Picasso timeline

Pablo Picasso is born on October 25th in Malaga to the painter and teacher Don José Ruiz Blasco (1838-1913) and Maria Picasso y Lopez (1855-1939)

Birth of his sister Dolores, nicknamed Lola (1884-1958).

5 YEARS OLD

Birth of his second sister Concepcion, nicknamed Conchita (1887-1895).

Encouraged by his father, Pablo begins painting.

10 YEARS OLD

Begins studying at the School of Fine Arts in La Coruña, where his father teaches.

Picasso creates the illustrated magazine Azul y Blanco for his family and friends.

His sister Concepcion dies. Picasso moves to Barcelona and is admitted to the School of Fine Arts of La Lonja in the classical art and still life section, where his father teaches.

15 YEARS OLD. First studio shared with Manuel Pallarès. Third Exhibition of Fine Arts and Industry in Barcelona, where Picasso shows The First Communion (Museu Picasso, Barcelona).

Admission to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. First big artwork: Science and Charity (Museu Picasso, Barcelone). He leaves Madrid the following spring to return to Barcelona.

First stay in the village of Horta de Ebro with Manuel Pallarès.

Returns to Barcelona: avant-garde circle of Els Quatre Gats (“the four cats” in Catalàn). Picasso meets Carlos Casagemas.

First visit to Paris with Carlos Casagemas for the Exposition Universelle (Paris Exposition). Settles in Montmartre and meets Berthe Weill.

20 YEARS OLD. Paints The Death of Casagemas (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris) in homage to his friend who died by suicide. Meets Max Jacob. Beginning of the blue period: Self portrait (MP4)

First exhibition of his blue paintings at Berthe Weill’s gallery and first sculpture in clay: Woman Seated (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Return to Barcelona : The Life (Cleveland Museum of Art).

Moves to the Bateau-Lavoir studio in Montmartre. Meets André Salmon, Guillaume Apollinaire and Fernande Olivier, his model who then becomes his partner for seven years. Transition from his blue period to his Rose period: The Actor (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Visits the Van Gogh and Seurat retrospective at the Salon of Independents and the Ingres retrospective at the Salon d’Automne. Meets Leo and Gertrude Stein. First artwork cast in bronze : Le fou (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris)

25 YEARS OLD. Visits the exhibition of Iberian sculptures at the Louvre and is influenced by primitivism, the use of ethnographic clichés and orientalist photographs. Meets Henri Matisse and André Derain. Portrait of Gertrude Stein (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Picasso and Fernande Olivier visit the village of Gosol in Catalonia.

Acquires two Iberian stone head sculptures, without knowing that they had been stolen from the Louvre. Discovers African sculpture at the Trocadéro Museum of Ethnography. Meets Georges Braque. The Young Ladies of Avignon (MoMA, New York).
First visit of the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979) at Bateau-Lavoir, in February.

Picasso buys his first artwork Portrait of woman (1895) (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris) by Douanier Rousseau (1844-1910), from a Parisian second-hand dealer in the Rue des Martyrs. Shortly afterwards, he organizes a banquet in honor of the artist and in his presence, an event held at the Bateau-Lavoir with Guillaume Apollinaire, Marie Laurencin, André Salmon, Georges Braque and Gertrude Stein.

Stays in Horta with Fernande Olivier. Settles with Fernande in a new studio in Paris, 11 bd de Clichy in the 9th arrondissement.

Stays in Horta with Fernande Olivier. Settles with Fernande in a new studio in Paris, 11 bd de Clichy in the 9th arrondissement.

30 YEARS OLD. Exhibitions in galleries in Berlin and New York. Relationship with Eva Gouel and separation from Fernande. Meets with the Futurists and beginning of lettering

Exhibitions in Moscow, Munich, Berlin, Cologne. Picasso moves to Montparnasse and begins creating assemblages and constructions: Still Life with Chair Caning (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris). Summertime visit to Sorgues, in Provence, with Eva Gouel, Georges Braque and his wife: paper collages, cubist works.

Exhbition at the Armory Show in New York. In March, Picasso visits the Maison Delcros in Céret with Eva Gouel. First retrospective in Munich. In September the couple moves to a new studio at 5 bis rue Victor-Schoelcher, in the Montparnasse neighborhood. Picasso’s father dies.

Stays in Avignon with Eva Gouel. He meets with Braque and Derain, who were staying nearby. Beginning of the First World War. Series of Absinthe Glasses.

