Pablo Picasso

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Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso birth occurred in Malaga, Spain to Jose Ruiz and Maria Picasso. His father first introduced him to art and allowed him to finish up his portraits for him, in 1891; Picasso's father secured a job at a college in La Coruña town. Here, his father taught him ornamental drawing .He supplemented this with figure-drawing and landscape-painting. At 14, he painted and drew portraits of the people in and out his life.

In 1895, they relocated to Barcelona where Picasso did extremely well in the entry test for senior courses on still-life accompanied by classical art. His skills with the brush shocked the examiners. Picasso painted ambitious portraits with his acquaintance, Manuel Pallarés with whom they shared a studio. His first works "First Communion" and others were marked by sharp lines with tonal modeling. This would later earn him a gold medal at Exposición de Bellas Artes in 1897; Picasso proceeded to San Fernando Academy in Madrid.

He rarely attended classes but instead learnt from master paintings of other artists such as Velázquez and El Greco. This overwhelmed him greatly. Picasso went with his buddy Pallarés back to their village, Horta de Ebro. Here he stayed for eight whole months. Later, he would say: "Everything I know, I learned in Pallarés's village."(Richardson 34) For the duration of his stay he came across new material to paint.

On returning to Barcelona1899, he started frequenting Els Quatre Gats,a favorite café for the Catalan modernists. Symbolism was the order of the day among this group and Picasso was also influenced. Picasso struck friendship with painter Carles Casagemas and Jaime Sabartés,a poet. In 1900, Picasso showcased 150 drawings, a majority portrait here. This was a challenge to older artists; however, Picasso's talent could not be disputed as a good number of his drawings were published alongside one painting. For example, "Last Moments," was favorite for Exposition Universelle held in Paris (Cowling, Elizabeth 56).

He and Casagemas left for Paris and this filled him with a sense of insurgency. Here he established himself in Montmartre, where he sold works to several dealers. For example Mañach provided him with a standard income which he paid for with his paintings. When Casagemas killed himself , Picasso painted the Death of Casagemas followed by "Evocation: The Burial of Casagemas", that had in it allusions to El Greco his other friend (Cowling,Elizabeth 67).

Picasso based his painting in what he had seen in Paris. His desired subject matter throughout this time was women for example those exhibited in "Lady in Blue." own sake, and yet link it to the depicted subject. During this time Picasso had not found his style and thus his paintings resembled the styles of Munch, a painter influential to him then. It at this time that he began signing his