Painter Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on 25 October 1881 in No. 36 Plaza de la Merced, Malaga, Andalusia.
Picasso’s father taught drawing and painting in the ‘Escuela de San Telmo’.
In 1891 Pablo Picasso made his first real attempts at painting. As the dust-cover of ‘Picasso’ by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim puts it: “Picasso was painting pictures which attracted attention at an age when his friends were playing marbles.”
In 1896 Picasso rented his first studio—in the Calle de la Plaza in Barcelona.
The next few years were mixed ones for Picasso. His painting ‘Science and Charity’ won an honourable mention. ‘Customs of Aragon’ was awarded medals, and Picasso held his first exhibition in Barcelona. He had also, however, caught scarlet fever.
At this stage, around the turn of the century Picasso was particularly influenced by Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec, and El Greco.
1900 saw commercial recognition when Pablo Picasso signed a contract with art-dealer Petrus Manach. Picasso was to receive 150 francs a month for everything he painted.
In 1901 the painter started signing his works just Picasso rather than Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He had his first Parisian exhibition through which he first made the acquaintance of Max Jacob and critic Gustave Cocquiot.
All the time, in early 1900s, Picasso had been dotting about between Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, but in 1904 he settled in Paris for a few years. He became fond of the circus world and mixed in the world of artistes.
1907 saw Picasso complete ‘The Young Ladies of Avignon’.
In 1917 Picasso was trying to move away from Cubism and transform himself again. When Jean Cocteau asked him if he would work for the Russian Ballet and Diaghilev, Picassso immediately agreed. He went to Rome and met Stravinsky and ballerina Olga Koklova, who was to become his wife the following year. In 1921 his son Paul was born.
In 1935 Picasso seperated from Olga—divorce proceedings were begun but came to nothing. His daughter Maia was born—her mother was Marie Therese Walter.
In 1936 The Spanish Civil War broke out. Picasso sided with the Republicans, and in 1937 he painted ‘Guernica’ which was commissioned for the Spanish pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris.
Guernica is a powerful expression of horror at war in general, and the bombing of the eponymous Basque town in particular. After the liberation of Paris, Picasso joined the Communist Party. A year later Francoise Gilot became his companion. and in 1947 another son, Claude, was born.
In 1949 his daughter Paloma was born, and in 1955 his wife Olga Koklova died. Two years later he had a new companion, Jacqueline Rocque.
Picasso died in 1973.
