Pablo Picasso - Artist Biography with Portfolio of Prints, Posters and Paintings

Pablo Picasso

Picasso is also amongst the most studied artist with his paintings categorised into several key periods of his career, such as the Blue Period, the Rose Period, and times of Cubism, Surrealism and also African-inspired spells. There is an exciting Picasso Tate Exhibition running right now! Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881. He attended the Barcelona School of Fine arts in 1895 after his family had moved to the city, and went on to study, aged just 16, at the Madrid Academy in 1897. Picasso settled in Paris during 1901 and remained there until 1946, when he moved to the South of France where he lived until his death in 1973. Picasso had a tremendous influence on art in the 20th century, and as he evolved, changed and progressed as an artist, he went through many different periods of style.

Picasso’s first distinct style is known as his Blue Period, which dates 1900 to 1904, during which time he painted using a limited palette of blues and greys. His subjects were sombre and often detached, and he captured images of beggars, prostitutes, the frail, blind and poor. Picasso had experienced the dramatic death of his younger sister, the suicide of his good friend Carlos Casagemas, and was living in poverty, all of which made him utterly depressed which shows clearly in his work. He was also influenced by Henri Matisse, who was exhibiting at that time. The Old Guitarist, painted in 1903, shows Picasso’s understanding and sympathies of those downtrodden by their circumstances. An early painting by Picasso, Blue Nude 1902, is a simple painting but it expresses despair and great sadness in the angle of the figure and the choice of colour.

Picasso’s Rose Period, from 1904 to 1906, is signified by more cheerful paintings capturing circus performers, clowns and actors in pinks, reds and orange tones. The artist achieved some fame in these years, and met a lover, Fernande Olivier, which took him out of his depression and his penniless existence. The Boy With a Pipe was created during this period, and shows an unknown young man with a garland of flowers in his hair. Although the boy has a hard glare, the overall feeling of the composition is comfortable and peaceful.

From 1907 to 1909, Picasso entered his African Period, also known as his Negro Period, where the human form is painted flatter and more vibrantly coloured than previously. Influences came from African sculptures, and from Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne. A very famous masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, was painted during this period; it is of five nude women with splintered faces reminiscent of African masks. Early signs of Cubism can be seen in the work, as features become simplified and angular. When Picasso revealed this work to the art world, it created shock waves. All previous thoughts on form, perspective and representation where forgotten, new boundaries were set, and the painting became known as the most innovative work of the modern world.

The flattening of form is taken further in Picasso’s Cubism Period, 1909 to 1912. Cubism reduces form to basic geometric shapes, and is attributed to both Picasso and Georges Braque. Colours are strong and flat, and abstract is used with only a few hints of recognisable imagery hinting at the real world. Woman with Mandolin, 1910, is quite a difficult painting to decipher, but this is Cubism at its most extreme. Picasso also introduced collage into his work, and objects such as newspapers and food wrapping can be seen stuck onto canvases in places. During 1917 Picasso visited Italy and he became inspired by Raphael and Ingres. One year later Picasso married and his life became a little more ordered. His work returned to a more traditional form and is known as Picasso’s Classicist Period. From 1928 he moved somewhat towards Surrealism as well. Arguably his most famous painting, Guernica, was created in this period. The powerful, anti war painting has influences of Cubism, Classicism and Surrealism combined. There are also some collage elements present too.

In his later years, Picasso became more and more prolific. He joined the Communist Movement and his work became more political at times. He became bolder and more colourful, and he experimented with different media. Picasso began to be more confident in sculpture and produced The She Goat in 1950, a life-size bronze which was cast with everyday objects like a basket, flower pot and leaves. He also created a 50-foot sculpture in the Cubist style in Chicago in 1967. Even though he was commissioned to make it, Picasso refused payment and donated it the people of Chicago. He produced a large number of copper etchings from 1968 to 1971, and Picasso also worked in gold in his octogenarian years. In Picasso's final years he painted hundreds of pieces, meticulously dating each one almost like a diary of his last days on earth. These are simple, sometimes childish works that often stare death in the face. At the time much of this work was dismissed as the desperate art of an ageing man, but as the years have passed, they are now being recognised as Neo-expressionism pieces. It seems Picasso’s late modernistic style was ahead of its time.

Picasso lived for 91 years and created more than 13,000 paintings, 1200 sculptures and 130,000 illustrations, engravings and prints in his lifetime. He is known as the father of modern art, and his eccentric lifestyle, free spirit and boldness will live on in the art world forever. Mediterranean Landscape is a stylish Cubist landscape painting by Picasso which combined traditional topics of study with a very contemporary style of painting. Mediterranean Landscape hosts some very bright colours and interesting detail making it a very popular choice for both academics and also those looking to buy Picasso reproductions for their own home.

Picasso was a naturally talented artist and innovative thinker who achieved success with many different art mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics to name just the most common in which he was involved. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is a colourful Cubist depiction of five women by Picasso during a prolific period in his career. It ranks alongside Mediterranean Landscape amongst his best respected Cubist works and matches the former's exciting colour balances too. You may notice the bowl of fruit at the bottom of the painting which is a very popular topic amongst many artist's works from all different art movements. Guernica was Picasso's most famous political painting and placed him firmly in the anti-war camp during a turbulent time in Spanish history. Picasso used this painting to try to underline the horrors of war with graphic depictions styled within his cubist style.

