One of Barcelona’s most popular attractions, the Picasso Museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces: Berenguer d’Aguilar, Baró de Castellet, Meca, Mauri and Finestres. The collection focuses largely on Picasso’s early work, showing the development of the young painter and the influence of the city that was his home for many years.
t One of the paintings in Picasso’s Las Meninas series (1947)
Experience Old Town
t Visitors wandering through stone archways inside the Museu Picasso
The core of the Picasso Museum’s collection is a large donation made in 1963 by the artist’s secretary and great friend, Jaume Sabartés. Given that Picasso had publicly sworn that he wouldn’t set foot in Spain while Franco lived, it was known as the Sabartés Collection for many years (as a museum using the artist’s own name would have been met with censorship). Following Sabartes’ death in 1968, Picasso himself donated further paintings, including early examples. These were later complemented by graphic works, left in his will, and 141 ceramic pieces given by his widow, Jacqueline.
The setting of the museum itself makes for a unique experience. Visitors are able to wander through stone archways, into pretty courtyards and up well-preserved staircases as they take in the artworks.
The strength of the 4,200-piece collection, which includes sketches, paintings, sculptures and ceramics, is Picasso’s early works. These show how, even at the ages of 15 and 16, he had prodigious talent, while the haunting paintings of his Blue Period evoke the misery and hopelessness of beggars and prostitutes he encountered on Barcelona’s streets. The highlight of the museum’s collection, however, is Picasso’s extraordinary suite of 58 paintings, which he created in response to Velázquez’s masterpiece, Las Meninas (1656).
Picasso’s full name is 23 words long and includes the names of many saints.
Picasso (1881–1973) was born in Málaga and was almost 14 when he came to Barcelona. He enrolled in the city’s art academy, and was a precocious talent among his contemporaries. Amid the prostitutes of Carrer d’Avinyò Picasso found inspiration for his Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1906–7). He left Barcelona for Paris in his early twenties and initially returned several times, but after the Civil War his opposition to Franco kept him in France.
18.191.21.86