his mother who formed the unshakable self-confidence in Pablo’s character that accompanied him throughout his life. “If you become a soldier. - she told the baby, “you will certainly rise to the rank of general, and if you become a monk, you will become a Pope.” This sincere admiration for the child was shared with his mother by his grandmother and two aunts who moved to live in their house. Pablo, raised surrounded by women who adored him, said that from childhood he was accustomed to the fact that there should always be a loving woman nearby, ready to fulfill his every whim.

Another childhood experience in Pablo’s biography that radically influenced Picasso’s entire life was the 1884 earthquake. Half of the city was destroyed, more than six hundred citizens died and thousands were injured. Pablo remembered for the rest of his life the ominous night when his father miraculously managed to pull him out from under the ruins of his home. Few people realized that the ragged and angular lines of cubism were an echo of that very earthquake when the familiar world fell apart.

Pablo began drawing at the age of six. “There was a statue in the hallway at home. “Hercules with a club,” Picasso said. - So, I sat down and drew this Hercules. And it wasn’t a child’s drawing, it was quite realistic.” Of course, Don Jose immediately saw in Pablo the successor of his work and began to teach his son the basics of painting and drawing. Pablo remembered the tough drill of his father, who spent days “putting a hand” on his son for many years. At the age of 65, having visited an exhibition of children's drawings, he bitterly remarked: “When I was as old as these children, I could draw like Raphael. It took me many years to learn to draw like these kids!”

In 1891, 10-year-old Pablo began attending painting courses in La Coruña. where his father got him a job, having received a teaching position there. Pablo studied in La Coruña for a short time. At the age of 13, he considered himself independent enough to live without his parents, who really did not like his numerous affairs, including with young school teachers. Moreover, Pablo was a poor student, and his father had to beg the school director, an acquaintance of his, not to kick his son out. In the end, Pablo himself left school and went to Barcelona to enter the Academy of Arts.

He did not do it without difficulty - the teachers did not believe that the paintings presented to them for viewing were drawn not by an adult man, but by a boy who was 14 years old. Pablo got very angry when people called him “boy.” Already at the age of 14, he was a regular at brothels, of which there were many at that time near the Academy of Arts. “Sex from a young age was my favorite pastime,” Picasso admitted. We Spaniards are mass in the morning, bullfighting in the afternoon and brothel late in the evening.”

As his classmate Manuel Palhares later recalled from his biography of that time, Pablo once lived for a week in one of the brothels and, as payment for his stay, painted the walls of the brothel with frescoes of erotic content. At the same time, night trips to brothels did not in the least prevent Pablo from devoting all his days to religious painting. The young artist was even ordered several paintings to decorate the convent. One of them - “Science and Charity” - was awarded a diploma at the National Exhibition in Madrid. Unfortunately, most of these paintings were lost during the Spanish Civil War.

And yet, fellow students recalled the biography of their friend, Pablo was constantly in love with someone. His first love was named Rosita del Oro. She was more than ten years older than him and worked as a dancer in a popular Barcelona cabaret. Rosita, like many of Picasso’s women later, recalled that Pablo struck her with his “magnetic” gaze and literally hypnotized her. This hypnosis lasted for five whole years. In Picasso's memory, Rosita remained the only woman who did not say nasty things about him after breaking up.

They separated when Pablo went to Madrid to attend the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, considered at that time the most advanced art school in all of Spain. He entered there very easily, but lasted only 7 months at the Academy. The teachers recognized the young man’s talent, but could not cope with his character: Pablo flew into a rage every time when they told him how and what to draw.

As a result, he spent most of the first six months of his studies “under arrest” - at the Academy of San Fernando there was a special punishment cell for guilty students. In the seventh month of his “imprisonment,” during which Pablo became friends with a similarly obstinate student, Carles Casagemas, the son of the United States Consul in Barcelona, ​​a typical representative of the “golden youth,” who also flaunted his homosexual inclinations, he decided leave the country.

If Cezanne had lived in Spain, he said, he would probably have been shot altogether...” Together with Casagemas, they went to Paris - to Montmartre, where, as they said, real Art and Freedom reigned.

Pablo Picasso - Paris

Pablo’s father gave him money for Pablo’s trip, 300 pesetas. He himself once intended to conquer Paris and really wanted the whole world to know the name Ruiz. When rumors reached him that, having ended up in Paris. Pablo began signing his works with his mother's maiden name - Picasso Jos Ruiz had a heart attack.

“Can you imagine me being Ruiz? - Picasso made excuses many years later, - Or Diego Jose Ruiz? Or Juan Nepomuceno Ruiz? No, my mother's last name always seemed better to me than my father's last name. This surname seemed strange, and it had a double “s”, which is rare in Spanish surnames, since Picasso is an Italian surname. And besides, have you ever noticed the double “s” in the surnames of Matisse and Poussin?”

