1 PABLO RUIZ PICASSO CHRONOLOGY

PABLO RUIZ PICASSO CHRONOLOGY (1881-1973)
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1881, 25 October | Born in Malaga, the first-born son of María Picasso López and José Ruiz Blasco, painter, teacher
at the San Telmo School of Fine Arts and curator at the Municipal Museum.
1891-1895 | The Ruiz-Picasso family reside in Corunna where the father won a place as a teacher at the Guarda
School of Fine Arts, and where Picasso starts his art studies in 1892.
1895 | Picasso’s first visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid. After spending the summer in Malaga, the Ruiz-Picassos
set up home in Barcelona. He takes the entrance examination for the Llotja School of Fine Arts where he studies
for two years.
1897 | He presents Science and Charity at the Fine Arts General Exhibition in Madrid. He begins his studies at the
San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid at his family’s request, but before long leaves the Academy.
Frequent visits to the Prado Museum.
1898 | He falls ill with scarlet fever. He returns to Barcelona and moves to Horta d’Ebre (now Horta de Sant Joan
(Terra Alta, Tarragona)), on the invitation of his friend Manuel Pallarès.
‘Everything I know I learnt it in the town of Pallarès’, Picasso would say years later.
1899 | He returns to Barcelona and frequents the Quatre Gats tavern, a meeting place for avant-garde art. He
shares discussions with Carles Casagemas, Jaume Sabartés, the Reventós brothers, the Soto brothers, the Cardona
brothers and Joan Vidal Ventosa
1900 | First individual exhibition at the Quatre Gats. In September, he makes his first trip to Paris with Carles
Casagemas, on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in Paris where a work by the artist, Last moments, was
being shown. He meets Pere Mañach, his first dealer, and has his first contact with the gallery owner Berthe Weill.
He returns to Barcelona at the end of December and celebrates New Year in Malaga with Casagemas.
1901 | Move to Madrid. Casagemas commits suicide in Paris. He founds the magazine Arte Joven with Francesc
d’Assís Soler which had a print run of 5 editions. He returns to Barcelona and makes a second trip to Paris. From
June 25th to July 14th he has his first exhibition in Paris at the Vollard Gallery alongside the Basque painter
Francisco Iturrino. He meets the poet Max Jacob. Beginning of the Blue Period.
1902 | Return to Barcelona and third trip to Paris, where he lives and works short of money in Max Jacob’s room.
1903 | Return to Barcelona. He begins his studies for La Vie (Life), a masterpiece from the Blue Period, presently
housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
1904 | His fourth and final trip to Paris where he moves to Montmartre in the building known as ‘Bateau-Lavoir’ at
13 Rue de Ravignan. He meets Fernande Olivier who would become his companion until 1912. He also meets the
poets Guillaume Apollinaire and André Salmon and frequents the Medrano Circus.
1905 | Start of the Rose Period. He spends three weeks during summer at the house of writer Tom Schilperoort in
Schoorl (Holland). He meets brother and sister Leo and Gertrude Stein.
1906 | The Steins introduce him to Henri Matisse. A stay in Gósol (Berguedà, Lleida). Return to Paris.
1907 | He creates Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, the starting point for Cubism. He meets Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, who
is to become his main dealer, and Georges Braque.
1908-1914 | Braque and Picasso develop Cubism.
1909 | He comes to Barcelona with Fernande and spends the summer at Horta de Sant Joan. He returns to Paris
and changes address – leaving Bateau-Lavoir and moving to 11 Boulevard Clichy.
1910 | Picasso and Fernande spend a few days in summer in Barcelona and then Cadaqués.
Museu Picasso de Barcelona Carrer Montcada 15-23 08003 Barcelona tel 93 256 30 00 fax 93 315 01 02 museupicasso@bcn.cat
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1911 | In summer, Picasso goes to Céret where he meets with Frank Burty Haviland and Manolo Hugué. Braque also
moves to Céret. In autumn, he meets Eva Gouel (Marcelle Humbert) who would become his companion.
