Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in Málaga, Spain. Pablo Picasso's background is described as Spanish, from Andalusia. Growing up, the family was middle class — his father taught drawing and trained him from age seven; by family account, he handed the boy his brushes and gave up painting when Pablo was thirteen. An art teacher's son burning drawings for warmth in Paris; died the century's richest painter.

Born

1881 · Málaga, Spain

Roots

Spanish, from Andalusia

Family

Middle class

His father taught drawing and trained him from age seven; by family account, he handed the boy his brushes and gave up painting when Pablo was thirteen.

Education

Barcelona and Madrid academies (left both)

Started with

A father's brushes

Trained by his art-teacher father from seven; admitted to Barcelona's academy at thirteen.

Affiliations & societies

French Communist PartyDocumented

Joined in 1944 and remained a member until his death; painted the peace dove for its congresses.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1900 · age 19
   Paris, broke

   Shares a freezing studio and burns drawings for warmth; his friend Casagemas's suicide starts the Blue Period.

2. 1907 · age 25
   Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

   Even friends are appalled; with Braque, cubism follows.

3. 1937 · age 55
   Guernica

   Painted in weeks for the Spanish pavilion after the bombing; he bars its return to Spain until democracy.

4. 1944 · age 62
   Joins the Communist Party

   Weeks after the liberation of Paris.

5. 1955 · age 73
   The most expensive living artist

   A status he holds for the rest of his life.

6. 1973 · age 91
   Dies at Mougins

   Roughly 45,000 works are inventoried in the estate.