The print covers the devastation of an area left in pieces from a prolongued attack, with the artist trying to include detail of each and every object ruined by it. Three Musicians is a charming Picasso work that centres on carefully chosen colours which make this one of his brightest paintings from the whole of his career. It features three musicians stood side-by-side in a cubist style of which Picasso is very famous for, even though his career actually included many other styles as he progressed through his life and took on more experiences and influences. The Blue Nude wall poster shown here is a worthy inclusion within this homepage's selection of the ten best Picasso paintings because it's style is somewhat different to any others included here, and is also an interesting work in it's own right. Nude portraits have been popular within many artist's careers and Picasso is no different to that.

Rest features a closeup of a sleeping women with Picasso's typical abstract style which in this case used very few brushstrokes and only a handful of colours, but still managed to depict the subject accurately because of the skills of the artist which were considerable right from an early age when his father had encouraged him to paint. Dog is the best known sketch by Picasso and as popular as Mediterranean Landscape for reproductions. It is a much simpler alternative, which would suit a different taste and interior. It is one of several simple sketches which are amongst Picasso's bestworks, with Owl, Le Pingouin and Camel amongst the others. The beauty of these sketches were how the artis could comfortably depict the animal or bird with just a few quick lines. Each would have charm in their simplicity, which is a sign of Picasso's genius.

Owl is another example of Picasso's sketching skills and is a good alternative to Dog. It can be described as certainly more abstract than the other well known sketches from his career but is still clear as to what it is of. It is incredible to think that some of Picasso's most famous prints could literally take him just a few minutes at a time, though there is likely to have been some careful thinking and planning before commencing each work in order to abstract the creature in the right way, as well as identifying the clear features of each. The Penguin is another from a series of simple drawings by Picasso which have achieved great popularity. Penguins often have a popular appeal to animal lovers who find they have a charming character and unique makeup, so this Picasso print was always likely to prove popular, particularly when combined with the artist's inherent ability to create identifiable forms with very few strokes of his pencil or pen.

Following on from The Penguin, Picasso's Camel is another classic sketch from his career, with the curves of the Camel offering an opportunity in this work that makes it a little different from his other notable drawings such as Dog, Le Pingouin and Owl as featured earlier in this page. The style of Picasso's contemporary paintings make them very flexible with regards reproductions which are available to buy from several places online who have acquired permission to his paintings. The originals can be suited to both framed and unframed art prints, with giclees best for any with large amounts of colour. Stretched canvases can also be popular as well. Pablo Picasso has established himself as one of the most popular artists online because of a number of different reasons, namely the qualities of his work, the variety of styles in which he was involved, and also the contemporary nature of most of it which attracts a younger crowd of interest who are more likely to be frequent internet users.

It is art movements such as Cubism, Abstraction and Impressionism which have most most exposure online even though academically speaking, the Renaissance and Baroque traditional art periods are perhaps more respected. PabloPicasso.net covers the career of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. PabloPicasso.net covers all of these eras in detail and offers many of his best paintings and sketches to buy as art prints online from our recommended retailer, Art.com. The homepage features ten of his most popular prints, with a further Picasso gallery bringing many more.

List of Famous Pablo Picasso Paintings and Sculptures

You can find here a list of specific artworks chosen for the Google profile of the artist, as highlights of his career.

• Mediterranean Landscape
• Dog
• Owl
• Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
• Guernica
• Three Musicians
• Blue Nude
• Rest
• The Penguin
• Camel
• Old Guitarist
• Weeping Woman
• Dora Maar au Chat
• Femme aux Bras Croises
• Girl Before a Mirror
• Jacqueline
• Nude, Green Leaves and Bust
• Seated Woman
• Don Quixote
• Garcon a la Pipe
• Head of a Woman
• Le Reve
• Portrait of Ambroise Vollard
• Family of Saltimbanques
• The Accordionist
• Maya with Doll
• Massacre in Korea
• Les Noces de Pierrette
• Boy Leading a Horse
• Woman in Hat and Fur Collar
• Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto
• La Vie
• Chicago Picasso (sculpture)
• Sylvette
• Jeune Fille Endormie
• La Lecture
• The Charnel House
• Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois
• Ma Jolie
• Reading the Letter
• Nude in a Black Armchair
• Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
• Baboon and Young (sculpture)
• Fruit Dish
• The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
• Minotauromachy
• Bather with Beach Ball
• Girl with a Mandolin
• Head of a Woman Fernande (sculpture)
• Three Women at the Spring
• Mother and Child
• Two Nudes
• The Blue Room
• Studio with Plaster Head
• Portrait of Sylvette David

List of Other Pablo Picasso Paintings

For those interested in finding more Picasso prints than those featured in this homepage, please seee further ones listed below:

• Dog
• Mediterranean Landscape
• Owl
• Blue Nude
• Guernica
• Three Musicians
• Penguin
• Camel
• Evening Flowers
• Lesson
• Rooster
• Femme
• Petite Fleurs
• Don Quixote
• Butterfly
• Horse
• Head of a Woman
• Dance of Youth
• Dove of Peace
• Old Guitarist
• Mouse
• Cote d'Azur
• Maternity
• Cat
• Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
• Visage de la Paix
• Dream
• War and Peace
• Bullfight III
• Drawing
• Girl Before a Mirror
• Le Moineau
• Kitchen
• Tete d'une Femme Lisant
• Squirrel
• Corrida
• Bull with Bullfighter
• La Sauterelle
• Mother and Child
• L'Amitie
• Femme au Chapeau Orne
• Cat and Crab on the Beach
• Toros y Toreros