Pavel Picasso. Pablo Picasso - biography, facts, paintings - the great Spanish painter

Name: Pablo Picasso 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 about Picasso was never easy... His unusual fate- the biography was programmed from the very moment of birth: October 25, 1881 in house 15 on the Plaza de la Merced in Malaga. The child was born dead. His uncle, Dr. Salvador, who was present at the birth, acted in this fatal situation in the most shocking way - he calmly lit a Havana cigar and exhaled acrid smoke into the baby's face. Everyone screamed in horror - including the newborn yelled.

Pablo Picasso - childhood

At baptism, the baby was named Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los Remedios Crispin Crispignano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. According to Spanish custom, parents included in this list the names of all their distant ancestors. Among them in this impoverished noble family were both 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 anything in this field. significant success. He eventually became the caretaker of the municipal art museum on a meager salary and a lot of bad habits. Therefore, the family rested mainly on the mother of little Pablo - the energetic and strong-willed Maria Picasso Lopez.

Fate did not spoil this woman. Her father, Don Francisco Picasso Guardena, was considered a wealthy man in Malaga - he owned vineyards on the slopes of Mount Gibralfaro. But, after hearing 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 washing 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 the favorite child.

According to Dona Maria, "he was so handsome, like an angel and a demon at the same time, that you couldn't take your eyes off him." It was the mother who formed in the character of Pablo the unshakable self-confidence that accompanied him all his life. “If you are a soldier. - she said to the baby, - then you will certainly rise to the rank of general, and if you become a monk, then you will become the Pope. This sincere admiration for the child was shared with his mother and his grandmother, and two aunts who moved to live in their house. Pablo, who was brought up surrounded by women who adored him, said that from childhood he was used to the fact that there should always be a loving woman nearby, ready to fulfill his every whim.

Another childhood impression in the biography of Pablo, which radically influenced Picasso's entire life, was the earthquake of 1884. Half of the city was destroyed, more than six hundred citizens died, 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 guessed that the torn and angular lines of cubism are an echo of that very earthquake when the familiar world crumbled into pieces.

Pablo started drawing at the age of six. “There was a statue in the hallway at home. Hercules with a club, Picasso said. - Here, I sat down and drew this Hercules. And it was not 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 hard drill of his father, who for days on end "put his hand" to 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 how to draw like these kids!”

In 1891, 10-year-old Pablo began attending painting courses in A Coruña. where he was placed by his father, who received a teaching position there. Pablo did not study in A Coruña for long. At the age of 13, he considered himself independent enough to live without his parents, who really did not like his numerous novels, including those with young school teachers. Moreover, Pablo studied poorly, and his father had to beg the director of the school, who was familiar with him, not to expel his son. In the end, Pablo himself left school and went to Barcelona to enter the Academy of Arts.

He entered not without difficulty - the teachers did not believe that the pictures presented to them for viewing were painted not by an adult man, but by a boy who was 14 years old. Pablo got very angry when he was called "boy". Already at the age of 14, he was a frequenter of brothels, which at that time were many 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 a brothel late in the evening.”

As his classmate Manuel Pallares later recalled from a biography of that time, once Pablo lived for a week in one of the brothels and, as payment for his stay, painted the walls of a brothel with erotic frescoes. 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 for decoration. convent. One of them - "Science and Mercy" - was awarded a diploma for National exhibition in Madrid. Unfortunately, most of these paintings perished 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 called 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 women of Picasso later, recalled that Pablo struck her with his "magnetic" look, literally hypnotized her. This hypnosis" worked for five whole years. In the memory of Picasso, Rosita remained the only woman, who after parting did not say nasty things about him.

They broke up when Pablo went to Madrid to enter the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts, considered at that time the most advanced art school in all of Spain. He entered there very easily, but stayed at the Academy for only 7 months. The teachers recognized the talent of the young man, but could not cope with his character: Pablo fell into a rage every time he was told how and what to draw.

As a result, he spent most of the first six months of training "under arrest" - there was a special punishment cell for delinquent students at the San Fernando Academy. In the seventh month of his "imprisonment", during which Pablo became friends with the same obstinate student as he is, Carles Casagemas, the son of the United States consul in Barcelona, a typical representative"golden youth", besides flaunting their homosexual inclinations, he decided to leave the country.

Live Cezanne in Spain, - he said, - he probably would have been shot at all ... ”Together with Casagemas, they went to Paris - to Montmartre, where, as they said, real Art and Freedom reign.

Pablo Picasso - Paris

The money for Pablo's trip, 300 pesetas, was given by his father. He himself was once going to conquer Paris and really wanted the whole world to know the name Ruiz. When rumors reached him that, being in Paris. Pablo began to sign his works with his mother's maiden name - Picasso Jos Ruiz had a heart attack.

“Can you imagine me being Ruiz? - Many years later, Picasso justified himself, - Or Diego Jose Ruiz? Or Juan Nepomuseno Ruiz? No, my mother's surname always seemed better to me than my father's surname. This surname seemed strange, and there was a double "s" in it, which is rarely found in Spanish surnames Picasso is an Italian surname. And besides, have you ever noticed the double “s” in the names of Matisse, Poussin?”

From the first time, Picasso failed to conquer Paris. Casagemas, with whom Picasso shared an apartment on Kolechkur Street, already on the second day after his arrival, having forgotten about all his “homosexual chic”, fell in love with the model Germaine Florentin without memory. She was in no hurry to reciprocate the ardent Spaniard. As a result, Carles fell into terrible depression, and young artists, having forgotten the purpose of their visit, spent two months in unrestrained drunkenness. After that, Pablo scooped up his friend in an armful and went with him back to Spain, where he tried to bring him back to life. In February 1901, Carles, without saying anything to Pablo, went to Paris, where he tried to shoot Germain, 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 - just then his brilliant “blue period” was born, and the blue and gray paint forever became for Pablo a synonym for poverty.

He lived in those years in a dilapidated house on Ravignan Square, nicknamed Bato Lavoir, that is, "Laundry Barge". In this barn without light and heat huddled a commune of impoverished artists, mostly emigrants from Spain and Germany. No one locked the doors to Bato Lavoir, all the property was common. Both models and girlfriends were common. Of the dozens of women who then shared a bed with Picasso, the artist himself remembered 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 marrying. But because of the eternal cold in Bateau Lavoir, the pregnancy ended in a 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 Amélie Lat. It was rumored that she was the illegitimate daughter of a very noble man.

In Bateau Lavoir, where she made a living by posing for artists, Fernanda got to fifteen years after the death of her mother.