1912 | He makes his first collages and exhibits at the Dalmau Galleries in Barcelona. After separating from
Fernande, he begins his life with Eva at a new address at 242 Boulevard Raspail.
1913 | His father dies. Brief stay in Barcelona to attend the funeral.
1914 | He spends the summer months in Avignon. Braque and Derain are mobilised by the war which represents the
end of Cubism as a movement. He returns to Paris with Eva in October.
1915 | Eva Gouel passes away.
1916 | Jean Cocteau introduces him to Serge de Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes who offers him work on the
ballet Parade.
1917 | A trip to Italy with Cocteau to work with the Ballets Russes. He meets the ballerina Olga Khokhlova. Parade
premieres in Paris with the curtain, decoration and wardrobe by Picasso. Trip to Barcelona from June to November.
1918 | Marriage to Olga Khokhlova in Paris. They move to 23 Rue La Boétie. ‘Matisse-Picasso’ exhibition at the Paul
Guillaume Gallery in Paris, organised by the dealer Rosenberg.
1919 | Trip to London to prepare The Three-Cornered Hat, the new Ballets Russes production.
1920 | Pulcinella premieres in Paris – the third collaboration with Diaghilev’s company. Joan Miró visits Picasso’s
studio for the first time leading to their good friendship.
1921 | His son Paulo is born.
1923 | He meets the poet and critic André Bréton, head of the surrealist movement. He spends the summer at Cap
d’Antibes.
1924 | The ballet Mercure opens in Paris with decoration and wardrobe by Picasso.
1925-1938 | Although not participating directly with Surrealism, his friendship with writers at the time often involves
him in group meetings.
1927 | He meets Marie-Thérèse Walter, who he has a relationship with until 1936 and a daughter, Maya.
1926 | Salvador Dalí visits Picasso on his first trip to Paris.
1928 | His collaboration with Juli González begins, who starts him on metal sculpture.
1931 | He moves to Boisgeloup Castle in Normandy, which he had bought a year earlier, where he sets up his
sculpture studio.
1932 | Christian Zervos publishes the first volume of his monumental catalogue of Picasso’s work (32 volumes). The
Barcelona Museums of Art buy the Lluís Plandiura Collection containing 22 works by Picasso.
1934 | Summer holidays in Spain: San Sebastián, Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona.
1935 | Separates from Olga and birth of Maya, Picasso’s daughter with Marie-Thérèse Walter. Sabartés becomes his
private secretary and his friendship with Paul Éluard begins.
1936 | He sides with the Republicans at the start of the Spanish Civil War. He moves to Mougins and is visited by
the Éluards, the Zervos, Roland Penrose, Lee Miller, Man Ray and Dora Maar, a photographer linked to the
surrealist movement and who is to become his new companion. Named honorary director of the Prado Museum in
Madrid.
1937 | He sets up his studio at 7 Rue des Grands Augustins in Paris. On April 26th, the German air force bombs the
town of Guernica (Basque Country). From May to June he works on the painting Guernica to be presented at the
Spanish Republican Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris. Trip to Switzerland and a visit to Paul Klee.
Museu Picasso de Barcelona Carrer Montcada 15-23 08003 Barcelona tel 93 256 30 00 fax 93 315 01 02 museupicasso@bcn.cat
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1938 | Death of his mother, María Picasso López, in Barcelona.
1939 | He moves to Royan with Dora Maar and Sabartés.
He decides not to return to Spain until the Franco regime ends.
1941 | He writes his first play, Desire Caught by the Tail.
1943 | He meets Françoise Gilot, a young painter who would be his companion for two years and mother to two of
his children – Claude and Paloma.
1944 | L’Humanité announces his affiliation to the French Communist Party.
1945 | He begins his studio collaboration with Fernand Mourlot where he explores the creative possibilities of
lithography.