Godfather for the baptism of Max Jacob. Death of Eva Gouel from tuberculosis

35 YEARS OLD. Relationship with Gaby Lespinasse. Meets Serge de Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes. First exhibition of The Young Ladies of Avignon organized by André Salmon. In July, Picasso moves to a studio at 22 rue Victor-Hugo in Montrouge, in the south of Paris.

Picasso travels to Italy with Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). He visits Rome where he stays in Via Marguetta. Creates the sets and costumes for the ballet “Parade” in Rome. Travels to Naples and Pompeii. He meets Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova with whom he begins a relationship. He then travels with her to Madrid and Barcelona.

Matisse-Picasso exhibition at the Galerie Paul Guillaume. Marriage to Olga: Portrait of Olga in an Armchair (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris). The couple spend the summer in Biarritz. In November, Guillaume Apollinaire dies. Armistice.

Meets Joan Miró. New work for the ballets “Le Tricorne” and “Pulcinella”. From May until August, Picasso and Olga live in Hotel Savoy in London. The artist creates the sets for the ballet “Le Tricorne”.

Trip to Saint-Raphaël with Olga. Also their first stay in Juan-les-Pins, until September

40 YEARS OLD. Birth of Paul from his union with Olga. From July to October, Picasso stays with Olga and their infant son in a small villa in Fontainebleau, a stone's throw from the château and the park, where he improvises a studio. First monograph devoted to Picasso in Munich. Three Women at the Fountain (MoMA, New York).

First stay in Dinard with Olga and Paul. Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race) (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris). Works with Cocteau on the sets for his play, "Antigone”. Correspondence with Man Ray.

Stays at Cap d'Antibes with Olga and Paul. The Pan Flute (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Support of the surrealists for the sets of the ballet Mercury.

Stays in Monte Carlo with Olga and Paul to see the Ballets Russes. Paints The Dance (Tate Gallery, London). Settles in Juan-les-Pins. Active work with the surrealist group.

45 YEARS OLD. Regular publication of Picasso's works in the magazine "Cahiers d'Art" by Christian Zervos. Series of assemblages of Guitars and The Milliner’s Workshop (Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'Art moderne, Paris).

Meets Marie-Thérèse Walter in Paris who becomes his model. Engravings illustrating Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece.

Artistic work with Julio González. Stays in Dinard with Olga and Paul. Picasso secretly sees Marie-Thérèse. Appearance of the minotaur theme and first iron sculptures.

Relationship with Olga deteriorates. Stays in Dinard with Marie-Thérèse.

Purchase of the castle of Boisgeloup (Eure). Illustration of Ovid's Metamorphoses for the publisher Albert Skira. The Acrobat (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

50 YEARS OLD. Creation of a sculpture workshop in the Château de Boisgeloup. Set of engravings: Vollard Suite.

First retrospective of Picasso's work in Paris at the Georges Petit Gallery. Publication of the first volume of the catalog raisonné of his work 1895-1906 by Christian Zervos.

Summer in Cannes at the Majestic and then in Barcelona at the Ritz with Olga and Paul. Publication of Fernande Olivier's memoirs, "Picasso and his friends"

Discovery of the Romanesque paintings in the Catalan Art Museum in Barcelona. Appearance of political themes in his works. Woman with Leaves (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris). This year marks his last trip to Spain.

Picasso stops painting and begins writing, especially poems. Separates from Olga, without divorcing her. Birth of Maya, daughter of Marie-Thérèse. Meets Dora Maar.

55 YEARS OLD. Friendship with Paul Eluard. Appointment as head of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Relationship with Dora Maar. Beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Picasso abandons Boisgeloup, promised to Olga, from whom he is separated. Marie-Thérèse and Maya move permanently until 1939 to the studio in the middle of nature at Tremblay-sur-Mauldre (Yvelines).

New studio, 7 rue des Grands-Augustins. Works quickly and intensively on Guernica (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), photographed by Dora Maar, for the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques in Paris.

The Surrealists split for political reasons.

Death of his mother. Guernica is exhibited (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid) in the United States on the occasion of the exhibition "Picasso: 40 years of his art" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Second World War begins.

Moves into the studio on rue des Grands-Augustins for the duration of the Occupation

60 YEARS OLD. Writes “Desire Caught by the Tail” a play in six acts with illustrations.

Attacked in an article by Vlaminck in Comoedia: support for Picasso by young painters and intellectuals in the Resistance. Bull’s Head (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Relationship with Dora Maar deteriorates. Meets the young painter Françoise Gilot. Man with sheep (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Joins the Communist Party. Major retrospective at the Salon d'Automne: violent reactions against his work and his political commitment. President of the Comité and director of the Front national des arts, to study the case of artists compromised in the collaboration.