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

Having got Fernanda, the jealous Picasso first of all got a reliable lock and, leaving Bateau Lavoir, every time he locked his mistress in his room. Fernanda didn't mind because she didn't have shoes and Picasso didn't have the money to buy them for her. And it was hard to find a lazier person in all of Paris than she was. Fernanda could not go out for weeks, lie on the couch, have sex or read pulp novels. Every morning, Picasso stole milk and croissants for her, which the pedlars left at the door of the good bourgeois in the next street.

Poverty receded, and the depressive "blue" period in the work of Picasso 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 the 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 a Russian merchant Sergei Shchukin. They met in the same 1905 in Montmartre, where Pablo drew caricatures on passers-by for a couple of francs. They drank to an acquaintance, after which they went to Picasso's studio, where the Russian guest bought a couple of paintings by the artist - for a hundred francs. For Picasso, this was a lot of money. It was Shchukin, who regularly bought Picasso's paintings, finally pulled him out of poverty and helped him to his feet. The Russian merchant collected 51 Picasso paintings - this is the world's largest collection of the artist's works, and we owe it to Shchukin that Picasso's originals hang both in the Hermitage and in the Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin.

Pablo Picasso - cubism

But prosperity came to an end family happiness. Fernanda briefly enjoyed life in a luxurious apartment on the Boulevard Clichy, which had a real piano, mirrors, a maid and a cook. Moreover, Fernanda herself took the first step towards parting. The fact. that in 1907 Picasso was carried away by a new direction in art - cubism, and presented to the public his painting "Avignon Girls". The picture caused a real scandal in the press: “This is a canvas stretched on a stretcher, rather controversial, but surely stained with paint, and the purpose of this canvas is unknown,” wrote the Parisian newspapers. - There is nothing that could be of interest. You can guess in the picture roughly drawn female figures. 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 house. Fernanda, who was not at all interested in fashion trends in art, took this picture as a mockery of herself personally. Say, using it as a model for the picture. Pablo specifically, "out of jealousy, disgustingly mutilated her face and body, which so many artists admired." And Fernanda decided to "revenge": she began to secretly leave home and pose for artists in Bateau Lavoir in the nude. It is not difficult to imagine the fury of the jealous Picasso, who did not even allow the thought that his beloved would pose for another artist when he saw portraits of his girlfriend in the nude genre 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 Markussis and his girlfriend, the petite 27-year-old Eva Güell. She - unlike Fernanda - was calm about modern painting and willingly posed for Pablo for his portraits in the style of cubism. One of them, which Picasso called "My Beauty", she took as a declaration of love and reciprocated.

So when Picasso and Fernanda Olivier parted ways in 1911, Eva Güell became the mistress of the artist's new house on Boulevard Raspail. However, they rarely visited Paris, only when exhibitions were held, in which Picasso was increasingly invited to participate. They traveled with great pleasure in Spain and England, lived either in Seurat, 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 become hell. - Pablo wrote in a letter to Gertrude Stein. "Poor Eve is dead, I'm in unbearable pain..."

Pablo Picasso - Russian ballet

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

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

Picasso was carried away by Olga with all his characteristic temperament. After the extravagant Fernanda and the temperamental Eva, Olga attracted him with her calmness, adherence to traditional values ​​and classical, almost antique beauty.

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

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

Already at the end of 1917, Pablo took Olga to Spain to introduce her to her 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.

July 12, 1918 in Orthodox Cathedral Alexander Nevsky in Paris was the wedding ceremony. Honeymoon they spent in each other's arms in Biarritz, forgetting about war, revolution, ballet and painting.

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

Everything was thought out before the smallest details, and not a speck of dust anywhere, parquet and furniture shone. This apartment did not fit in at all with the artist’s habitual lifestyle: there was neither the unusual furniture that he loved so much, nor one of those strange objects with which he liked to surround himself, nor things scattered around as needed. Olga jealously guarded the possessions, which she considered her own, from the influence of a bright and strong personality Picasso. And even the hanging paintings by Picasso from the Cubist period, in large beautiful frames, looked like they belonged to a wealthy collector ... "

Picasso himself gradually turned into a prosperous bourgeois with all the outward trappings of success befitting this position. He bought a Spanish-Suiza limousine, hired a chauffeur in livery, began to wear expensive suits made by famous Parisian tailors. The artist led a stormy social life, not missing premieres at the theater and opera, attending receptions and soirees - always accompanied by his beautiful and refined wife: he was at the zenith of his "secular" period.

The crown of this period was the birth in February 1921 of the son Paolo. 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 painted them. All of them are made in neo classical style, and the women in his image resemble the Olympian deities. Olga treated the child with an almost morbid passion and adoration.

But over time, this beautiful, measured life began to seem like a curse to Picasso. “The more he got rich, the more he envied that other Picasso, who once wore a mechanic’s robe and huddled with Fernanda in the windswept Bato Lavoire,” wrote Brassai. “Soon Picasso left the upper apartment and moved to live in his studio 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 board, over which there was a mirror. Furniture from the rooms was taken out, and instead of it were piled up paintings, cardboard, bags, forms from sculptures, bookshelves, piles of papers... The doors of all the rooms were thrown open, or maybe simply taken off 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 certain work.

The parquet floor, which has not been rubbed for a long time, is covered with a carpet of cigarette butts ... Picasso's easel stood in the largest and brightest room - no doubt, once there was a living room; it was the only room in any way furnished in this strange apartment. Madame Picasso never entered this workshop, and since Picasso did not let anyone in except for a few friends, the dust could behave as it pleased without fear that female hand going to put things in order."

Olga felt how her husband was gradually returning to his inner world- the world of art, to which she had no 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 of Olga. “It was the worst period of my life.” He began to vent his irritation in painting, depicting his wife either in the form of an old horse or an evil vixen. Nevertheless, Picasso did not want a divorce.

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

Marie-Therese became his "woman on Thursdays" - Picasso came to her only once a week. This continued until 1935, when she gave him a daughter, Maya. Then he brought Marie-Therese with her daughter to the house and introduced Olga: "This child is a new work by Picasso."

It seemed that after such a statement, a breakup was inevitable. Olga left their apartment, moving to a villa in the suburbs of Paris. Many years later, Picasso claimed that politics added fuel to the fire in their 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 fruition. Picasso also did not fulfill his promise to Marie-Therese - Maya never received her father's surname, and a dash remained in her birth certificate in the column "father". However, after a while, Picasso agreed ... to become Maya's godfather.

