PABLO PICASSO

People consider Pablo Picasso to be one of the most famous painters in the twentieth century. He was born in Malaga, Spain on October 20, 1881. In addition to painting, Picasso was also a ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright. He spent most of his adult life in France.

Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. According to his mother, his first words were "piz, piz", a shortening of lápiz, the Spanish word for "pencil". From the age of seven, Picasso received artistic training from his father – who was an art teacher – in drawing and oil painting. When Pablo was ten years old, the family moved to Barcelona, Spain, where Pablo took an exam to enter a famous and prestigious art school, called La Llonga. It was a one-month exam, but Pablo finished it in one day!

One day, his father found Pablo painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon. His father saw the perfection in his technique and felt that the thirteen-year-old Picasso was better than him. So, he gave up painting.

Picasso later moved to Paris. There he worked as an artist creating and exhibiting his drawings. During this time, he created his famous “Blue Period” works. They were called this because the colour blue dominated these works.

Picasso grew up to become one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He founded the Cubist movement with a colleague named George Braque. He invented new artistic styles in painting and sculpture.

Picasso was married twice and had four children, Paulo, Maya, Claude and Paloma. He died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. He was buried at the Chateau of Vauvenargues, a property he had bought in 1958 and lived with Jacqueline between 1959 and 1962. Jacqueline Roque prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral. Devastated and lonely after the death of Picasso, Jacqueline Roque committed suicide in 1986 when she was 59 years old.