First Communion by Pablo Picasso, 1895-96.
Picasso's father was a painter who taught his son the skills of an artist at a young age. That allowed him to complete this work at the age of 15.
Earliest Influences
Woman, Bird by Moonlight by Joan Miro.
Miro was one of the most prominent members of the Surrealist movement. His artwork is filled with fantasy and color and he brings the viewer inside his fantasy world. Miro's work is said to resemble pre-historic cave paintings.
El Escribir en la Arena
Portrait of the Duchess of Alba by Francisco Goya y Lucientes.
Known as Goya, in his lifetime he painted over 500 works and almost 300 drawings and lithographs. As the Spanish court painter many of his works were political in nature, especially focusing on the invasion of Spain by Napolean's France. This painting of the Duchess shows her pointing down to the sand where Solo Goya is written. She also wears two rings, one that says Goya and one that says Alba, this leads people to believe they were linked romantically.
Coming Up Roses
Acrobat and Young Harlequin 1905 by Pablo Picasso, The Barnes Foundation.
Painted in 1905 this work is part of Picasso's Rose Period that The Barnes Foundation .came after his Blue Period. His subjects during this time often included acrobats dancers and harlequins.
Hankie
Weeping Woman, 1937 by Pablo Picasso, Tate Gallery, London.
Picasso did a series of "Weeping Women" where their faces and emotions are broken-up by grief and the cubist style of creating an image out of a series of planes.
Breaking it Down
Composition 8, 1914 by Piet Mondrian, The Guggenheim Museum, NYC.
This is Mondrian's interpretation of a tree after seeing the cubist work of Braque and Picasso. He eventually took it to an even more abstract level.
Piet Mondrian Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue © 2007 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust c/o HCR International, Warrenton, VA
Consumed
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters from Los Caprichos,1799 by Francisco Goya.
Los Caprichos was a series of prints Goya produced after he had become quite ill and eventually lost his hearing. It seems he let his imagination run wild and captured all of these unfettered thoughts in this group of etchings.
Hey, I didn't post a Dali yet.
The Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1969-70 by Salvador Dali, the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL.
Dali conceived this work in an art supply store. It is rich with color and imagery. It features the famous ancient statue of Venus now housed in the Louvre.
Before Cubism
Portrait Olga dans un Fauteuil by Pablo Picasso, Picasso Museum
Olga in an armchair. This early portrait is of his first wife Olga whom he married in 1918 and separated from in 1927, but never divorced. She was active in society and Picasso had disdain for that lifestyle.