Picasso failed to conquer Paris the first time. Casagemas, with whom Picasso shared an apartment on Kolechkur Street, already on the second day after his arrival, forgetting about all his “homosexual chic”, fell madly in love with the model Germaine Florentin. She was in no hurry to reciprocate the ardent Spaniard's feelings. As a result, Carles fell into a terrible depression, and the young artists, having forgotten about the purpose of their visit, spent two months in constant drunkenness. After which Pablo grabbed his friend and went with him back to Spain, where he tried to bring him back to life. In February 1901, Carles, without telling Pablo, went to Paris, where he tried to shoot Germaine, and then committed suicide.

This event shocked Pablo so much that, returning to Paris in April 1901, he first went to the fatal beauty Germaine and unsuccessfully tried to persuade her to become his muse. That's right - not a mistress, but a muse, since Picasso simply did not have money even to feed her lunch. There wasn’t even enough money for paints - that’s when his brilliant “blue period” was born, and blue and gray paints forever became synonymous with poverty for Pablo.

In those years he lived in a dilapidated house on Place Ravignan, nicknamed Bateau Lavoir, that is, “Laundry Barge.” In this barn, without light or heat, huddled a commune of poor artists, mostly emigrants from Spain and Germany. No one locked the doors to Bateau Lavoir; all property was shared. Both models and friends had something in common. Of the dozens of women who shared bed with Picasso at that time, the artist himself recalled only two.

The first was a certain Madeleine (her only portrait is now kept in the Tate Gallery in London). As Picasso himself said, in December 1904 Madeleine became pregnant, and he seriously considered the issue of marriage. But due to the eternal cold in Bateau-Lavoir, the pregnancy ended in miscarriage, and Picasso soon fell in love with a stately girl with green eyes, the first beauty of Bateau-Lavoir. Everyone knew her as Fernande Olivier, although her real name was Amelie Lat. There were rumors that she was the illegitimate daughter of a very noble man.

Fernanda ended up in Bateau Lavoir, where she made a living by posing for artists, at the age of fifteen after the death of her mother.

Opium helped them get closer. In September 1905, Pablo invited Fernanda to celebrate the sale of one of his paintings - galleries began to be interested in his work - at a literary club in Montparnasse, where both future geniuses and successful mediocrities gathered. After absinthe, Pablo invited the girl to smoke a pipe of the then fashionable drug, and in the morning she found herself in Picasso’s bed. “Love flared up, overwhelming me with passion,” she wrote in her diary, which many years later she published in the form of a book, “Loving Picasso.” - He won my heart with the sad, pleading look of his huge eyes, which pierced me against my will...

Having got Fernanda, the jealous Picasso first of all acquired a reliable lock and, every time he left Bateau Lavoir, locked his mistress in his room. Fernanda did not object because she did not have shoes, and Picasso did not have the money to buy them for her. And it was difficult in all of Paris to find a lazier person than her. Fernanda could not go outside for weeks, lie on the sofa, have sex or read pulp novels. Every morning, Picasso stole milk and croissants for her, which the peddlers left at the doors of the good bourgeoisie on the next street.

Poverty receded, and the depressive “blue” period in Picasso’s work gently turned into a calmer “pink”, when wealthy collectors became interested in the paintings of the young Spaniard. The first was Gertrude Stein, the daughter of an American millionaire, who fled to Paris for the delights of bohemian life. However, she paid little money for Picasso’s paintings, but she introduced him to Henri Matisse, Modigliani and other artists who set the tone in art.

The second millionaire was Russian merchant Sergei Shchukin. They met in the same 1905 in Montmartre, where Pablo drew cartoons of passers-by for a couple of francs. They drank to meet each other, after which they went to Picasso’s studio, where the Russian guest purchased a couple of paintings by the artist for a hundred francs. For Picasso it was a lot of money. It was Shchukin, regularly buying up Picasso's paintings, who finally pulled him out of poverty and helped him get back on his feet. The Russian merchant collected 51 paintings by Picasso - this is the largest collection of the artist’s works in the world, and it is Shchukin who we owe to the fact that Picasso’s originals hang in both the Hermitage and the Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin.

Pablo Picasso - cubism

But with prosperity came the end of family happiness. Fernanda briefly enjoyed life in a luxurious apartment on the Boulevard Clichy, where there was a real piano, mirrors, a maid and a cook. Moreover, Fernanda herself took the first step towards separation. The thing is. that in 1907, Picasso became interested in a new direction in art - cubism, and presented to the public his painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. The painting caused a real scandal in the press: “This is a canvas stretched on a stretcher, rather controversially, but confidently stained with paint, and the purpose of this canvas is unknown,” wrote Parisian newspapers. - There is nothing that might be of interest. You can guess the crudely drawn female figures in the picture. What are they for? What do they want to express or at least demonstrate? Why did the author do this?

But an even bigger scandal broke out at Picasso’s home. Fernanda, who was not at all interested in fashionable trends in art, perceived this picture as a mockery of herself personally. Say, using her as a model for a painting. Pablo deliberately, “out of jealousy, disgustingly disfigured her face and body, which was admired by so many artists.” And Fernanda decided to “take revenge”: she began to secretly leave home and pose nude for artists in Bateau Lavoir. It is not difficult to imagine the rage of the jealous Picasso, who did not allow the thought of his beloved posing for another artist when he saw nude portraits of his girlfriend in Montmartre.