In 1936, another change took place in the biography of Picasso's personal life. Dora Maar, a photographer, artist and just a bohemian party girl, became his new mistress. They met in the cafe "Two capsules". Picasso admired her hands - Dora amused herself by putting her palm on the table and quickly thrusting a knife between her outstretched fingers. Several times she touched the skin, but seemed not to notice the blood and felt no pain. Amazed, Picasso immediately fell head over heels in love.

In addition, Dora was the only one of all the women of Picasso who understood a lot about painting and sincerely admired the paintings of Pablo. It was Dora who created a unique photo essay about creative process Picasso, capturing on camera all the ataps of the creation of the epoch-making canvas "Guernica", dedicated to the town destroyed by the Nazis in the Basque Country.

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

Therefore, the already depressed Picasso preferred to keep his new mistress at a distance. Picasso's house was run by men - his chauffeur Marcel and his institute friend Sabartes, who became the artist's personal secretary. "Those who believed that social life the artist forgot about his young years, then independence, about the joys of friendship, they were deeply mistaken, Brassai wrote. - When problems surrounded 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 settle with him, with him...

It was a cry of despair: the artist was going through the most difficult crisis in his life. And in November, Sabartes arrived and set to work: he began to disassemble Picasso's books and papers, retyping his handwritten poems on a typewriter. Since that time, they have become 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 daubs", Picasso decided to take a chance and stay in Paris. “In the occupied city, life was hard even for Picasso: he could not get gasoline for the car and coal to heat the workshop. Sabartes wrote. - And he, like everyone else, had to adapt to military reality: stand in lines, ride the subway or bus, which rarely ran and were always packed. In the evenings, one could almost always meet him in the hotly heated Cafe de Flor, among friends, where he felt at home, if not better ...

In the "Cafe de Flor" Picasso met Francoise Gilot. He approached her table with a large vase full of cherries and offered to help herself. A conversation ensued. It turned out that the girl quit her studies at the Sorbonne for the sake of painting. For this, her father kicked her out of the house, but Francoise did not lose heart. She earned her living and education by giving riding lessons. "Such beautiful woman cannot be an artist in any way, ”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 washing, then you better go to the museum.

Picasso was very wary of the admirers of his talent. But for Françoise, he made an exception. Brassaï wrote: “Picasso was captivated by Françoise’s small mouth, plump lips, thick hair that framed her face, huge and slightly asymmetrical green eyes, a teenage thin waist and rounded outlines of forms. Picasso was subdued 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 a Seville seducer, he never allowed himself to be enslaved by a woman, freeing himself from her power in creativity. For him love adventure was not an end in itself, but a necessary stimulus for the realization creative possibilities, which were immediately embodied in new paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures.

After the war, Francoise gave birth to Picasso two children: son Claude in 1947 and daughter Paloma in 1949. It seemed that the 70-year-old artist finally found his happiness. What could not be said about his girlfriend, who eventually discovered that all previous women still continue to play a role in Pablo's life. So, if they went to the south of France in the summer, then the rest 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 himself.

As a result, in 1953, Francoise, having taken the children, left the artist. For Picasso it was complete surprise. Francoise stated that she "does not want to spend the rest of her life with a historical monument." This phrase soon became known throughout Paris. Above Picasso, who boasted that "no woman leaves men like him," they began to laugh.

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

Olga died of cancer in 1955, freeing Picasso from the obligations of her marriage contract. The wedding of Jacqueline Rock was played in March 1961. The ceremony was distinguished by modesty - they drank only water, ate soup and chicken left over from yesterday. The further life of the couple, which took place in the estate of Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, was distinguished by the same modesty and solitude. “I refuse to see people,” the artist said to his friend Brassai. -What for? What for? Nobody even worst enemies I wouldn't want that kind of fame. 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. It was to Jacqueline's advantage - she was not going to share her genius with anyone.

Gradually, she subjugated Picasso so much that she decided almost everything for him. At first she quarreled with all his friends, then she managed to convince her husband that her children and grandchildren were just waiting for his death in order to receive an inheritance.
last years
The last years of the artist's biography were remembered by his relatives as a real nightmare. So, 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: “Father holds my hand. Silently we approach the gates of the grandfather's mansion. The father rings the bell. Just like before, I'm afraid. The gatekeeper comes out. "Monsieur Paul, do you have a rendezvous?" “Yes,” mutters the father.

He lets go of my fingers so I don't feel his palm getting wet. “Now I’ll find out if the owner can accept you.” The gates slam shut. It's raining, but we must wait to hear what the owner has to say. As it was last Saturday. Until then, Thursday. We are overcome by guilt. The gates open again, and the watchman drops, averting his eyes: “The owner cannot receive today. Madame Jacqueline asked me to tell you that he was working ... ”When, after several attempts, his father managed to see him, he asked his grandfather for money. I stood in front of my father. My grandfather took out a pack of banknotes, and my father, like a thief, took them. Suddenly Pablo (we couldn't call him "Grandfather") started yelling, "You can't take care of your children by yourself. You can't earn your living! You can't do anything on your own! You will always be mediocre."

A few years later, these trips stopped - Picasso lost all interest in children and grandchildren. However, he also began to treat Jacqueline Roque coldly. “I will die never having loved anyone like that,” he once admitted.

“My grandfather was never interested in the fate of his loved ones. He was only concerned about his work, 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 then nine years old. I fainted from exhaustion. I was taken to the doctor, and the doctor was very surprised that Picasso's granddaughter was in such a state. and wrote him a letter asking him to send me to a 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 that is around it is drawn into the funnel.

And so it happened. His grandson Pablito, despite everything, who retained boundless love for his grandfather, asked to be allowed to attend the funeral, but Jacqueline Rock refused. On the day of the funeral, Pablito drank a vial of decoloran, a bleaching chemical liquid, and burned his insides. “He died a few days later in the hospital,” Marina Picasso recalled. - All I had to do was 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. We were rescued by college comrades. Without saying a word to me, they collected from their pocket money the amount needed for the funeral.”

Two years later, Pablo's son, Paolo, died - he drank heavily, surviving the death of his own son. Marie-Thérèse Walter hanged herself in 1977. 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 dragged 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 opening day of the artist's exhibition in Madrid, she suddenly realized that Picasso had long been gone, 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 its negative value." - liked to repeat Picasso.

The most productive painter in the history of mankind.

He also became the most successful artist, earning more than a billion dollars in his life.

He became the founder of modern avant-garde art, starting his journey with realistic painting, discovering cubism and paying tribute to surrealism.