1946 | Exhibition at MoMA in New York – ‘Fifty Years of his Art’. Picasso works on the Grimaldi Palace which, years
later, would become the Picasso Museum of Antibes.
1947 | Birth of his son Claude by Françoise Gilot. They go to live in Vallauris (Provence), where he begins his
pottery work.
1948 | He takes part in the Wroclaw Congress of Intellectuals for Peace (Poland), giving a speech in favour of
Pablo Neruda's release.
1949 | Birth of Paloma, Picasso’s daughter by Françoise Gilot.
1953 | Picasso and Françoise separate. He meets Jacqueline Roque who would become his companion until his
death.
1955 | Death of Olga Khokhlova. He purchases La Californie villa in Cannes, where he moves with Jacqueline.
1957 | He paints Las Meninas, which he would donate to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona in 1968.
1958 | He purchases Vauvenargues Castle, near Aix-en-Provence.
1960 | On Picasso’s own volition, Jaume Sabartés, Picasso’s personal friend and secretary, proposes the creation of
a museum dedicated to the artist’s work to Barcelona City Council. On July 27th, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona
is founded in agreement with the City Council.
1961 | Picasso and Jacqueline Roque marry in Vallauris and move to Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins.
1962 | Intense engraving work for the next two years.
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1963, 9 March | The Museu Picasso in Barcelona opens to the public with the name The Sabartés Collection since,
due to Picasso’s opposition to the Franco regime, it is impossible to open a museum with his name. The museum
houses the personal collection of Sabartés and the Picasso works owned by the Barcelona Museums of Art.
1968 | Death of Sabartés. Picasso pays homage by giving the Picasso Museum in Barcelona the Blue Portrait of
Sabartés and the series of Las Meninas.
1970 | Large donation to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona by the artist himself of over 900 works kept at the home
of his family in Barcelona.
1971 | Installation of 8 paintings by Picasso at the Grande Galerie at the Louvre, the first time a living artist’s work
is hung at the Louvre.[according to Picasso’s grandson, Olivier Widmaier, in Portraits de famille. Paris, Éditions
Ramsay, 2002, p.123]
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1973, 8 April | Pablo Ruiz Picasso passes away in Notre-Dame-de-Vie, in Mougins. He is buried in the garden at
Vauvenargues Castle on April 10th.
Museu Picasso de Barcelona Carrer Montcada 15-23 08003 Barcelona tel 93 256 30 00 fax 93 315 01 02 museupicasso@bcn.cat
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Highlights Chronology
Museu Picasso de Barcelona
www.museupicasso.bcn.cat
1895-1896
Man in a Beret
La Coruña, 1895
Oil on canvas
50,5 x 36 cm
MPB 110.058
Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
Barcelona, 1896
Watercolour on paper
49,8 x 39 cm
MPB 110.016
Portrait of the Artist’s Father
Barcelona, 1896
Watercolour on paper
25,5 x 17,8 cm
MPB 110.331
Portrait
Barcelona, 1896
Oil on canvas
32,7 x 23,6 cm
MPB 110.076
1896-1898
Mountain Landscape
Malaga, juny-juliol 1896
Oil on canvas
