Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member

Pablo Picasso

1881–1973

Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper 1913
© Succession Picasso/DACS 2025
License this image
In Tate Modern

Media Networks

Free
In Tate Modern

In the Studio

Free
In Tate St Ives

Modern Art and St Ives

See all artworks on display
  • Artist biography
  • Wikipedia entry

Artist biography

Pablo Picasso 1881-1973

School of Paris painter, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, ceramist and designer, who has had enormous influence on 20th century art and worked in an unprecedented variety of styles. Born at Malaga, Spain, son of an art teacher. His family moved to Barcelona, where he entered the School of Fine Arts 1895; then entered Madrid Academy 1897. Early showed great precocity. First visited Paris in autumn 1900, returned in 1901 when he had his first Paris one-man exhibition at the Galerie Vollard. Blue Period paintings of beggars and sad-faced women. Settled in Paris 1904. In 1905 painted some pictures of circus folk and embarked on his Rose Period. 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' 1906-7 marked the beginning of a more revolutionary manner, influenced by Cezanne and Negro art. Met Braque in 1907 and with his collaboration created Cubism. Designed sets and costumes for Parade and other Diaghilev ballets 1917-24. Made some neo-classic figure paintings 1920-4, parallel to later Cubism. Started to make more violently expressive and metamorphic works in 1925, and in the following years frequently exhibited with the Surrealists. Important series of wrought-iron constructions and modelled sculptures 1928-34, illustrations for Ovid's Les Métamorphoses, Buffon's Histoire Naturelle etc. Awarded First Prize at the 1930 Pittsburgh International. His painting 'Guernica' 1937 was inspired by the destruction by bombing of the Spanish town of that name. Continued to live in Paris throughout the Occupation. From 1946 lived mainly in the South of France at Antibes, Vallauris, Cannes, and from 1958 near Aix-en-Provence, where he maintained a prolific output of paintings, sculptures, etchings, lithographs and ceramics. Died at Mougins, near Cannes.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.591-2

Read more

Wikipedia entry

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Beginning his formal training under his father aged seven, Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent from a young age, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.

Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.

Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.

Read full Wikipedia entry
Analytical cubism Return to order

Artworks

Left Right
  • Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle

    Pablo Picasso
    1914
  • Bust of a Woman

    Pablo Picasso
    1944
  • Flowers

    Pablo Picasso
    1901
  • Seated Woman in a Chemise

    Pablo Picasso
    1923
    On display at Tate Modern part of Media Networks
  • Girl in a Chemise

    Pablo Picasso
    c.1905
  • Horse with a Youth in Blue

    Pablo Picasso
    1905–6
  • Seated Nude

    Pablo Picasso
    1909–10
  • Bust of a Woman

    Pablo Picasso
    1909
See all 44

Artist as subject

Left Right
  • Thanx Picasso

    Conrad Atkinson
    1988
  • Mort

    R.B. Kitaj
    1966
    View by appointment
  • The Defects of its Qualities

    R.B. Kitaj
    1967–8
    View by appointment
  • Picasso’s meninas

    Richard Hamilton
    1973
    View by appointment
  • Faun Revealing a Sleeping Woman (Jupiter and Antiope, after Rembrandt)

    Pablo Picasso
    1936
  • Head of a Young Boy

    Pablo Picasso
    1945
  • Etching: 11, 28 February 1970 3, 16, 30 March 1970 (L.13)

    Pablo Picasso
    1970
  • Etching: 19 February 1970 (L.16)

    Pablo Picasso
    1970
  • I Could Lend You Something, but I Would Not be Doing You Any Favours

    Martin Kippenberger
    1985
  • L’Amour

    George Condo
    2003

Film and audio

  • Interview

    Did Picasso paint this in a day?

  • TateShots

    Françoise Gilot: Studio visit

  • In the Gallery

    Pablo Picasso’s The Three Dancers

  • Podcast

    Where Does Inspiration Come From?

  • How To

    How to Paint Like Picasso

Features

  • Quiz

    Can you spot Picasso's signature?

  • List

    Five Things to Know: Pablo Picasso

  • Tate Etc

    Picasso 1932: The Year of Wonders

    Achim Borchardt-Hume

  • Tate Etc

    Picasso's Woman in a Red Armchair 1932

    George Condo

  • Tate Etc

    Opinion: Art and Nature

    John-Paul Stonard

In the shop

Browse the shop
Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved