Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is a famous painting made in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It is now part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting shows five women in a special house in a street called Carrer d'Avinyó in Barcelona, Spain. These women are shown in strong, unusual ways, with sharp shapes and different styles that mix many cultures.

Picasso was inspired by masks and art from many places around the world. He wanted to create something very new and powerful. This painting helped change modern art forever and led Picasso and his friend Georges Braque to develop a new style called cubism.

When the painting was first shown in 1916, many people were shocked and upset. It was seen as very bold and different from what people were used to. A poet named André Salmon changed its title to make it less shocking, but Picasso still thought of it as “my brothel.” This artwork remains one of the most important and talked-about pieces in modern art history.

Background and development

Picasso became a well-known artist in the early 1900s. He moved to Paris from Spain and spent time living in Barcelona, Madrid, and the Spanish countryside before settling in Paris.

Between 1901 and 1904, Picasso created paintings known as his Blue Period. These artworks showed sad and difficult moments he had seen in Spain and Paris, like families in need and blind people.

From 1904 to 1907, Picasso entered what is called his Rose Period. During this time, his paintings used warmer colors and showed more joyful scenes of circus performers and actors. Two important paintings from this period are Family of Saltimbanques and Boy Leading a Horse. Picasso also created large paintings of women and began showing his work in Paris galleries, gaining popularity among art lovers. El Greco, Saint Martin and the Beggar, c. 1597–1600, Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picasso, Boy Leading a Horse 1905–06, Museum of Modern Art

Picasso's Rose Period work Boy Leading a Horse, recalls the paintings of Paul Cézanne and El Greco, who heavily influenced Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Rivalry with Matisse

The year 1905 saw the Salon d'Automne showcase the works of Henri Matisse and the Les Fauves group. Critic Louis Vauxcelles called them "wild beasts," which made them famous. Even though many people criticized their paintings, some liked them too.

Matisse kept gaining fame and followers, while Picasso, after his Blue Period and Rose Period, was also becoming well-known. In 1907, Picasso finished Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a very surprising and shocking painting. This work made Picasso a major figure in modern art, overshadowing Matisse and the Fauves. Picasso joined a Paris gallery run by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who became a big supporter of his art. Soon, Picasso was seen as one of the leading modern artists, alongside Matisse and others like Georges Braque and André Derain.

Influences

Picasso created many drawings and studies before finishing his famous painting. He always valued Spanish art and sculptures from Iberia as important influences. Some experts think the painting was also inspired by masks from Africa and the art of Oceania, though Picasso himself did not agree. One night in 1906, Picasso studied a figure from Congo owned by Matisse, and that same night he began his first sketches for what would become Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Some believe Picasso visited the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, later called the Musée de l'Homme, in spring 1907, where he saw African and other artworks that inspired him.

One artist Picasso admired was El Greco. In 1907, Picasso started work on Les Demoiselles while greatly respecting El Greco, though El Greco was not well-known at the time. Picasso’s friend Ignacio Zuloaga owned one of El Greco’s famous paintings, The Opening of the Fifth Seal, which Picasso studied often. This painting influenced the size, style, and powerful feeling of Les Demoiselles.

Another big influence was Paul Cézanne. Cézanne’s artwork was shown in Paris between 1903 and 1907, and his ideas helped shape the beginning of Cubism, which Picasso later explored. Cézanne suggested looking at the world as simple shapes like cubes and spheres, which inspired Picasso and other artists.

Paul Gauguin also influenced Picasso. Gauguin’s strong and simple style, shown in his paintings and sculptures, inspired Picasso’s bold figures in Les Demoiselles. In 1906, Gauguin’s artwork was displayed in Paris, leaving a strong impression on Picasso.

Picasso was also interested in African art and Iberian sculptures. During this time, Europe was learning about African masks and sculptures, which fascinated many artists. Some think Picasso saw these artworks in museums or books, which helped shape the style of the women in Les Demoiselles.

Lastly, Picasso was introduced to ideas about mathematics and geometry by a friend, Maurice Princet. Princet talked about complex shapes and dimensions, which Picasso used in his sketches for the painting.

