Pablo Picasso Death Anniversary: Interesting Facts About The Spanish Artist

Which of his paintings was the most expensive? What did he think about the Franco regime? The "genius of the century" painter is the subject of the following facts.

Depending on how you define a work of art, estimates change. According to reports, Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, and sculptor produced about 50,000 works during the course of his adult life or about two per day. This includes ceramics, prints, sketches from books, and more.

No other artist of his generation was as prolific, even as he aged. Picasso worked until his death at the age of 91.

When Did He Paint His First Painting?

His first known painting was an oil painting entitled 'El picador amarillo' (The Yellow Bullfighter) or 'El pequeno picador' (The Little Bullfighter), which was inspired by a trip to a bullfight. Pablo Ruiz Picasso was only nine years old at the time. He grew up in an artistic family, and his father was also a painter.

Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain, a city with a long art history. His father was a teacher at an art school. There were painting supplies all over the house. His father recognised the 'child prodigy' in him and encouraged him to practise academic drawing from an early age.

Is Picasso A Trained Artist?

Pablo was accepted into the Malaga School of Art in 1892. In addition to regular school lessons, young Pablo spent every spare moment painting and drawing, and he quickly qualified for higher education.

After high school, he attended the Barcelona Art Academy, and then the prestigious San Fernando Academy in Madrid. However, the young painter was dissatisfied with the teaching methods. He left the institute after only six months and has since been self-taught.

What Made Him Popular By The Mononym 'Picasso?'

Initially, Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Picasso is his mother's maiden name) signed his paintings with his full name. Beginning in 1900, he began signing his paintings simply with the word "Picasso." He was still living and working in Barcelona at the time. He did not move into a studio in Paris until 1904.

His surname became synonymous with great art and his gestural, daring painting and drawing technique later in life. His paintings were initially brightly coloured and almost garish. The talented young Spaniard desired to be noticed at any cost. Picasso's enormous ego drove him to incredible productivity.

What Is Picasso's Full Name? 

Picasso was born into a middle-class family. Pablo grew up in a well-educated family with two younger sisters. It was a family tradition to give the children illustrious names. Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula was Picasso's full name. Nepomuceno, Juan Crispiano de la Santisima Maria de los Remedios Picasso and Trinidad Ruiz.

What Has Been Regarded As His Best Work? 

Picasso created the first cubist painting — an abstract art style — with 'Demoiselles d'Avignon,' and it revolutionised art history. The naked women he depicted are now seen from multiple angles at once, rather than just one.

Picasso left his imprint on his second masterpiece, dated 1937. Shortly after the Nazi Condor Legion attack on the small Basque village of Guernica (Gernika in Basque), he dedicated the massive canvas for the World's Fair in Paris to the victims of the attack. 

The anti-war painting is a form of resistance to totalitarianism. Picasso did not want it to return to Spain until the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, who took power in 1939 and died in 1975, ended. It is now back in Spain, on display at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

What Is The Most Valuable Picasso Painting Worth?

'Les Femmes d'Alger' (The Women of Algiers) fetched $179.4 million (€164.7 million) in New York in 2015, setting a record for any Picasso painting.

The large painting, which was completed between 1954 and 1955, was sold at Christie's auction house.

Victor and Sally Ganz purchased the entire series from Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris in 1956 for $212,500 (approximately $2 million in today's money).

When Did He Paint His Last Picture? 

Picasso worked up until the day he died, aged 91, on April 8, 1973, in his villa Notre-Dame-de-Vie on the Cote d'Azur, despite the fact that his last well-known self-portrait was completed a little less than a year before his death.

Picasso devoted his final active years as a painter to delicate, small-scale still lifes and the interior of his penultimate residence, the 'Villa La Californie' in southern France.

With his second wife Jacqueline, who largely protected him from the outside world and his other children, and their daughter Catherine, he lived there in seclusion. He had long since cut himself off from the vibrant Parisian art scene and other international art epicenters, where he was hailed as the 'genius of the century.'

What Did Picasso Leave His Heirs And Posterity?

The artist left behind four children from three different women, as well as eight grandchildren.

Soon after Picasso's death, a bitter legal battle erupted between his heirs. The family dynamics were complicated. Picasso was married twice legally. His children from his marriage to Francoise Gilot, Claude Picasso, and Paloma Picasso, as well as his grandchildren from his legitimate son, Paulo Picasso (1921-1975), fought bitterly over their share of the vast inheritance.

The artistic estate of the famous Spanish painter was estimated at a value of 1.275 billion francs. It included: 1,885 paintings, 7,089 drawings, 19,134 graphics, 3,222 ceramic works, 1,228 sculptures, and objects, as well as 175 sketchbooks with about 7,000 drawings, which Picasso often made as preliminary sketches for larger works.

His paintings, drawings, and sculptures served as the foundation for the Picasso Museum in Paris, which opened in 1985 and continues to draw visitors from all over the world.

(With Inputs From Deutsche Welle)