Since then, their life together has turned into an ongoing scandal. Picasso tried to be at home as little as possible, spending most of his time in the Hermitage cafe, where he met the Polish artist Ludwig Markoussis and his girlfriend, petite 27-year-old Eva Guell. She - unlike Fernanda - was calm about modern painting and willingly posed for Pablo for his portraits in the cubist style. She perceived one of them, which Picasso called “My Beauty,” as a declaration of love and reciprocated it.

So when Picasso and Fernanda Olivier separated in 1911, Eva Guell became the mistress of the artist’s new house on Raspail Boulevard. However, they rarely visited Paris, only when there was a din of exhibitions in which Picasso was increasingly invited to participate. They traveled with great pleasure throughout Spain and England, living either in Céret, at the foot of the Pyrenees, or in Avignon. It was, as they said, “an endless pre-wedding journey.” It ended in the spring of 1915, when Pablo and Eva decided to get married, but did not have time. Eva fell ill with tuberculosis and died. “My life has turned into hell. - Pablo wrote in a letter to Gertrude Stein. “Poor Eva is dead, I am in unbearable pain...”

Pablo Picasso - Russian ballet

Picasso had a hard time with the death of his beloved. He stopped taking care of himself, drank constantly, smoked opium and did not leave brothels. This went on for almost two years, until the poet Jean Cocteau persuaded Picasso to take part in his new theatrical project. Cocteau had long collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev, the owner of the famous Russian Ballet, painted posters for the enterprises of Nijinsky and Karsavina, composed the libretto, but then he came up with the ballet “Parade”, a strange performance without a plot, and there was less music in it than street noises .

Until that day, Picasso had been indifferent to ballet, but Cocteau’s proposal interested him. In February 1917, he went to Rome, where at that moment Russian ballerinas were fleeing the horrors of the Civil War. There, in Italy, Picasso found new love. This was Olga Khokhlova, the daughter of a Russian army officer and one of the most beautiful ballerinas in the troupe.

Picasso became interested in Olga with all his characteristic temperament. After the extravagant Fernanda and temperamental Eva, Olga attracted him with her calmness, commitment to traditional values ​​and classical, almost ancient beauty.

“Be careful,” Diaghilev warned him, “you have to marry Russian girls.”

“You’re joking,” the artist answered him, confident that he would always remain the master of the situation. But everything turned out just as Diaghilev said.

Already at the end of 1917, Pablo took Olga to Spain to introduce her to his parents. Dona Maria warmly received the Russian girl, went to performances with her participation and once warned her: “With my son, who was created only for himself and for no one else, no woman can be happy.” But Olga did not heed this warning.

On July 12, 1918, a wedding ceremony took place in the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. They spent their honeymoon in each other's arms in Biarritz, forgetting about war, revolution, ballet and painting.

“Upon their return, they settled in a two-story apartment on La Boesie Street,” Picasso’s friend, the Hungarian photographer and artist Gyula Halas, better known as Brassaï, described their life in the book “Meetings with Picasso.” - Picasso allocated one floor for his studio, the other was given to his wife. She turned it into a classic social salon with cozy sofas, curtains and mirrors. Spacious dining room with a large sliding table, a serving table, in each corner there is a round table on one leg; the living room is decorated in white tones, and the bedroom has a copper-trimmed double bed.

Everything was thought out to the smallest detail, and there was not a speck of dust anywhere, the parquet floor and furniture sparkled. This apartment was completely at odds with the artist’s usual lifestyle: there was neither that unusual furniture that he loved so much, nor any of those strange objects with which he liked to surround himself, nor things scattered as needed. Olga jealously protected the possessions that she considered her property from the influence of Picasso’s bright and strong personality. And even hanging paintings by Picasso from the Cubist period, in large beautiful frames, looked as if they belonged to a wealthy collector...”

Picasso himself gradually turned into a successful bourgeois with all the external attributes of success befitting this position. He bought a Hispano-Suiza limousine, hired a driver in livery, and began wearing expensive suits made by famous Parisian tailors. The artist led a hectic social life, never missing premieres in the theater and opera, attended receptions and parties - always accompanied by his beautiful and sophisticated wife: he was at the zenith of his “secular” period.

The crowning achievement of this period was the birth of his son Paolo in February 1921. This event excited Picasso - he made endless drawings of his son and wife, marking on them not only the day, but also the hour when he drew them. All of them are made in the neoclassical style, and the women in his image resemble Olympian deities. Olga treated the child with almost painful passion and adoration.

But over time, this beautiful, measured life began to seem to Picasso as his curse. “The more rich he became, the more he envied that other Picasso, who once wore a mechanic’s robe and huddled with Fernanda in the windswept Bateau Lavoir,” wrote Brassaï. “Soon Picasso left the upper apartment and moved to live in his workshop on the lower floor. And, without a doubt, never before has any “respectable” apartment been so unrespectable.

