There are always some kind of paintings in our house. It shows we may not be a die heart fan of art but still we hate it. Every art lover would be aware of the name Pablo Picasso. Spanish born artist is one of the most influential artist of 20^th century. Although he was born in Spain but he spent more than half of his adulthood in France. Pablo started painting at a very young age. He was also a sculptor, poet, stage designer, and printmaker. To explore more about the incredible career of Spanish artist. Let’s read on these amazing Pablo Picasso facts.

Picasso Drawings

Birth Date

Pablo was born in Malaga, Spain. His date of birth is 25 October, 1881. You will be amazed to read that Pablo had twenty three middle names. All these names came from a series of saints and priests. After baptized his full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

He Adopted His Mother Surname

Pablo adopted his mother’s surname “Picasso”. The name of her mother was Maria Picasso Y Lopez. The artist adopt the name because he thought that it is more resonant and also because it suits him. His full name is 103 characters long.

Pablo’s Birth Was Challenging for His Mother

After Pablo’s birth the nurses thought that he is an abortive child so they left him alone. Her mother also considered him stillborn. Pablo’s uncle who was a doctor, noticed that the baby is not dead. Although Pablo was weak and small. But doctor took him in intense care thus saved his life.

Art Was In His Blood

You will be surprised to know that even Pablo’s first words were related to art. According to her mother, his first words were “Piz, Piz”. “Piz” is short form of Lapis, a Spanish word meaning pencil.

Picasso Suffered Learning Inability

Pablo was not so good at school. He had a learning inability know as dyslexia. In this problem, sufferer’s brain flip words due to which reading becomes extremely hard. Pablo faced many challenges in early school days. But he didn’t feel shy to tell her parents about his passion for arts.

Pablo’s Father Was Also an Artist

Being an artist, Pablo’s’ father, José Ruiz y Blasco, introduced him to art when he was seven years old. José was an art teacher. His specialization was in pigeons, landscapes and still life.

First Picasso Drawing

Pablo Picasso was 9 years old when he finished his first painting “Le Picador”. The painting depicted the scenario of a bull fight and a man riding a horse.

Picasso Took Admission in Arts School

Pablo Picasso was 13 years old when he took admission in School Of Fine Arts. Pablo’s father persuaded the school administration to take an exam to promote Picasso to advance course. Both Pablo’s father and officials were shocked after seeing that Picasso completed the exam in just one week. While average students took at least a month to complete it.

Picasso’s Father Quit Arts

Pablo’s father became so overwhelmed that he decided to quit arts. He thought his son had surpassed him in painting.

Picasso’s First Exhibition

Pablo was 13 years old when he held his first small exhibition. He displayed his work at the back of an umbrella shop because he had no studio then.

In 1896, when Picasso was 15 years old he made his first oil painting and named it “First Communion”. The drawing became very famous and exhibited at an exhibition in Barcelona.

Pablo Grew Up In Barcelona

Pablo’s youngest sister, Conchita, was seven years old when she died of Diphtheria. Pablo was in traumatized condition so his father decided to send him to Barcelona where he spent his teen age.

Picasso Moved To Paris In 1900

When in Barcelona Picasso staged his exhibition for the first time in 1900. During the same year Picasso attended the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Pablo was so inspired by the art work there that he finally shifted to Paris in 1904.

Nazi Party Was Against Display of Art

Picasso had no permission to display his any work during the German Nazi party invasion because it was against the party standards.

Story Behind Guernica

When Pablo came to know about Nazi’s bombing on Basque town he felt very bad about it. Hundreds of people died in that attack. In reaction he painted Guernica showing war and destruction done by Nazi, in 1937. When Pablo was living in Nazi’s occupied Paris, a Nazi officer visited his apartment and saw Guernica there. The officer asked Picasso “Did you do that?” Picasso replied in anger “No, you did!”   

Picasso’s First Job

Signing a contract with art dealer Pere Menach for $750 was Pablo’s first job. Pablo commercialized all the work he done during the agreement.

Picasso Had Three Wives

Picasso was a ladies’ man. He had three wives and four children. Though the kids were from different wives. Apart from his wives he had many muse. He love to spend his spare time with beautiful young girls.