Great Spanish painter founder of cubism. For my long life(92 years old), the artist created such a huge number of paintings, engravings, sculptures, ceramic miniatures that it cannot be accurately counted. According to various sources, the legacy of Picasso is from 14 to 80 thousand works of art.

Picasso is unique. He is fundamentally alone, because the destiny of a genius is loneliness.

On October 25, 1881, a joyful event happened in the family of Jose Ruiz Blasco and Maria Picasso Lopez. Their firstborn was born, a boy who was named in Spanish tradition long and ornate - Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los Remedios Crispignano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz and Picasso. Or just Pablo.

The pregnancy was difficult - thin Maria could hardly bear the baby. And childbirth and at all have stood out heavy. The boy was born dead...

So thought the doctor, older brother Jose Salvador Ruiz. He took the baby, examined him and immediately realized - a failure. The boy was not breathing. The doctor spanked him, turned him upside down. Nothing helped. Dr. Salvador hinted at the obstetrician to carry away the dead child, and lit a cigarette. A club of bluish cigar smoke enveloped the baby's bluish face. He tensed convulsively and screamed.

A small miracle happened. The stillborn child was alive.

Picasso was born in the house on Malaga's Merced Square, which now houses the artist's house-museum and the foundation that bears his name.

His father was an art teacher at the art school in Malaga and part-time was the curator of the local Art Museum.

Jose after Malaga, having moved with his family to the town of La Coruña, got a place in the school of fine arts, teaching children painting. He also became the first and, perhaps, the main teacher of his brilliant son, giving humanity the very outstanding artist XX century.

We don't know much about Picasso's mother.

It is interesting that mother Mary lived to see her son's triumph.

Three years after the birth of her first child, Maria gave birth to a girl, Lola, and three years later, the youngest Conchita.

Picasso was a very spoiled boy.

He was allowed to do everything positively, but he almost died in the first minutes of his life.

At the age of seven, the boy was sent to a regular high school, but he studied disgustingly. Of course, he learned to read and count, but he wrote poorly and with errors (this remained for the rest of his life). But he was not interested in anything other than drawing. He was kept at school only out of respect for his father.

Even before school, his father began to let him into his workshop. He gave me pencils and paper.

José noted with delight that his son had an innate sense of form. He had a fantastic memory.

At the age of eight, the kid began to draw on his own. What the father did for weeks, the son was able to complete in two hours.

The first painting painted by Pablo has survived to this day. Picasso never parted with this canvas, painted on a small wooden board with his father's paints. This is a Picador from 1889.

Pablo Picasso - "Picador" 1889

In 1894, his father took Pablo out of school and transferred the boy to his lyceum - a school of fine arts in the same La Coruña.

If in a regular school Pablo did not have a single good grade, then at his father's school he did not have a single bad one. He studied not only well but brilliantly.

Barcelona…Catalonia

In 1895, during the summer, the Ruiz family moved to the capital of Catalonia. Pablo was only 13 years old. The father wanted his son to study at the Barcelona Academy of Arts. Pablo, still quite a boy, applied as an applicant. And then he got rejected. Pablo was four years younger than the first-year students. Father had to look for old acquaintances. Out of respect for this honored person, the selection committee of the Barcelona Academy decided to allow the boy to participate in the entrance exams.

In just a week, Pablo painted several paintings and completed the task of the commission - he painted several graphic works in classic style. When he took out and unfolded these sheets in front of professors from painting, the members of the commission were dumbfounded with surprise. The decision was unanimous. The boy is accepted into the Academy. And immediately to the senior course. He did not need to learn to draw - a fully formed professional artist sat in front of the commission.

The name "Pablo Picasso" appeared precisely during the period of study at the Barcelona Academy. Pablo signed his first works with his own name - Ruiz Blesco. But then a problem arose - the young man did not want his paintings to be confused with those of his father Jose Ruiz Blasco. And he took his mother's surname - Picasso. And it was also a tribute and love to mother Mary.

Picasso never talked about his mother. But he loved and respected his mother very much. He painted his father in the image of a doctor in the painting “Knowledge and Mercy”. Portrait of mother - painting "portrait of the artist's mother" in 1896.

But even more interesting is the painting “Lola, sister of Picasso”. It was written in 1899, when Pablo was under the influence of the Impressionists.

In the summer of 1897, changes came in the family of José Ruiz Blasco. An important letter came from Malaga - the authorities decided to reopen the Art Museum and invited an authoritative person, Jose Ruiz, to the position of its director. June 1897. Pablo graduated from the Academy and received a diploma professional artist. And after that, the family moved on.

Picasso did not like Malaga. For him, Malaga was like a provincial creepy hole. He wanted to study. Then at the family council, in which the uncle also participated, it was decided that Pablo would go to Madrid to try to enter the most prestigious art school in the country - the Academy of San Fernando. Uncle Salvador volunteered to finance the education of his nephew.

He entered the San Fernando Academy without much difficulty. Picasso was simply out of competition. At first, he received good money from his uncle. The unwillingness to learn what Pablo already knew without the lessons of professors led to the fact that after a few months, he dropped out. The money from the uncle immediately stopped, and Pablo fell on hard times. He was then 17 years old, and by the spring of 1898 he decided to go to Paris.

Paris surprised him. It became clear that it was necessary to live here. But without money, he could not stay in Paris for a long time and in June 1898 Pablo returned to Barcelona.

Here he managed to rent a small workshop in old Barcelona, ​​painted several paintings and was even able to sell. But it couldn't go on like this for long. And again I wanted to return to Paris. and even convinced his friends, the artists Carlos Casagemas and Jaime Sabartes, to go with him.

In Barcelona, ​​Pablo often dropped in at the Santa Creu Hospital for the Poor, where prostitutes were treated. His friend worked here. Wearing a white coat. Picasso spent hours on inspections, quickly making pencil sketches in a notebook. Subsequently, these sketches will turn into paintings.

In the end, Picasso moved to Paris.

At the Barcelona station, his father saw him off. In parting, the son presented his father with his self-portrait, on which he inscribed “I am the king!” on top.

In Paris, life was poor and hungry. But Picasso had all the museums in Paris at his service. Then he became interested in the work of the Impressionists - Delacroix, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin.

He became interested in the art of the Phoenicians and ancient Egyptians, Japanese engraving and gothic sculpture.

In Paris, he and his friends had a different life. Available women, drunken conversations with friends after midnight, weeks without bread and, most importantly, OPIUM.

The sobering up happened in one moment. One morning he went into the next room where his friend Casagemas lived. Carlos lay on the bed with his arms outstretched. There was a revolver nearby. Carlos was dead. Later it turned out that the cause of suicide was drug withdrawal.