It consisted of four or five rooms, each with a fireplace with a marble plaque, above which there was a mirror. The furniture was taken out of the rooms, and in its place there were piled up paintings, cardboards, bags, forms from sculptures, bookshelves, piles of papers... The doors of all the rooms were thrown open, or perhaps simply removed from their hinges, thanks to which this huge apartment turned into one large space, divided into nooks and crannies, each of which was assigned to perform a specific job.

The parquet floor, which had not been polished for a long time, was covered with a carpet of cigarette butts... Picasso's easel stood in the largest and brightest room - no doubt, there had once been a living room here; it was the only room in this strange apartment that was at least somehow furnished. Madame Picasso never entered this workshop, and since, with the exception of a few friends, Picasso did not allow anyone in there, the dust could behave as it pleased, without fear of a woman’s hand starting to restore order.”

Olga felt her husband gradually returning to his inner world - the world of art, to which she did not have access. From time to time she staged violent scenes of jealousy, in response Picasso became even more withdrawn into himself. “She wanted too much from me,” Picasso later said about Olga. “It was the worst period of my life.” He began to take out his irritation in painting, depicting his wife either as an old nag or as an evil vixen. Nevertheless, Picasso did not want a divorce.

After all, then, according to the terms of their marriage contract, they would have to equally divide their entire fortune, and most importantly, his paintings. Therefore, Olga remained the official wife of the artist until her death. She claimed that she never stopped loving Picasso. He answered her: “You love me like they love a piece of chicken, trying to gnaw it to the bone!”

Marie-Therese became his “Thursday woman” - Picasso visited her only once a week. This continued until 1935, when she gave him a daughter, Maya. Then he brought Marie-Therese and her daughter into the house and introduced her to Olga: “This child is a new work by Picasso.”

It seemed that after such a statement a break was inevitable. Olga left their apartment, moving to a villa in the suburbs of Paris. Many years later, Picasso argued that politics added fuel to the fire in his conflict with his wife - in those years, a civil war was unfolding in Spain, and the artist began to support the communists and republicans. Olga, as befits a noblewoman who suffered from the Bolsheviks, was on the side of the monarchists. However, the divorce never came to pass. Picasso also did not fulfill his promise to Marie-Therese - Maya never received her father’s surname, and in her birth certificate there was a dash in the “father” column. However, after some time, Picasso agreed... to become Maya's godfather.

In 1936, another change occurred in the biography of Picasso’s personal life. His new lover was Dora Maar, a photographer, artist and simply a bohemian party girl. They met in the cafe "Two Eggs". Picasso admired her hands - Dora amused herself by placing her palm on the table and quickly thrusting a knife between her outstretched fingers. She touched the skin several times, but did not seem to notice the blood or feel any pain. Amazed, Picasso immediately fell head over heels in love.

In addition, Dora was the only one of all Picasso’s women who understood painting and sincerely admired Pablo’s paintings. It was Dora who created a unique photo report about Picasso’s creative process, recording on camera all the stages of the creation of the epoch-making canvas “Guernica,” dedicated to a town destroyed by the Nazis in the Basque Country.

Then, however, it turned out that, along with these and other advantages. Dora also had one, but very significant, drawback - she was extremely nervous. Almost burst into tears. “I could never paint her smiling,” Picasso later recalled, “for me she was always a Crying Woman.”

Therefore, Picasso, already prone to depression, preferred to keep his new mistress at a distance. Picasso's house was run by men - his driver Marcel and his college friend Sabartes, who became the artist's personal secretary. “Those who believed that behind social life the artist forgot about his youth, the independence of that time, the joys of friendship, were deeply mistaken,” wrote Brassaï. - When problems beset Picasso, when he was exhausted from constant family scandals to such an extent that he even stopped writing, he called Sabartes, who had long since moved to the United States with his wife. Picasso asked Sabartes to return to Europe and live with him, with him...

It was a cry of despair: the artist was going through the most difficult crisis of his life. And in November, Sabartes arrived and began to work: he began to sort through Picasso’s books and papers and retype his handwritten poems on a typewriter. From that time on, they became inseparable, like a traveler and his shadow...”

The three of them survived the Second World War. Despite the fact that the Nazis called his paintings “decadent” or “Bolshevik daub,” Picasso decided to take a risk and stay in Paris. “In the occupied city, life was difficult even for Picasso: he could not get gasoline for his car or coal to heat his workshop. - wrote Sabartes. “And he, like everyone else, had to adapt to military reality: standing in lines, riding the subway or taking a bus, which rarely ran and was always crowded. In the evenings, he could almost always be found in the hot Café de Flore, among friends, where he felt at home, if not better...

It was at the Café de Flore that Picasso met Françoise Gilot. He approached her table with a large vase full of cherries and offered to help her. A conversation ensued. It turned out that the girl abandoned her studies at the Sorbonne to study painting. For this, her father kicked her out of the house, but Françoise did not lose heart. She earned her living and education by giving riding lessons. “Such a beautiful woman cannot possibly be an artist,” the master exclaimed and invited her to his place... to take a bath. In occupied Paris, hot water was a luxury. “However,” he added. “If you want to see my paintings more than wash yourself, then it’s better to go to the museum.”