Stays in Antibes with Dora Maar before returning to Paris with Françoise. End of the Second World War. The Charnel House (MoMA, New York). Picasso bought a house in Ménerbes (Vaucluse) for Dora Maar.

65 YEARS OLD. Gradual break with Dora Maar. Picasso moves to a temporary studio in the Château Grimaldi in Antibes. Exhibition "Art and Resistance" at the National Museum of Modern Art and large exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Donation of ten important paintings to the National Museum of Modern Art. Birth of Claude. Important activity as a ceramist in Vallauris.

Shooting of the film "Visit to Picasso" by Paul Haesaerts. Picasso moves to the Villa La Galloise, in Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes). Venice Biennale: first exhibition in Italy. Participation in the Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw with Paul Eluard, visit to Krakow and Auschwitz with Pierre Daix.

Dove of Peace is chosen by Aragon as the poster for the Paris Peace Congress. Birth of Paloma. Purchase of the Fournas workshops to expand the house in Vallauris.

Participation in the second Peace Conference in Great Britain. Lenin Prize for Peace. Series of large sculptures with discarded objects: The Goat (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris). Start of the Korean War.

70 YEARS OLD. Stays in Paris and Vallauris with Françoise. Great retrospective in Japan.« Massacre en Korea » (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Decoration of a disused chapel in Vallauris: "Temple of Peace". Met Jacqueline Roque.

Exhibition "Cubism 1907-1914" at the National Museum of Modern Art. Distances himself from the French Communist Party after the publication of his portrait of Stalin on the front page of "Lettres françaises"..

Meets Sylvette David and paints many portraits of her. Moves to Paris with Jacqueline Roque.

Purchase of La Californie on the heights of Cannes where he settles with Jacqueline Roque. Series The Women of Algiers after Delacroix. Henri-Georges Clouzot directs "The Mystery of Picasso" which wins the special jury prize in Cannes. Death of Olga on February 11

75 YEARS OLD. Collective letter to the French Communist Party on the situation in Hungary. First retrospective in Barcelona.

Série Series Las Meninas, after Velázquez. Major retrospective in the United States.

Inauguration of the UNESCO panel, The Fall of Icarus. Purchase of the Château de Vauvenargues, near Aix-en-Provence, and the sites painted by Cézanne.

Inauguration of the Monument to Apollinaire (Dora Maar's head) in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Temple of Peace in Vallauris. Beginning of the series Luncheon on the Grass, after Manet.

Exhibition at the Sala Gaspar Gallery in Barcelona. "Le Buffet de Vauvenargues" (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

80 YEARS OLD. Picasso marries Jacqueline Roque in Vallauris. The couple moves to the mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, with the artist's studio, in a more intimate setting. Beginning of the painted and cut-out sheets: Woman with Outstretched Arms (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Second Lenin Prize for Peace.

Opening of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, thanks to the donation of Picasso's paintings by Sabartes. Beginning of a cooperation in engraving with the Crommelynck brothers.

Publication of “Conversations with Picasso” by Brassaï. Series "The Painter and his Model"

Publication of "Living with Picasso" by Françoise Gilot, despite the artist's opposition. Enlargements in concrete engraved by Carl Nesjar of "Luncheon on the Grass" after Manet

85 YEARS OLD. Inauguration of the exhibition "Tribute to Picasso" at the Grand and Petit Palais by André Malraux, Minister of Culture.

Refuses the Legion of Honor. Inauguration of the Head of a Woman in Chicago. The mas Notre-Dame de Vie in Mougins becomes his only place of creation.

Death of Jaime Sabartès, friend and private secretary of the artist: in homage, exceptional gift of the entire series of "Meninas" and a portrait of Sabartès by Picasso to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.

Writing and illustration of a "literary fantasy": "El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz". The Kiss (Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris).

Donation to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona of the early works. Exhibition of recent works at the Palais des Papes in Avignon. The Family (Paris, Musée National Picasso-Paris).

90 YEARS OLD. Donation of the first metal construction to MoMA, Guitar. Donation of 57 drawings to the Musée Réattu in Arles. Major exhibition at the Louvre for Picasso's 90th birthday.

Contract with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, his dealer: Portrait of Kahnweiler (Art Institute, Chicago). Last exhibition at the Vollard Gallery: refused to exhibit in Paris until 1916. Picasso spends the summer with André Derain, his wife Alice, and Fernande Olivier in the village of Cadaqués in Catalonia.

Dies at the Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins on April 8. Buried in the garden of the Château de Vauvenargues. Great posthumous exhibition "Pablo Picasso 1970-1972" at the Palais des Papes in Avignon. Donation of Picasso's personal collection to the State.