The shock of Picasso was so great that he immediately left the passion for opium and never returned to drugs. The death of a friend turned Picasso's life upside down. After living in Paris for two years, he returned to Barcelona again.

Cheerful, temperamental, seething with cheerful energy, Pablo suddenly turned into a thoughtful melancholic. The death of a friend made me think about the meaning of life. In the self-portrait of 1901, a pale man looks at us with tired eyes. Pictures of this period - everywhere depression, loss of strength, everywhere you see those tired eyes.

Picasso himself called this period blue - "the color of all colors." Against the blue background of death, Picasso paints life with bright colors. Two years spent in Barcelona, ​​he worked at the easel. I almost forgot my youthful trips to brothels.

“Ironer” this painting was painted by Picasso in 1904. Tired fragile woman leaned on the ironing board. Weak thin hands. This picture is a hymn to the hopelessness of life.

He reached the pinnacle of excellence at a very early age. But he continued to search, to experiment. At 25, he was still an aspiring artist.

One of the striking paintings of the "blue period" is "Life" in 1903. Picasso himself did not like this picture, considered it incomplete and found it too similar to the work of El Greco - and yet Pablo did not recognize secondary. The picture shows three times, three periods of life - past, present and future.

In January 1904, Picasso again went to Paris. This time, determined to secure here by any means. And in no case should he return to Spain - until he succeeds in the capital of France.

He was close to his "Pink Period".

One of his Parisian friends was Ambroise Vollard. Having organized the first exhibition of Pablo's works in 1901, this man soon became Picasso's "guardian angel". Vollard was a painting collector and very essentially, a successful art dealer.

Having managed to charm Waller. Picasso secured a sure source of income for himself.

In 1904, Picasso met and became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire.

In the same 1904, Picasso met the first true love of his life - Fernando Olivier.

It is not known what attracted Fernanda in this dense, knocked down, undersized Spaniard (Picasso's height was only 158 centimeters - he was one of the "great shorties"). Their love blossomed rapidly and magnificently. Tall Fernanda was crazy about her Pablo.

Fernanda Olivier became Picasso's first permanent model. Since 1904, he simply could not work if there was no female nature in front of him. Both were 23 years old. They lived easily, cheerfully and very poorly. Fernanda turned out to be a useless housewife. And Picasso could not stand this in his women, and their civil marriage went downhill.

“Girl on a ball” - this picture, painted by Picasso in 1905, experts in painting refer to the transitional period in the artist’s work - between “blue” and “pink”.

During these years, Picasso's favorite place in Paris was the Medrano Circus. He loved the circus. because they are circus performers, people of unfortunate fate, professional wanderers, homeless vagabonds, forced to portray fun all their lives.

Nude figures on the canvases of Picasso in 1906 are calm and even peaceful. They no longer look lonely - the theme of loneliness. anxiety about the future faded into the background.

Several works of 1907, including "Self-Portrait", are made in a special "African" technique. And the experts in the field of painting will call the very time of passion for masks the “African period”. Step by step, Picasso moved towards cubism.

“Avignon girls” - Picasso worked especially concentrated on this picture. For a whole year he kept the canvas under a thick cape, not allowing even Fernanda to look at it.

The picture was of a brothel. In 1907, when everyone saw the picture, a serious scandal erupted. Everyone looked at the picture. The reviewers unanimously declared that Picasso's painting is nothing but a publishing house on art.

At the beginning of 1907, in the midst of the scandal around the "Avignon girls", the artist Georges Braque came to his gallery. Braque and Picasso immediately became friends and took up the theoretical development of cubism. The main idea was to achieve the effect of a three-dimensional image using intersecting planes and constructing geometric shapes using the tool.

This period fell on 1908-1909. The paintings painted by Picasso during this period were still not much different from the same “Avignon Maidens”. For the first paintings in the style of cubism, there were buyers and admirers.

The period of so-called "analytical" cubism fell on 1909-1910. Picasso departed Cezanne's softness of colors. Geometric figures decreased in size, the images took on a chaotic character, and the paintings themselves became more complex.

The final period of the formation of cubism is called "synthetic". It fell on 1911-1917.

By the summer of 1909, Pablo, who was in his thirtieth year, had become rich. It was in 1909 that so much money accumulated that he opened his own bank account, and by autumn he was able to afford both new housing and a new workshop.

Eva-Marcel became the first woman in the life of Picasso, who left him herself, without waiting for the artist himself to leave her. She died of consumption in 1915. With the death of the adored Eva, Picasso lost the ability to work for a long time. The depression lasted for several months.

In 1917, Picasso's social circle expanded - he met amazing person poet and painter Jean Cocteau.

Then Cocteau convinced Picasso to go with him to Italy, Rome, to unwind and forget sadness.

In Rome, Picasso saw the girl and instantly fell in love. It was a Russian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova.

“Portrait of Olga in an armchair” - 1917

In 1918, Picasso proposed. Together they went to Malaga so that Olga met Picasso's parents. Parents gave good. In early February, Pablo and Olga went to Paris. Here, on February 12, 1918, they became husband and wife.

Their marriage lasted a little over a year and cracked. This time the reason was, most likely. in temperature differences. Convinced of her husband's infidelity, they no longer lived together, but still Picasso did not divorce. Olga remained the artist's wife, albeit formally, until her death in 1955.

In 1921, Olga gave birth to a son, who was named Paulo or simply Paul.

Pablo Picasso devoted 12 years of his creative life to surrealism, periodically returning to cubism.

Following the principles of surrealism formulated by Andre Breton, Picasso, however, always went his own way.

"Dance" - 1925

A strong impression is left by the very first painting by Picasso, painted in a surrealist style in 1925 under the influence of the artistic creativity of Breton and his supporters. This is the painting "Dance". In the work that Picasso designated new period in his creative life, a lot of aggression and pain.

It was January 1927. Pablo was already very rich and famous. One day on the banks of the Seine, he saw a girl and fell in love. The girl's name was Marie-Therese Walter. They were separated by a huge difference in age - nineteen years. He rented an apartment for her near his home. And soon he wrote only Marie-Therese.

Maria Theresa Walter

In the summer when Pablo took the family to mediterranean sea, Maria Theresa followed. Pablo settled her next to the house. Picasso asked Olga for a divorce. But Olga refused, because day after day Picasso became even richer.

Picasso managed to buy the castle of Bouagelou for Marie-Therese, in which he actually moved himself.