Picasso was very wary of fans of his talent. But for Françoise he made an exception. Brassaï wrote: “Picasso was captivated by Françoise’s small mouth, full lips, thick hair that framed her face, huge and slightly asymmetrical green eyes, a teenager’s thin waist and rounded contours. Picasso was captivated by Françoise and allowed her to idolize him. He loved her as if the feeling had come to him for the first time... But always greedy and always satiated, like the Seville seducer, he never allowed a woman to enslave him, freeing himself from her power in creativity. For him, a love adventure was not an end in itself, but a necessary incentive for the realization of creative possibilities, which were immediately embodied in new paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures.

After the war, Françoise gave birth to two children to Picasso: son Claude in 1947 and daughter Paloma in 1949. It seemed that the 70-year-old artist had finally found his happiness. The same could not be said about his girlfriend, who over time discovered that all the previous women still continued to play a certain role in Pablo’s life. So, if they went to the south of France in the summer, then the vacation was sure to be enlivened by the presence of Olga, who showered her with streams of abuse. In Paris, Thursdays and Sundays were the days when Picasso went to visit Dora Maar or invited her to dinner.

As a result, in 1953, Françoise, taking the children, left the artist. For Picasso this was a complete surprise. Françoise said she “didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with a historical monument.” This phrase soon became known throughout Paris. They began to laugh at Picasso, who boasted that “no woman leaves men like him.”

He found salvation from shame in the arms of a new favorite - Jacqueline Roque, a 25-year-old saleswoman from a supermarket in the resort town of Vallauris, near which the artist’s villa was located. Jacqueline raised her 6-year-old daughter Katrina alone. being a very rational woman, she understood that she should not miss such a chance as to become the companion of an already middle-aged and rich artist. She was neither as sensual as Fernanda, nor as gentle as Eva, she did not have the grace of Olga and the beauty of Marie-Therese, she was not as smart as Dora Maar, and as talented as Francoise. But she had one huge advantage - she was ready to do anything for the sake of life with Picasso. She simply called him God. Or Monsignor - as a bishop. She endured all his whims, depression, suspiciousness with a smile, followed his diet and never asked for anything. For Picasso, exhausted by family feuds, she became a real salvation. And his second official wife.

Olga died of cancer in 1955, releasing Picasso from the obligations of the marriage contract. Jacqueline Rock's wedding took place in March 1961. The ceremony was modest - they drank only water, ate soup and chicken left over from the day before. The further life of the couple, which took place on the Notre-Dame-de-Vie estate in Mougins, was distinguished by the same modesty and solitude. “I refuse to see people,” the artist said to his friend Brassaï. -What for? For what? I would not wish such fame on anyone, even my worst enemies. I suffer from it psychologically, I defend myself as best I can: I erect real barricades, although the doors are double-locked day and night.” This was to Jacqueline’s advantage - she did not intend to share her genius with anyone.

Gradually, she subjugated Picasso to such an extent that she decided almost everything for him. At first she quarreled with all his friends, then she managed to convince her husband that his children and grandchildren were just waiting for his death in order to receive the inheritance.
last years
The last years of the artist’s biography were remembered by his relatives as a real nightmare. Thus, the artist’s granddaughter Marina Picasso in her book “Picasso, my grandfather” recalled that the artist’s villa reminded her of an impregnable bunker surrounded by barbed wire: “My father is holding my hand. We silently approach the gates of my grandfather's mansion. Father rings the bell. As before, fear fills me. The villa guard comes out. “Monsieur Paul, do you have a rendezvous?” “Yes,” mutters the father.

He lets go of my fingers so I don't feel how wet his palm is. “Now I’ll find out if the owner can receive you.” The gates slam shut. It's raining, but we have to wait for what the owner will say. Just like it happened last Saturday. And before that on Thursday. We are overcome with guilt. The gate opens again, and the watchman says, looking away: “The owner cannot accept today. Madame Jacqueline asked me to tell you that he was working...” When, after several attempts, my father managed to see him, he asked his grandfather for money. I stood in front of my father. My grandfather took out a stack of bills, and my father, like a thief, took them. Suddenly Pablo (we couldn’t call him “Grandpa”) would start shouting: “You can’t take care of your children yourself. You can't earn your living! You can't do anything on your own! You will always be mediocre."

After a few years, these trips stopped - Picasso lost all interest in his children and grandchildren. However, he also began to treat Jacqueline Rock coldly. “I will die without ever loving anyone,” he once admitted.

“My grandfather was never interested in the fate of his loved ones. He was only concerned about his creativity, from which he suffered or was happy. He loved children only for their innocence in his paintings, and women - for the sexual and cannibalistic impulses that they aroused in him... Once, I was nine years old. I fainted from exhaustion. I was taken to a doctor, and the doctor was very surprised that Picasso’s granddaughter was in such a condition. and wrote him a letter asking him to send me to the medical center. My grandfather didn’t answer - he didn’t care.”

