Pablo Picasso - Biography, Shows, Articles & More | Artsy (2024)

FAQs

What did Picasso died from? ›

Pablo Picasso, died in the south of France yesterday. He was 91 and had been ill for some weeks. A doctor called from the small village of Mougins, near Cannes, early in the morning said: “It was already too late when I arrived.” The cause of death was given as lung congestion.

Born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881, Picasso studied art briefly in Madrid in 1897, then in Barcelona in 1899, where he became closely associated with a group of modernist poets, writers, and artists who gathered at the café Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), including the Catalan Carlos Casagemas (1880–1901).

But even the lowest price for the top 100 works by the artist sold at auction is a whopping $17 million, according to the Artnet Price Database. In 2021 alone, a peak year for auctions, sales of Picasso's paintings reached nearly $532 million for just 60 works sold, an average of about $8.8 million per work.

Picasso was infamous for his love affairs

It's no secret that Picasso has had a string of romantic entanglements with several women throughout his life, with four children fathered by three different women. He was married to former ballerina Olga Khokhlova for 10 years.

Picasso had strabismus, a condition in which the visual axes of the eyes are not parallel, and the eyes appear to be looking in different directions. The misalignment means that two different images are sent to the brain—one from each eye.

A court-appointed auditor who evaluated Picasso's assets after his death said that he was worth between $100-$250 million (about $530 million to $1.3 billion today, after adjusting for inflation). In addition to his art, his heirs were fighting over the rights to license his image rights.

Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque (24 February 1927 – 15 October 1986) was the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 12 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso's other lovers.

Pablo Ruiz was born in Malaga on 25 October 1881, the son of an art teacher. He later adopted his mother's maiden name of Picasso. He grew up in Barcelona, showing artistic talent at an early age. In the early 1900s, he moved between France and Spain before finally settling in Paris in 1904.

Picasso's early work can be categorized into four periods: The Blue Period (1901-1904), the Rose Period (1905-1907), the African-influenced Period (1908-1909) and Cubism (1909-1919). The Blue Period consists of somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green.

What was Picasso's greatest work? ›

“Guernica” is not only Picasso's best-known work, it's one of the most famous (and Google-searched) paintings in the world. Its depiction of an aerial bombing raid on the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, was an eerie visual prelude to the coming atrocities of World War II.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France.

Picasso's culinary tastes were a lot more down-to-earth. 'Olga loves cakes and caviar,' he said of his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. 'I love Catalan sausage and beans. ' He ate simply throughout his life – fresh fish, a little wine, lots of fruit and veg - no wonder he lived to the grand old age of 91.

Pablo Picasso was one of the most famous and influential artists of the 20th century. Originally from Spain, Picasso spent most of his life in France, where he created some of his most renowned artworks including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Girl Before a Mirror, and Le Reve.