In the autumn of 1935, Maria Teresa gave birth to his daughter, whom she named Maya.

The girl was registered in the name of an unknown father. Picasso swore that immediately after the divorce he would recognize his daughter, but when Olga died, he never kept his promise.

"Maya with a doll" - 1938

Marie-Therese Walther became the main inspiration. Picasso for several years. It was to her that he dedicated his first sculptures, on which he worked in the castle of Bouagelou during 1930-1934.

"Maria-Therese Walter", 1937

Fascinated by surrealism, Picasso completed his first sculptural compositions in the same surrealist vein.

The Spanish war for Picasso coincided with a personal tragedy - two weeks before it began, mother Maria died. Having buried her, Picasso lost the main thread connecting him with his homeland.

There is a tiny town in the Basque country in northern Spain called Guernica. On May 1, 1937, German aircraft raided this city and practically wiped it off the face of the earth. The news of the death of Guernica shocked the planet. And soon this shock was repeated when a painting by Picasso called “Guernica” appeared at the World Exhibition in Paris.

Guernica, 1937

In terms of the strength of the impact on the viewer, not a single pictorial canvas can be compared with “Guernica”.

In the autumn of 1935, Picasso was sitting at a table in a street cafe in Montmartre. Here he saw Dora Maar. and …

It wasn't long before they ended up in a shared bed. Dora was Serbian. The war separated them.

When the Germans launched their invasion of France, there was a great exodus. Artists, writers and poets moved from Paris to Spain, Portugal, Algeria and America. Not everyone managed to escape, many died ... Picasso did not go anywhere. He was at home and wanted to spit on both Hitler and his Nazis. It's amazing they didn't touch him. It is also surprising that Adolf Hitler himself was a fan of his work.

In 1943, Picasso became close to the communists, and in 1944 he announced that he was joining the French Communist Party. Picasso was awarded the Stalin (in 1950). and then the Lenin Prize (in 1962).

At the end of 1944, Picasso went to the sea, to the south of France. Dora Maar found him in 1945. It turned out she was looking for him throughout the war. Picasso bought her a cozy house here, in the south of France. And he announced that everything was over between them. The disappointment was so great that Dora took Pablo's words as a tragedy. Soon she was tormented by her mind and ended up in psychiatric clinic. There she lived the rest of her days.

In the summer of 1945, Pablo briefly returned to Paris, where he saw Francoise Gilot and immediately fell in love. In 1947, Pablo and Francoise moved to the south of France in Valoris. Soon Pablo learned the good news - Francoise is expecting a baby. In 1949, Picasso's son, Claude, was born. A year later, Francoise gave birth to a girl, who was given the name Paloma.

But Picasso was not Picasso if family relationships lasted a long time. They were already arguing. And suddenly Francoise quietly left, it was the summer of 1953. Because of her departure, Picasso began to feel like an old man.

In 1954, Fate brought Pablo Picasso together with his last companion, who at the end of the great painter would become his wife. It was Jacqueline Rock. Picasso was older than Jacqueline by as much as 47 years. At the time of their acquaintance, she was only 26 years old. He is 73.

Three years after Olga's death, Picasso decided to buy a large castle where he could spend the rest of his days with Jacqueline. He chose Vauvering Castle on the slopes of Mount Saint Victoria, in the south of France.

In 1970, an event took place that became his main reward in these last years. Barcelona city authorities asked the artist for permission to open a museum of his paintings. It was the first Picasso museum. The second - in Paris - opened after his death. In 1985, the Salé Hotel in Paris was turned into the Picasso Museum.

In the last years of his life, he suddenly began to rapidly lose his hearing and vision. Then the memory began to weaken. Then the legs gave out. By the end of 1972, he was completely blind. Jacqueline has always been there. She loved him very much. No moaning, no complaining, no tears.

April 8, 1973 - on this day he died. According to Picasso's will, his ashes were buried next to Woverang Castle...

Source - Wikipedia and Informal Biographies (Nikolai Nadezhdin).

Pablo Picasso - biography, facts, paintings - the great Spanish painter updated: January 16, 2018 by: website

Pablo Ruiz Picasso is one of the most notable figures who had a huge impact on the art of the 20th century. For its long creative career lasting more than 75 years, he created thousands of creations, including not only paintings, but also engravings, scenography, ceramics, mosaics and numerous sculptures made using a variety of materials. He was one of the most revolutionary artists in the history of Western painting. Picasso created and developed in his element with an incredible life force, at an accelerated pace, characteristic of a rapid age. Each direction of his activity was the embodiment of a radically new idea. One gets the feeling that in one fate of the creator, several artistic lives fit at once. The Spanish artist was a central figure in the development of cubism, laid the foundation for the concept of abstract art.

Childhood

Pablo appeared on October 25, 1881 in the Andalusian region of southern Spain. After the birth, the midwife decided that the baby was dead, as the birth was long and difficult. His uncle, a doctor named Salvador, literally saved the newborn by expelling smoke from a cigar in the direction of the baby, who immediately reacted to the smell with a desperate roar. The full name received at baptism contains 23 words. He was named after various saints and relatives.

His father, José Ruiz Blasco, came from an ancient, wealthy family in northwestern Spain. He was a painter, taught at the school of fine arts founded by the Academy of Fine Arts and located in the building of San Telmo, an old Jesuit monastery, and served as a curator at the municipal museum. The School of Arts in Malaga has been operating since 1851. The artist owes his last name to his mother, Maria Picasso Lopez. He actively used it since 1901.

According to tradition, one of the first words spoken was "piz", short for "lápiz", which means "pencil". Pablo loved to draw since childhood. The father completely controlled the art education of his son. He gave him lessons himself and sent him at the age of five to the school where he worked. Being the son of an academic painter and inspired by his work, Pablo began to create with early age. As a child, his father often took him to bullfights, and one of his early paintings contained a bullfighting scene.

In 1891, his father received a teaching position at an institute in A Coruña, and in 1892 Pablo entered the same educational institution as a student. For three years he received a classical art education. Under the academic guidance of his father, he developed his artistic talent at an extraordinary rate.

years of education

In January 1895, when Picasso was a teenager, his younger sister Conchita died of diphtheria. This tragic event affected the plans of the family. By the same period, Juan was hired as a teacher in art academy in La Longe and the family moves. His father contributed to Pablo's independence by renting a studio for him in Barcelona.