Pablo Picasso - the end of the artist's life

On the morning of April 8, 1973, Pablo Picasso died of pneumonia. Shortly before his death, the artist said, “My death will be a shipwreck. When a large ship dies, everything around it is sucked into the crater.”

And so it happened. His grandson Pablito, despite everything, retained boundless love for his grandfather, asked to be allowed to attend the funeral, but Jacqueline Roque refused. On the day of the funeral, Pablito drank a bottle of decoloran, a bleaching chemical liquid, and burned his insides. “He died a few days later in the hospital,” recalled Marina Picasso. “I just had to find money for the funeral.” Newspapers have already reported that the grandson of the great artist, who lived a few hundred meters from his villa in complete poverty, could not survive the death of his grandfather. Our college comrades helped us out. Without telling me a word, they collected the amount needed for the funeral from their pocket money.”

Two years later, Pablo's son, Paolo, died - he drank heavily, experiencing the death of his own son. In 1977, Marie-Therese Walter hanged herself. Dora Maar also died in poverty, although many paintings given to her by Picasso were found in her apartment. She refused to sell them. Jacqueline Rock herself was sucked into the funnel. After the death of her Monsignor, she began to behave strangely - she talked to Picasso all the time as if he were alive. In October 1986, on the day of the opening of the artist's exhibition in Madrid, she suddenly realized that Picasso had been gone for a long time, and put a bullet in her forehead.

Marina Picasso suggested that if her grandfather had known about these tragedies, he would not have been very worried. “Every positive value has a negative value.” - Picasso liked to repeat.

Picasso's unique style and divine talent allowed him to influence the evolution of modern art and the entire artistic world.

Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in the Spanish city of Malaga. He discovered his talent at an early age and entered the School of Fine Arts when he was 15 years old.

The artist spent most of his life in his beloved France. In 1904 he moved to Paris, and in 1947 he moved to the sunny south of the country.

Picasso's work is divided into unique and interesting periods.

His early "blue period" began in 1901 and lasted about three years. Much of the artwork created during this time is characterized by human suffering, poverty, and shades of blue.

The Rose Period lasted for about a year, beginning in 1905. This phase is characterized by a lighter pink-gold and pink-gray palette, and the characters are mainly traveling artists.

The painting that Picasso painted in 1907 marked the transition to a new style. The artist single-handedly changed the course of modern art. These were the “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, which caused a lot of upheaval in the society of that time. The Cubist depiction of nude prostitutes became a scandal, but served as the basis for subsequent conceptual and surrealist art.

On the eve of World War II, during the conflict in Spain, Picasso created another brilliant work - the painting “Guernica”. The direct source of inspiration was the bombing of Guernica; the canvas embodies the protest of the artist who condemned fascism.

In his work, Picasso devoted a lot of time to exploring comedy and fantasy. He also realized himself as a graphic artist, sculpture, decorator and ceramist. The master constantly worked, creating a huge number of illustrations, drawings and designs of bizarre content. In the final stage of his career, he painted variations of famous paintings by Velazquez and Delacroix.

Pablo Picasso died in 1973 in France at the age of 91, having created 22,000 works of art.

Paintings by Pablo Picasso:

Boy with a pipe, 1905

This painting by early Picasso belongs to the “Rose Period”; he painted it shortly after arriving in Paris. Here is a picture of a boy with a pipe in his hand and a wreath of flowers on his head.

Old guitarist, 1903

The painting belongs to the “blue period” of Picasso’s work. It depicts an old, blind and poor street musician with a guitar. The work is done in shades of blue and is based on expressionism.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

Perhaps the most revolutionary painting in modern art and the first painting in the Cubist style. The master ignored generally accepted aesthetic rules, shocked purists and single-handedly changed the course of art. He uniquely depicted five naked prostitutes from a brothel in Barcelona.

Bottle of rum, 1911

Picasso completed this painting in the French Pyrenees, a favorite place for musicians, poets and artists, which was favored by the Cubists before the First World War. The work was done in a complex cubist style.

Head, 1913

This famous work became one of the most abstract Cubist collages. The profile of the head can be traced in a semicircle outlined by charcoal, but all the elements of the face are significantly reduced to geometric figures.

Still life with compote and glass, 1914-15.

Pure color shapes and faceted objects are juxtaposed and superimposed to create a harmonious composition. Picasso in this painting demonstrates the practice of collage, which he often uses in his work.

Girl in front of a mirror, 1932

This is a portrait of Picasso's young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. The model and her reflection symbolize the transition from a girl to a seductive woman.

Guernica, 1937

This painting depicts the tragic nature of war and the suffering of innocent victims. The work is monumental in its scale and significance, and is perceived throughout the world as an anti-war symbol and a poster for peace.

Crying woman, 1937

Picasso was interested in the theme of suffering. This detailed painting with a grimacing, deformed face is considered a continuation of Guernica.