Impact

Although Les Demoiselles had a big influence on modern art, it didn't have an impact right away. The painting stayed in Picasso's studio for many years. At first, only Picasso's close friends and art experts knew about the work.

A photo of Les Demoiselles was first shown in a magazine article in 1910. The painting wasn't shown in public until 1916 and wasn't widely known as a major achievement until the early 1920s.

Picasso's friends had different thoughts about the painting. Some liked it, while others were troubled by it. One art expert thought the painting marked the start of a new art style called Cubism.

Public view and title

From July 16 to July 31, 1916, Les Demoiselles was shown to the public for the first time at the Salon d'Antin. This exhibition was organized by André Salmon and took place at 26 rue d'Antin, thanks to the famous couturier and art collector Paul Poiret. The larger Salon d'Automne and Salon des Indépendants were closed because of World War I, making this the only show for Cubist artists in France since 1914.

Picasso called his painting Le Bordel d'Avignon, but André Salmon changed the title to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to make it less shocking. Picasso did not like this new title, but it became the one everyone used. The painting was stored and kept with Picasso until 1924 when he sold it to a designer named Jacques Doucet.

Later, between September 1984 and January 1985, the painting was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition called "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. The show aimed to show how modern artists were inspired by tribal art from Africa, Oceania, and North America. However, some people criticized the exhibition for treating tribal cultures as different and strange.

Interpretation

Pablo Picasso drew each of the women in Les Demoiselles in a different way. One woman is painted with thick layers, and her head looks very different from the others because Picasso used a style called Cubism. The women all look strong and not like typical pictures of women.

Many people have talked about why Picasso painted the women so differently. Some think it shows a change in Picasso’s art style, leading to Cubism. Others believe Picasso chose different styles to show where each woman came from.

Art critic John Berger thought the painting was very shocking when it was first seen. He believed it helped start Cubism. Another expert, Leo Steinberg, thought the different styles were meant to make the viewer feel like they were being watched by the women in the painting.

The painting was very important in Picasso’s career and helped change modern art. It showed a new way to see and paint the world.

Purchase

Jacques Doucet saw the painting at the Salon d'Antin and bought Les Demoiselles from Picasso without asking to see it again. Picasso seemed nervous and agreed to the price of 25,000 francs without arguing. Doucet offered to pay Picasso 2,000 francs each month until the full amount was paid.

Later, it seems Doucet actually paid 30,000 francs. A few months later, he had the painting valued between 250,000 and 300,000 francs. Some believe Picasso sold the painting at the lower price because Doucet promised to leave it to the Louvre after he died. However, when Doucet passed away in 1929, he did not leave the painting to the Louvre, and it was sold along with the rest of his collection.

In November 1937, the Jacques Seligman & Co. art gallery in New York City displayed Les Demoiselles in an exhibition called "20 Years in the Evolution of Picasso, 1903–1923." The Museum of Modern Art bought the painting for $24,000. The museum helped raise $18,000 by selling a Degas painting, and the rest of the money came from donations by the gallery owners Germain Seligman and Cesar de Hauke.

The Museum of Modern Art held a big Picasso exhibition on 15 November 1939, which lasted until 7 January 1940. The exhibition was called Picasso: 40 Years of His Art and was organized by Alfred H. Barr together with the Art Institute of Chicago. It featured 344 works, including the famous 1937 painting Guernica and its studies, as well as Les Demoiselles.

Legacy

In July 2007, Newsweek called Les Demoiselles d'Avignon the "most influential work of art of the last 100 years." An art critic said that Picasso changed art history with this painting, showing new and strong figures instead of the usual gentle ones.

The painting appeared in a 1993 play by Steve Martin called Picasso at the Lapin Agile, where the young Picasso meets Albert Einstein in a Paris cafe. It was also featured in the 2018 season of the TV series Genius, which tells stories about Picasso's life and art.

Painting materials

In 2003, experts at the Museum of Modern Art studied the painting and found it was made using several special paints. They discovered colors like white made from lead, black from bone, bright red called vermilion, yellow from cadmium, blue from cobalt, green from emerald, and brown earth colors that have iron in them.