A year later, he was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He demonstrated his remarkable ability by completing in one day the entrance examination, which was allotted a whole month, despite being younger than officially required for training. At financial assistance Pablo sent his relatives to Madrid to study at the end of 1897. However, Pablo was bored with classical tricks. art school. He did not want to paint like the artists of the past, but wanted to create something new. Returning in 1900 to Barcelona, ​​he often visited the famous cafe, focused on meetings of the intelligentsia and artists "Four Cats". His visit to Horta de Ebro between 1898 and 1899 and his association with a group in a cafe in 1899 were decisive for the early artistic development. It was in Barcelona that he moved away from the traditional classical methods, leaning towards an experimental and innovative approach to painting. In this literary and artistic environment, many adherents of modern french art from France, as well as Catalan traditional and folk art. There is a myth that the father was so impressed with his son's abilities that in 1894 he swore off drawing himself, but in fact, José continued to paint until his death. Picasso's relationship with his parents became strained when he stopped his studies. In a cafe, he became friends with the young Catalan painter Carlos Casajemas, with whom he later moved to France.

In 1900, the first exhibition of Picasso took place in Barcelona, ​​and in the autumn he went to Paris.

Parisian period

At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris was the center of international artistic world. For painters, it was the birthplace of the Impressionists, who depicted the world around them with brushstrokes or strokes of unmixed colors to create a sense of real reflected light. Although their work retained certain connections with the outside world, there were certain tendencies towards abstractionism. After leaving Spain, Picasso presented his painting "Last Moments" at the World Exhibition in Paris.

However, the trip to the capital of art was overshadowed. A friend of the artist became depressed because of an unhappy and painful love story with a dancer from the Moulin Rouge. They decided to spend their holidays in Picasso's hometown, but this was not to be. Carlos committed suicide by gunshot to the temple. Pablo was so crushed by this loss that it could not but affect his work. He paints several portraits of a friend in a coffin. Picasso comes to blue period”of his work, during which longing and depression shine through canvases abounding in blue tones. For the next four years, his paintings were dominated by Blue colour. He painted people with elongated features. Some of his paintings from this period depicted the poor, beggars, sad and gloomy people.

Two outstanding examples of Picasso's "blue period" work:

• "Old Guitarist";
• "A beggar old man with a boy";
• "Life";
• "Woman with a bun of hair."

In 1902, two exhibitions of the artist were organized. Nevertheless, he lives and works practically destitute in Max Jakob's room. From a deep depression over the death of a close friend Carlos Casajemas helped out love story with Fernanda Olivier, who was at first his model. He fell in love with a French woman and lived with her until 1912. The paintings began to fill with warmer colors, including shades of red, beige, orange. Art historians call this time in Pablo's life the "pink period". The plots presented images of happier scenes, among which there was a circus theme.

Picasso acquired a permanent Parisian studio in 1904. His studio soon became a meeting place for artists and writers of the city. Soon the circle of friends included the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Leo and Gertrude Stein, André Salmo, two agents: Ambroise Vollard and Berthe Weill.

From 1905 he became more and more interested in visual techniques. This interest appears to have been aroused by late paintings Paul Cezanne.

Between 1900 and 1906 he tried almost every major style of painting. At the same time, his own style changed with extraordinary speed. The Steins introduce him to Henri Matisse. The portrait of Gertrude Stein began a series of experiments in portrait abstraction, inspired by Iberian sculpture, whose exhibition Picasso visited at the Louvre in the spring of 1906.

Picasso and cubism

The Maidens of Avignon was Picasso's attempt to forget his past relationship. Executed in a new revolutionary manner, under the influence of the art of Cezanne and Negro, the painting became the founder of the nascent pictorial movement, of which Picasso is considered the parent.

Together with the painter and friend Georges Braque, in 1907 he began his pictorial experiments. Cubism was a new artistic concept of the artist, through which Pablo tried to challenge the generally accepted laws of copying nature. Objects are laid down on the canvas by cutting and breaking the objects to emphasize the two dimensions of the canvas.

Between 1907 and 1911, Picasso continued to decompose the visible world into smaller facets of monochrome planes. At the same time, his work became more and more abstract. Most vivid examples illustrating the development of the trend are canvases: "Fruit Plate" (1909), "Portrait of Ambroise Vollard" (1910) and "Woman with a Guitar" (1911-12). In 1912, Picasso began to combine cubism and collage. It was during this period that he began using sand or plaster in his paint to give it texture. He also applied colored paper, newspapers and wallpapers to give the canvases additional expressiveness.

Russian wife of Picasso

Picasso's collaboration with ballet directors and theatrical productions Picasso started in 1916. Designed and realized sets and costumes for Diaghilev's ballets amazed the audience from 1917 to 1924. Thanks to his work with the Russian Ballet of Diaghilev, Pablo meets the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, who becomes his wife. They lived together for 18 years, during which their son Paulo was born in 1921. In the 1920s, the artist and his wife Olga continued to live in Paris, traveling frequently and spending their summers on the beach. Due to Picasso having an affair with a young Frenchwoman on the side, which led to pregnancy and the birth of an illegitimate child, the family broke up. The wife broke off relations and left for the south of France. The divorce did not happen, and Olga remained the artist's wife until the end of her days due to Pablo's unwillingness to comply with the terms of the marriage contract.

New achievements

In several stages, Picasso turned away from abstraction and saw the light of day a succession of paintings in a realistic and serenely beautiful classical style. One of the most famous works became The Woman in White. Written just two years after The Three Musicians, calm and not attracting too much attention to itself with outrageousness, once again demonstrated the ease with which he could express himself.

After a short appeal to classicism, the master became known for his surrealist works, which replaced cubism.

Between 1925 and the 1930s he was to some extent associated with the Surrealists, and from the autumn of 1931 he was especially interested in sculpture. In 1932, in connection with major exhibitions at the Georges Petit galleries in Paris and the Arts House in Zurich, Picasso's fame increased markedly. By 1936, the Spanish Civil War had a profound effect on Picasso, culminating in his most famous painting. "Guernica" is an allegorical condemnation of fascism, a powerful image depicting the realities of war and its consequences.

This work was commissioned by the government for the Spanish pavilion before the Paris World's Fair. It depicts the catastrophic destruction in the city during the civil uprising. The work was completed within six or seven weeks. Finished entirely in black, white and gray color, 25 feet wide and 11 feet high, the painting serves as the quintessence of the pain and suffering of the people from cruelty. Picasso applied the pictorial language of Cubism to a situation that emerged from social and political consciousness.