Everyone has heard of Pablo Picasso. He is not only a famous Spanish artist, but also a sculptor, graphic artist, ceramist, theater artist, poet and playwright. His baptismal name consists of 23 words - Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martir Patricio Ruiz Clito Picasso. It is said to be named after several saints and relatives. Pablo showed his rare talent at the tender age of 10 when he completed his first painting entitled “The Yellow Picador”, which depicts a man riding a horse during a bullfight. During his life, Pablo Picasso wrote many masterpieces that still make the world stand in awe. In our list we have listed the most famous ones.

✰ ✰ ✰

10

Old guitarist

The painting was painted in 1903 after Picasso's friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide. At this time, the artist treats with understanding those who have stumbled, humiliated by fate and poverty. This painting was created in Madrid and the distorted style used is reminiscent of El Greco. It shows a crooked blind man holding a large brown guitar. The brown color goes beyond the overall color scheme of the picture. Not only in fact, but also symbolically, the guitar fills the entire space around the old man, who, it seems, regardless of blindness and poverty, has completely given himself over to music.

✰ ✰ ✰

9

Girl in front of a mirror

In the painting, painted in March 1932, we see the image of Picasso’s French mistress, Marie Therese Walter. The style of this painting is called cubism. The idea of ​​Cubism is to take an object, break it down into simpler parts, and then, from multiple perspectives, recreate those same parts on canvas. In “The Girl in Front of the Mirror” one can consider the image of vanity. The picture at first glance seems quite simple, but if you look closely, you can find various deep symbols in all parts of the picture.

✰ ✰ ✰

8

Guernica

This is perhaps one of Picasso's most famous paintings. This is not just an ordinary picture, but also a strong political statement. Here the artist criticizes the Nazi bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Measuring 3.5m high and 7.8m long, the painting is a powerful indictment of the war. The painting style used is a combination of pastoral and epic in black and white. Guernica is a meticulous portrayal of the tragedies of war and the suffering of civilians.

✰ ✰ ✰

7

Three musicians

The title of the painting encapsulates the title of a series that was completed by Picasso in 1921 at Fontainebleau near Paris. This is a rather large painting in size - its width and height are more than 2 meters. It uses the synthetic style of cubism, which turns the artwork into a sequence of planes, lines and arcs. Each painting under this title depicts Harlequin, Pierrot and a monk. These three symbolic heroes are said to be Picasso himself, Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, respectively. Apollinaire and Jacob were very good friends of Picasso during the 1910s. Some historians, however, believe that The Three Musicians is Picasso's belated response to Matisse and his The Piano Lesson.

✰ ✰ ✰

6

Seated woman. Maria Teresa Walter

Like Guernica, this work of art was also created in 1937. Picasso's muse was Maria Teresa Walter, and he created many calm images of her. Many people believe that this painting resembles a queen from a deck of playing cards, an imagery that is often designed using stripes. The work is also done in a cubist style along with the polarization of red and green colors.

✰ ✰ ✰

5

Dora Maar with a cat

The painting, which was painted by Picasso in 1941, shows his Croatian mistress sitting on a chair with a small cat on her shoulder. During his ten-year relationship with Dora Maar, Picasso painted her portraits many times. Dora herself was a surrealist photographer. This painting is considered one of the least aggressive images of Dora Maar, as well as one of the most expensive paintings in the world. In the composition, Picasso showed exceptional attention to detail, many of which are symbolic.

✰ ✰ ✰

4

Blue nude

"Blue Nude" is one of Picasso's earliest masterpieces. It was painted in 1902. This painting is from Picasso's Blue Period. During this time, Picasso used a pale, cool blue as the dominant color in his paintings and sketches. Most of his paintings during the Blue Period reflected strong emotions using a single color. The “blue nude” sits with her back to us in a fetal position. The painting offers no subtext and its emotions are not clear.

✰ ✰ ✰

3

Avignon girls

This masterpiece was painted in 1907 and is one of the most typical examples of Cubism in painting. The painting goes beyond traditional composition and presentation. Picasso innovatively uses distorted female bodies and geometric shapes. None of the figures are depicted with traditional femininity, and the women appear slightly menacing. It took Picasso nine months to complete this painting. This painting also reflects the influence of African art.

✰ ✰ ✰

2

Nude, green leaves and bust

Painted in 1932, the painting again depicts Picasso's mistress, Maria Therese Walter. The canvas, measuring about one and a half meters in length and height, was completed within one day. This painting is considered one of Picasso's greatest achievements during the interwar period. It creates illusions and is considered very sexy.

✰ ✰ ✰

1

Crying woman

The oil on canvas “The Weeping Woman” was created by Picasso in 1937. This painting is believed to be a continuation of the theme of tragedy that is depicted in Guernica. By painting the crying woman, Picasso directly focused on the human aspect of suffering and created a unique, universal image. This painting completed the series that Picasso painted as a sign of protest. The model for the painting (as well as for the entire series) was Dora Maar, who worked as a professional photographer.

✰ ✰ ✰

These were the most famous paintings by Pablo Picasso. Thank you for your attention.

