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Pablo Picasso is most famous for the artwork he produced during his blue period and his cubist periods. Yet Picasso began his career with more traditional styles; he once stated, “…at 15 I painted like Velazquez, and it took me 80 years to paint like a child.” Today, on the anniversary of his birthday, let’s delve into one of his earlier pieces, “The First Communion.”
1. The painting depicts Pablo Picasso’s sister, Lola, at her first communion. The man at her side is either modeled on their father or on Vilches, a doctor and a friend of the family. The young altar boy is Pere, Vilches’ son.
2. Picasso’s interest in art developed at a young age: he began drawing by age 7, he completed his first painting by age 9, and at age 14 he began “The First Communion.”
3. Jose Ruiz Blasco, Picasso’s father and an accomplished artist in his own right, recognized his son’s artistic streak. He nurtured Picasso’s talent and admitted it even surpassed his own. When Picasso was around 13, Ruiz Blasco presented Picasso with his own palette and brushes and vowed never to paint again. Ruiz Blasco continued to teach at art schools, but could never bring himself to paint.
4. “The First Communion” was Picasso’s entry into the official artistic world. He presented it at the Third Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries in 1896.
5. The full name given to Picasso by his parents is quite a mouthful: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso.
6. Picasso’s good friend Guillaume Apollinaire, a poet, was arrested on suspicion of stealing the “Mona Lisa” (discussed in a previous edition of Feel Art Again) from the Louvre in 1911. Apollinaire, in turn, pointed the finger at Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated.
‘Feel Art Again’ appears every Tuesday and Thursday.
I absolutely LOVE this series! The person and story behind the painting is so often more fascinating than the artwork itself. Keep up the fantastic work!
posted by bowtie on 10-25-2007 at 10:07 am
Wow. It’s good to see that Picasso could actually paint.
posted by A.Non.E.Mous on 10-25-2007 at 10:20 am
I have to agree with bowtie - I love this series of posts as well. Always an interesting learning experience!
posted by Adam on 10-25-2007 at 10:26 am
I love this series too. How about one on Georges Seurat and his “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”?
posted by Joseph on 10-25-2007 at 12:04 pm
Joseph: Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll look into it.
posted by Andréa on 10-25-2007 at 12:08 pm
Picasso’s “Guernica” also has some great history behind it.
posted by Katie B. on 10-26-2007 at 6:31 am
As always, great post! He started this at age 14??? It would have been incredibly depressing to have middle school art with him.
When my wife and I were in Venice earlier this year, there was a traveling Picasso exhibit at one of the museums there. I’ve always enjoyed seeing how artists’ styles evolved over their careers, and Picasso’s evolution is the most fascinating I’ve seen to date. Keep up the good work!
posted by Roger on 10-26-2007 at 8:14 am
Good job on the series!
As “A.Non.E.Mous” notes, yes, Picasso actually could paint! His early work like this is quite beautiful, and it’s evident he had talent, a whole lot of it in fact. What’s sad to me is that as his career (and fame) progressed, he morphed into knocking out piles and piles of crap by the truckload.
Yeah styles changed, and he was exploring other media, pushing the limits, and all that, but to my unsophisticated palate he was was merely dumbing down his creations so he could knock them out faster. His ripped up newspaper “synthetic cubism” collages tell the story pretty well. Compare those with this painting. If he kept painting works like this, he would have been a whole lot less prolific of course, and it would have been tougher to support his many young girlfriends :-)
posted by Sid Morrison on 10-26-2007 at 10:06 am
This is a great series. A survey Art History course taught by a good professor can teach about so much more than just the physical pieces of art. I’ve learned more about the intricacies of world history through my art history classes than I ever did with the more standard history classes. Maybe it was because the art gave me something to focus on?
posted by Larriann on 10-26-2007 at 10:50 am
Wow, this is fascinating! Maybe now I like Picasso… never did before. I’m not sure I agree with Sid that he dumbed down his style in order to produce more. I think that geniuses often need to push the proverbial envelope, and Picasso was such a genius that he “pushed” early on and never returned to the traditional genres. Unfortunate for those of us who value the rich beauty of more traditional art such as this piece, but probably a compulsion that the artist/genius couldn’t much control.
posted by Therese on 10-26-2007 at 11:04 am
It looks more like his father’s work to me. He was also one of the great bullshitters of the 20th century, so don’t forget the shovel. He, like Dali, signed thousands of sheets of blank paper, for a price of course, traded doodles for afternoons of drinking and dining with his entourage. Anything Picasso said, should be taken with plenty of salt. I admit to admiring SOME of his work, how much of a genius he truly was is debatable. He was talented, and certainly did some great pieces…BUT, public relations never hurt him.
posted by John Charles Heiser on 11-15-2007 at 8:20 pm
Is Guernica a dumbing down of the devastation of war in Spain? Can we do a follow up with Guernica?
posted by witera33it on 1-15-2008 at 12:48 pm
witera33it: Usually, we only do pre-1900 works, to avoid any copyright problems. (Guernica was painted in 1937.) I’ll check, though, and see if we might be able to cover it.
posted by Andréa on 1-15-2008 at 3:40 pm