Political views of Picasso

Picasso publicly declared in 1947 that he was a communist. When asked about his motives, he stated: “When I was a boy in Spain, I was very poor and aware of how poor people live. I learned that the communists are focused on the needs of the poor. That's why I became a communist." After the death of Joseph Stalin, the French communists turned to the artist with a request to paint a party leader. His portrait caused a buzz in the leadership communist party. The Soviet government rejected his portrait.

Although Picasso was in exile from his native Spain after the 1939 victory of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, he gave more than eight hundred of his early works to Barcelona. But due to Franco's dislike, his name never appeared in the museum. Among huge amount exhibitions of Picasso, which were held during the life of the artist, the most significant were the expositions in New York and Paris.

In 1961, Pablo married Jacqueline Roque and they moved to Mougins. There Picasso continued his fruitful work, which did not stop until the end of his days. One of latest works was a self-portrait, done in pencil on paper, "Self-Portrait Facing Death." He died a year later at the age of 91 in his thirty-five-room villa on the hill of Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins on April 8, 1973.

Pablo Picasso - great Spanish artist, cubist, sculptor, artist, remembered for the unique style of his paintings and trendsetter in the subsequent fashion for art. Full name of this brilliant artist- Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Ruiz.

Picasso worked very hard and, in tandem with George Braque, founded the so-called style of painting -. There is no doubt that he had a considerable influence on all the art that followed him, since he still has many imitators and students who follow his work.

The most early picture Pablo Picasso - Picadora, which was painted at the age of 8. He learned to draw Picasso from his father, who was an art teacher. Then he studied at various art schools, among which were such as: the school of fine arts in Barcelona, ​​the school in A Coruña. The first exhibition of works took place in Barcelona in June 1989, in the cafe "Els Quatre Gats". Pablo met with the work of the Impressionists later, after he left for Paris. Already here, after suicide best friend and due to some depression in his life, a period occurs, which later all the art critics of the world will call " blue period". This style will develop already in Barcelona, ​​when the artist returns. This period in the life of Picasso's paintings is characterized by despondency, the expression of death and old age, depression, melancholy, sadness. Works that belong to the blue period are Absinthe Drinker, Date, Beggar old man with a boy. It was also called blue because of the predominance of blue shades in the paintings of this period.

In 1904, when the great Spanish artist settles in Paris in a hostel for poor artists, the blue period gives way to pink, in which mourning and images of death give way to more vital scenes from the theater, stories of the life of itinerant comedians, the life of actors and acrobats. Pink shades prevailed in his paintings, which is why they got the name “pink period”.

As mentioned earlier with George Braque, somewhere around 1907 he becomes the founder of Cubism due to the fact that he moved in his work from the image to the analysis of form and components. Cubism in all its manner rejected naturalism and, according to many art historians, was inspired by Pablo Picasso as a result of his passion for African sculpture, which is distinguished by its angularity, grotesque advancement of forms, and characteristic ornament. African sculpture generally influenced many trends in fine art, for example, in addition to Picasso, it helped Matisse create Fauvism.

In 1925, pink and cheerful paintings were replaced by the most difficult and difficult period in the artist's life. Cubism develops into absolutely surreal and surreal images. His monsters and creatures, screaming and torn to pieces, are inspired by the revolution of surrealism that broke out then in painting and literature. Then there was the fear of, which hung over the whole of Europe, which also had an impact on the work of Pablo: Fishing at night in Antibes, Maya and her doll, Guernica. FROM last picture, which depicts the horrors of war, is connected by one famous history. Once a Nazi officer, seeing a photograph of Guernica, asked Picasso: “Did you do this?” To which he replied: “You did this!”.

After the war, a new mood takes possession of him, as a series of pleasant events: love for Francoise Gilot, the birth of two children, gives him a happy and bright period in his work, inhabited by life, family, happiness.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso died in 1973 at his villa in France. The great artist was buried near the castle, which belonged to him personally and was called Vovenart.

Pablo Picasso paintings

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1. Pablo Picasso began to get involved in drawing with 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. By Spanish tradition Pablo received two surnames from the first surnames of his parents: his father - Ruiz and his mother - Picasso. His full name, received at baptism, sounds like Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martir Patricio Ruiz and Picasso.

3. The term “Cubism”, which was founded by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, was introduced by the art historian and art critic Louis Vauxcelles. In one of his articles, he noted that the work of Picasso and Georges Braque is full of "fancy cubes".

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

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

6. Picasso was accepted into the La Longha 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 Guernica, he asked the artist if he had taken it. Picasso replied: "No, you did it."

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

9. Picasso's name has been used on several commercial products, including a car (Citroen Xsara Picasso), perfume (Cognac Hennessy Picasso), and lighters (ST Dupont Picasso). The heirs of Picasso are constantly fighting over the laws of intellectual property relating to his name.

"Avignon Girls"

10. From 1917 to 1924, Picasso designed curtains, sets and costumes for several ballets. While his work was poorly received at the time, they are now considered symbols of progress in the 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, who was smoking a large cigar, approached him and exhaled the smoke from the cigar into the baby's face. Picasso immediately reacted with a grimace and crying.

12. Picasso once remarked: "Good artists copy, great artists steal." This phrase has become famous saying artist.

13. Pablo Picasso tops the list of artists whose paintings are most sought after by thieves based on stolen paintings by London's Art Loss Register.

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

"Algerian Women (Version O)"

15. 2015 at the auction "Christie" was set a new absolute record for works of art sold at public auction - painting by Pablo Picasso "Algerian women (version O)".

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

17. Pablo's second wife was Jacqueline Rock; their marriage lasted 11 years. Pablo Picasso first saw Jacqueline in 1953 when she was 26 and he was 72. Every day he gave her one rose, until six months later, Jacqueline agreed to meet with 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 by Françoise Gilot.

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

20. According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, Picasso is one of the most prolific artists in the world. During his 78-year career, he created over 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints, 34,000 book illustrations, 300 ceramic and sculptural works - in total 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. The mistress and her two children (Claude and Paloma), even before Pablo's death, unsuccessfully tried to challenge his will on the grounds that Picasso was mentally ill. In the end, the parties agreed on the creation of the Picasso Museum in Paris, which was opened in 1985.

"Still life with fruit on the table"

22. Since the artist’s burial took place on a private property 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 secretly dating her. The artist's marriage to his first wife ended in separation rather than divorce, as French law required an even division of property in the event of a divorce, and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to receive half of her wealth. Marie-Therese 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 as a child Pablo was baptized in catholic church later he became an atheist.

25. As of 2012, the world's largest register of lost works of art (Art Loss Register (ALR)), 1,147 works by Pablo Picasso are listed as stolen.

Pablo Picasso