Picasso’s Requirements for Mistresses

Although Picasso was 5 feet 4 inches tall. He had certain demands for her mistresses. The first was she needs to be shorter in height than Picasso and the other requirement was she must be submissive. This shows Picasso had strings of love affairs.

Picasso Bring Revolution in Art

Picasso was the first person to bring the concept of constructed sculptures. He was the co-inventor of collage. Cubism movement was also co-founded by Picasso. In cubism style, all the subjects are represented in geometrics forms. Picasso and Georges Braque invented the concept of collage in 1912. Picasso was the first to use collage technique in oil paintings.

Honor of Most Expensive Painting

Do you have any idea about the most expensive painting ever sold in the world? It was “Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)”, by Picasso in 1955. In 2015, this painting was sold for $179.4 million.

Did Picasso Steal The Mona Lisa Painting?

Picasso’s friend Guillaume Apollinaire accused him of stealing the Mona Lisa from Louvre Museum, Paris. The museum used to be closed on Monday. The painting was stolen on that day because of minimal security. But fortunately, the suspect was proved wrong. Actually, an Italian thief Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen the painting.

Picasso Had Many Pets

Picasso was a pet lover during his lifetime he has turtle, mouse, few cats, dogs and monkey.

Picasso’s Stages of Work

Picasso work is divided into following stages,

• Blue Period (1901-1904)- Paintings in blue green colors
• Rose Period (1904-1906)- colors like orange and pink were mostly used in paintings of this period
• African Art (1907-1909)- Nude with Raised Arms and Three Women are from this period
• Analytic Cubism (1909-1912)- Paintings with neutral and brown colors. Subject tear down to sharp angles.
• Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919)- Use of newspaper fragments in paintings gave rise the concept of collage
• Surrealism (1919-1929)- Created bizarre art from everyday objects

Symbol of Peace

Picasso had a huge collection of paintings of doves. “Dove of Peace” was one of them. In 1944, France got liberated from Nazi party. At the age of 62, Picasso joined communist party. His paintings of dove symbolized peace from there. Picasso had a huge collection of paintings of doves. “Dove of Peace” was one of them

Le Rêve was painted during Erotic Year

In 1932, Picasso painted a picture of her 22-year old mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. The oil painting was captioned as “Le Rêve or The Dream”. This year is known as “Picasso 1932: Erotic year”, because more than 110 drawings, sculptures and paintings by Picasso are created in this year.

Picasso’ Art Collection

Pablo had enough art pieces that a museum can be opened with them. Picasso created over 300 sculpture, 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints, 34,000 book illustrations. In total these are over 147,800 artistic productions.

Richest Artist in The history

Even though he was the only artist who made such a huge collection of designs single handedly. He was the richest artist of that time when he died.

Signature Style Breton Strip

Coco Chanel designed the Breton stripe t-shirt for Picasso which later became his signature style. Actually the famous design of navy blue stripes on white base was wore by naval forces. There were 21 stripes on the shirt symbolizing Napoleon’s victory. That’s the reason Picasso wore it as symbol of inspiration and joy.

He Wrote Over 300 Poems

In 1906, Picasso wrote a French poem for Guillaume Apollinaire. From the beginning of 1935 to 1959, Picasso wrote more than 300 poems and a play called “Desire”.

Over 1,100 Piece of Art Were Stolen

Have you heard about any artist whose 1,100 objects of art got stolen? In an exhibition at Palais des Papes in Avignon, France, Picasso 176 paintings were robbed.

Why Did Pablo Carry A Revolver?

Artist’s world famous cubism movement was inspired from Cézanne. Pablo used to carry a revolver with loaded blanks to fire on person who insult Cézanne or dared to know the meaning of his paintings. Well, it’s horrible!

Tax Paid in the Form of Paintings

Picasso left no will so all the tax paid to French officials was in the form of paintings. The French government made changes in their Inheritance Tax Law. Therefore, art instead of money accepted. After Picasso’s death the total cost of his estate work was $260 million.

Picasso Died in Mougins, France

On April 8th, 1973 Picasso died due to heart failure. His wife, Jacqueline Roqe, became so heartbroken that she committed suicide after 13 years of Pablo’s death.

Picasso’s Last Words

His last words were: “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore”.