Impressive Artwork by Pablo Picasso

Spanish artist, sculptor, and printmaker Pablo Picasso was one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century. The artist was a pioneer of the Cubism movement and explored geometric shapes in the context of his paintings.

Created during Picasso’s Rose period, Family of Saltimbanques is a painting that captures a group of itinerant circus performers. It uses warm, earthy tones with the harlequin in the middle thought to be Picasso’s alter ego. The young girl in pink represents innocence, while the acrobat and the clown appear lost in thought. The artist was inspired by traveling performers in Paris. Today the artwork is on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Girl Before a Mirror was created in 1932 as an oil-on-canvas depicting Picasso’s mistress and muse, Marie-Therese Walter. The artist painted her many times, and the artworks were the first public exhibition of their secret romance during his marriage to Olga Khokhlova. At this time Picasso was 50 and had established himself as a significant artist. This painting is a photograph of a woman gazing in a mirror, revealing a darker reflection of herself with her face split in two parts—one painted in a peaceful lilac color and the other a vibrant yellow.

The painting Guernica was created by Picasso due to the fact that the horrors of the Spanish Civil War greatly affected him. The war began on July 17, 1936, when General Francisco led a military coup against the Spanish republic. Picasso visited Barcelona and saw the widespread destruction from heavy fighting. To show his anger, he created this artwork of the bombing of Guernica, a Basque country town in northern Spain. He completed the painting in 1937, and it became one of his most famous artworks, depicting the horrors of war.

Picasso’s first Cubist artwork was Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, created in 1907. This painting was created during the height of the artist’s formative Cubism period. Exploring different styles of painting Picasso created this artwork out of a combination of styles, and it helped him break through to abstraction and to modern art.

Le Reve, or the Dream, is an oil-on-canvas created in 1932 and depicts Picasso’s lover Marie-Therese Walter. Created in just a single afternoon it was in the era that Picasso was known for his deformed images, simple forms, and contrasting colors. The artwork was sold at a private sale on March 26, 2013, for the staggering sum of $155 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings that has ever been sold.

La Vie/The Life is an oil-on-canvas completed in May 1903 in Barcelona. This artwork is considered the peak of Picasso’s Blue period. At this time the artist was 22 and unknown. The painting features a complex arrangement of figures: a naked couple on the left, a robed mother holding an infant on the right, and a male figure in the center. This composition suggests a narrative about life, love, and the struggles associated with them.

Created in 1911, Ma Jolie depicts Picasso’s girlfriend Marcette Humbert. The name of the painting means “my beautiful one,” which was a reference to a famous music hall song popular at that time. As one can see by the artwork, the primary image fades into the depths of abstract surfaces, and the irregular forms and dark hues communicate a deeper message. The artwork reflects analytic cubism, characterized by changing planes. The six strings in the middle of the image are a reference to the guitar, while the triangle on the right seems to represent the woman’s elbow.

Spending most of his life in poverty, Picasso developed a strong sympathy for the impoverished and oppressed in the world. This artwork, The Old Guitarist, was created in 1903 while the artist was down and out living in Barcelona, and it was his sorrowful “Blue” phase. The artist painted nearly every canvas in a drab monochromatic palette of blue, a hue that matched the kind of subject matter that he would address. The artist created this painting shortly after the time when his close friend Casagemas committed suicide after a long battle with mental illness and despair. In the painting, the old man is holding a guitar and appears to be playing a sad song, his face set with agony and despair.

Portrait of Gertrude Stein is an oil-on-canvas portrait of the American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein. (pictured above) It is one of the most significant paintings from Picasso’s Rose period. Her figure is a round bulk, and she leans forward, her arms weightily resting on her knees. This stylistic shift proved to be of enormous historical significance since it indicated the path Picasso would take step by step until the creation of Cubism.

Self Portrait 1901 depicts a young artist just twenty years of age. His face reflects the hard winter passed living in Paris. Still reeling from the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. This artwork is one of the artist’s earliest paintings during the Blue period.

Three Musicians is part of the changes in Picasso’s artwork after 1914. He used Cubist techniques in the conventional medium of oil on canvas. This allowed the artist to create bigger and more colorful artworks. In the painting the harlequin is playing a guitar. Pierrot and Harlequin were standard figures from the ancient Italian comedy theater known as Commedia dell’Arte. This artwork is a collage created from cut-out pieces and colorful paper.

The Weeping Woman is an oil-on-canvas completed in 1937 in France. The woman depicted in the painting is Dora Maar, Picasso’s mistress and muse. Created in his signature profile view, the woman’s face shows clashing colors and geometric figures. The artwork shows a distraught woman weeping and holding a handkerchief to her face. The painting is done in the flattened manner of Picasso’s early analytical Cubism, as if painted from many perspectives at the same time.