Pablo Picasso Gallery of Paintings by Period

Pablo Picasso was a prolific artist. Below is a gallery of selected works chosen to represent the different periods that influenced his style.

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Pre-1901 Pablo Picasso Art

Picasso's training under his father began before 1890. His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. During 1893 the juvenile quality of his earliest work falls away, and by 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun. The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed in The First Communion (1896), a large composition that depicts his sister, Lola.

Blue Period, Pablo Picasso Art

Picasso's Blue Period (1901-1904) consists of somber paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors.

Rose Period, Pablo Picasso Art

The Rose Period (1904-1906) is characterized by a more cheery style with orange and pink colors, and featuring many acrobats and harlequins. The harlequin, a comedic character usually depicted in checkered patterned clothing, became a personal symbol for Picasso. Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of these paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her, in addition to his increased exposure to French painting.

Pablo Picasso's African-influenced Period of Art

Picasso's African-influenced Period (1907-1909) begins with the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which were inspired by African artifacts. Formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.

Pablo Picasso Analytic Cubism Period of Art

Analytic cubism (1909-1912) is a style of painting Picasso developed along with Georges Braque using monochrome brownish and neutral colors. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time have many similarities. Synthetic cubism (1912Ð1919) was a further development of the genre, in which cut paper fragmentsÑoften wallpaper or portions of newspaper pagesÑwere pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art.

Classicism and surrealism Period of Picasso Art

In the period following the upheaval of World War I, Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. This "return to order" is evident in the work of many European artists in the 1920s, including André Derain, Giorgio de Chirico, and the artists of the New Objectivity movement. Picasso's paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Ingres.

Later Works of Art by Pablo Picasso

Picasso's final works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. Devoting his full energies to his work, Picasso became more daring, his works more colorful and expressive, and from 1968 through 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings. At the time these works were dismissed by most as pornographic fantasies of an impotent old man or the slapdash works of an artist who was past his prime. Only later, after Picasso's death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.

Sculptures by Pablo Picasso

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