Inside out Pablo Picasso

Inside Out

Pablo Picasso WORKSHEET A

The Early Years Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, on October 25th, 1881. His father, an art teacher, encouraged Pablo to take an interest in painting from an early age. By the time he was sixteen, he had already won prizes for his paintings and had studied in the finest academies in Barcelona and Madrid.

The Blue Period Between 1900 and 1902 Picasso made several trips to Paris and during this time he made friends with artists, poets and writers who would be the subjects of most of his paintings. He loved bohemian Paris with its cafés and dance halls and he loved being at the centre of an artistic revolution; the art of Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec fascinated him and inspired many of his paintings. One of his best friends, Carles Casagemas, committed suicide in 1901, which led Picasso to paint in shades of blue to reflect his sadness. In the same year, he dropped his father’s name (Ruiz) from his signature and kept only his mother’s (Picasso).

The Rose Period Shortly after settling permanently in Paris in 1904 Picasso’s mood began to lighten and he started to paint in shades of rose. His paintings between 1905 and 1906 were known as his Rose Period. During this time Picasso developed friendships with writer/art collector Gertrude Stein and artists Henri Matisse and Georges Braque.

Cubism Inspired by postimpressionist Paul Cézanne, Picasso and Braque collaborated on a series of paintings described by a critic as ‘being made of little cubes’. The Cubist style breaks into two distinct periods; the first is known as Analytical Cubism (1907–1912), where the artists focussed on geometry and painted in subdued colours. The second is known as Synthetic Cubism (1912 onwards), where the artists used decorative shapes, stencilling, collage (cut up newspapers) and painted in bright colours.

Personal Throughout Picasso’s long and extraordinary life, he always had a muse. The first was Fernande Olivier, who featured mainly in his Rose Period and early Cubist works. Then came Olga Koklova, a Russian ballet dancer who he met in Rome in 1917. They married in 1918 and Picasso’s first child, Paulo, was born in 1921. The couple separated when Picasso’s relationship with 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter became known. In 1935, Marie-Thérèse gave birth to their daughter, Maya. In the 1940s, artist Françoise Gilot gave birth to two more children Claude and Paloma. After she left him, in 1953, he paired up with Jacqueline Roque. He married Jacqueline in 1961 and although he had no more children, they stayed together until his death in 1973.

Picasso crossword WORKSHEET B In 1937 Picasso created a painting of a very famous scene. As he was painting, his muse at the time was documenting the process in photographs. Answer the questions. Write the answers in the crossword to reveal the name of Picasso’s painting (8) and the name of his muse (4, 4).

1. The city where Picasso was born (6) 2. The name of his father (which he dropped from his signature) (4) 3. The friend who killed himself (9) 4. In which city did he settle at the beginning of the twentieth century? (5) 5. The style of Cubism which features cut-up newspaper and vivid colours (9) 6. The artist who inspired Picasso to experiment with Cubism (7) 7. The artist who worked with Picasso to create Cubism (6) 8. The surname of Picasso’s first muse (7) 9. The surname of Picasso’s last wife (5) 10. The name of his first daughter (4) 11. This is somebody who is a source of inspiration for an artists (4) 12. The name of his second daughter (6) 13. The surname of his first wife (7) 14. The city where he met his first wife (4)

1 2 3 4 N 5 6 7

D 8 9 10 11 12 13 14