60,7 x 82,5 cm
MPB 110.008
Portrait of Aunt Pepa
Malaga
juny-juliol 1896
Oil on canvas
57,5 x 50,5 cm
MPB 110.010
Science and Charity
Barcelona, 1897
Oil on canvas
197 x 249,5 cm
MPB 110.046
Quiquet’s Farmhouse
Horta de Sant Joan
1898
Oil on canvas
27 x 40 cm
MPB 110.066
1899-1900
Portrait of the writer Ramon Reventós
Barcelona, 1899-1900
Watercolour, charcoal and Conté
pencil on paper
66,5 x 30,1 cm
MPB 110.872
“Decadent Poet”
Barcelona, 1900
Charcoal and
Watercolour on paper
48 x 32 cm
MPB 70.232
Riera de Sant Joan Street, from the
window in the artist’s studio
Barcelona, 1900
Oil on wood
22,3 x 13,8 cm
MPB 110.213
1899-1900
The divan
Barcelona, cap al 1899
Charcoal, pastel and coloured crayons on glazed paper
26,2 x 29,7 cm
MPB 4.267
The Embrace
Paris, 1900
Pastel on paper
59 x 35 cm
MPB 4.263
Fairground Stall
Paris, 1900
Oil on canvas
38,1 x 46,3 cm
MPB 113.113
1901
End of the Number
Paris, 1901
Pastel on canvas
72 x 46 cm
MPB 4.270
Still Life
Paris, 1901
Oil on canvas
60 x 80 cm
MPB 4.273
The Wait (Margot)
Paris, 1901
Oil on board
69,5 x 57 cm
MPB 4.271
Woman with Bonnet
Paris, 1901
Oil on canvas
41 x 33 cm
MPB 112.750
1903-1905
Roofs of Barcelona
Barcelona, 1903
Oil on canvas
69 x 108,5 cm
MPB 112.943
Motherhood
Barcelona, 1903
Pastel and charcoal on paper
46 x 40 cm
MPB 4.269
The Madman
Barcelona, 1904
Watercolour on paper
85 x 35 cm
MPB 4.272
The Frugal Meal
Paris, 1904
Etching and scraping
on zinc
61,4 x 44,3 cm
MPB 110.011
Portrait of Señora Canals
Paris, 1905
Oil and charcoal on canvas
88 x 68 cm
MPB 4.266
Museu Picasso de Barcelona Carrer Montcada 15-23 08003 Barcelona tel 93 256 30 00 fax 93 315 01 02 museupicasso@bcn.cat
Highlights Chronology
Museu Picasso de Barcelona
www.museupicasso.bcn.cat
1906-1917
Woman’s Head Fernande
Paris, 1906
Bronze
35,7 x 24,8 x 24,4 cm
MPB 113.035
The Offering
Paris, 1908
Gouache on cardboard
paper with white primer
30,8 x 31,1 cm
MPB 112.761
Harlequin
Barcelona, 1917
Oil on canvas
116 x 90 cm
MPB 10.941
Gored Horse
Barcelona, 1917
Graphite pencil on
canvas with ochre primer
80,2 x 103,3 cm
MPB 110.012
1917-1924
The passeig de Colom
Barcelona, 1917
Oil on canvas
40,1 x 32 cm
MPB 110.028
Blanquita Suárez
Barcelona, 1917
Oil on canvas
73,3 x 47 cm
MPB 110.013
Glass and Tobacco Packet
Paris, 1924
Oil on canvas
16 x 22 cm
MPB 70.243
1935-1939
1957
Minotauromachy
1935
Etching and scraping
49,8 x 69,3 cm
MPB 45.006
Portrait of Jaume Sabartés with ruff and cap
Royan, 1939
Oil on canvas
46 x 38 cm
MPB 70.241
1957
Las Meninas (group)
Canes, 1957
Oil on canvas
194 x 260 cm
MPB 70.433
Las Meninas (infanta Margarita María)
Canes, 1957
Oil on canvas
100 x 81 cm
MPB 70.459
The Pigeons
Canes, 1957
Oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm
MPB 70.450
1957-1969
Spanish Platter “Bullfighting scene with fish”
Canes, 1957
Red clay and white clay
42 cm (diameter)
MPB 112.446
The Bullfight Game
1957
Sugar Aquatint
20 x 30 cm
MPB 112.775
Painter Working
Mougins, 1965
Oil and ripolin on canvas
100 x 81 cm
MPB 70.810
1969
Seated Man
1969
Oil on cardboard
129 x 65 cm
MPB 112.867
Museu Picasso de Barcelona Carrer Montcada 15-23 08003 Barcelona tel 93 256 30 00 fax 93 315 01 02 museupicasso@bcn.cat