1. Pablo Picasso began to be interested in drawing from early childhood. He received his first painting lessons from his father, Jose Ruiz Blasco, who was an art teacher. Already at the age of 8, he painted his first high-quality oil painting, called “Picador”.

The first painting "Picador"

2. According to Spanish tradition, Pablo received two surnames from the first surnames of his parents: his father - Ruiz and his mother - Picasso. His full baptismal name is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martir Patricio Ruiz y Picasso.

3. The term “Cubism”, the founders of which were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, was introduced by art historian and art critic Louis Vauxcelles. In one of his articles, he noted that the works of Picasso and Georges Braque are full of “bizarre cubes.”

4. Picasso's first wife was the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, whom he met while preparing for the production of the surrealist ballet Parade by Sergei Diaghilev. In their marriage they had a son, Paulo.

5. Pablo Picasso was not just an artist, he was also a sculptor, ceramicist, set designer, poet, playwright, writer and designer.

6. Picasso was accepted into the La Lonja School of Fine Arts when he was 14 years old. He was too young to enter, but at the insistence of his father he was allowed to take the entrance exams. While most students passed their exams in a month, Pablo passed his entrance exams in just a week.

"Guernica"

7. After a Nazi officer saw a photograph of Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, he asked the artist if he had done it. Picasso replied: “No, you did it.”

8. The reason for the creation of the famous painting “Guernica” was the bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica by the Luftwaffe Air Force, part of Nazi Germany. In 3 hours, several thousand bombs were dropped on Guernica, as a result of which the city of 6,000 people was destroyed. Picasso was so amazed by what happened that he expressed his emotions on canvas. Guernica was written in just a month.

9. The Picasso name was used on several commercial products, including a car (Citroen Xsara Picasso), perfume (Cognac Hennessy Picasso) and lighters (ST Dupont Picasso). Picasso's heirs continually battle intellectual property laws surrounding his name.

"The Maidens of Avignon"

10. From 1917 to 1924, Picasso created curtains, sets and costumes for several ballets. His works were poorly received at the time, but are now considered symbols of the progress in art of the time.

11. Because Picasso was so weak at birth, the midwife thought he was stillborn and placed him on the table. His uncle, smoking a large cigar, walked up to him and blew smoke from the cigar into the baby's face. Picasso immediately reacted by grimacing and crying.

12. Picasso once noted: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” This phrase became the artist's famous statement.

13. Based on data on stolen paintings from London's Art Loss Register, Pablo Picasso tops the list of artists whose paintings are most popular among thieves.

14. Picasso believed that the American writer Gertrude Stein was his only friend. Her friendship and support had a significant impact on him.

"Algerian Women (Version O)"

15. In 2015, at the Christie's auction, a new absolute record was set for works of art sold at public auction - Pablo Picasso's painting "Algerian Women (Version O)".

16. In 2009, the most famous newspaper The Times conducted a survey among 1.4 million readers, according to the results of which Picasso was recognized as the best artist who has lived over the past 100 years.

17. Pablo's second wife was Jacqueline Roque; their marriage lasted 11 years. Pablo Picasso first saw Jacqueline in 1953, when she was 26 years old and he was 72 years old. Every day he gave her one rose, until six months later Jacqueline agreed to date him. They got married only 6 years after the death of Picasso's first wife Olga Khokhlova in 1955.

18. Pablo Picasso had three illegitimate children: daughter Maya with Marie-Thérèse Walter; son Claude and daughter Paloma from Françoise Gilot.

19. Picasso's first word was "piz, piz", short for lápis, which means "pencil" in Spanish.

20. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, Picasso is one of the most prolific artists in the world. During his 78-year career, he created more than 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints, 34,000 book illustrations, 300 ceramic and sculptural works—a total of more than 147,800 works of art.

21. Since 1973 (the year of the artist's death), Pablo's mistress, Françoise Gilot, fought with the artist's second wife, Jacqueline Roque, over the division of Picasso's property. Even before Pablo's death, the mistress and her two children (Claude and Paloma) unsuccessfully tried to challenge his will on the grounds that Picasso was mentally ill. Ultimately, the parties agreed to create the Picasso Museum in Paris, which opened in 1985.

"Still life with fruit on the table"

22. Since the artist’s burial took place on private territory that belonged to his castle, Jacqueline Roque did not allow Picasso’s two illegitimate children, Claude and Paloma, to attend his funeral, since they had tried to divide the artist’s property even before Picasso’s death.

23. In 1927, Picasso met 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter and began dating her secretly. The artist's marriage to his first wife ended in separation rather than divorce, since French law required an even division of property in the event of divorce, and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to receive half of his wealth. Marie-Thérèse Walter lived her whole life in the vain hope that Picasso would one day marry her. Four years after Picasso's death, she hanged herself.

24. Although Pablo was baptized in the Catholic Church as a child, he later became an atheist.

25. As of 2012, the world's largest art loss register (ALR) lists 1,147 works by Pablo Picasso as stolen.

Pablo Picasso