Picasso. Victoria Charles

science.

      Self-Portrait

      1901

      oil on canvas, 73.5 × 60.5 cm

      private collection

      Kahnweiler testifies that in his old age Picasso spoke with greater approval of these early paintings than of those done in Barcelona, where the Ruiz Picasso family moved in the autumn of 1895 and where Pablo immediately enrolled as a student of painting in the School of Fine Arts called La Lonja.

      Two Figures in Profile and the Head of a Man, Studies

      1901

      oil and tempera on paper, 41.2 × 57.2 cm

      The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

      So as not to upset his father, Picasso spent two more years in there, during which time he could not but fall, albeit temporarily, under the deadening influence of academism, inculcated by the official school along with certain professional skills. “…I hate the period of my training at Barcelona,” Picasso confessed to Kahnweiler.

      Le Gourmet

      1901

      oil on canvas, 92.8 × 68.3 cm

      The National Gallery, London

      However, the studio which his father rented for him, and which gave him a certain freedom from both school and the stifling atmosphere of family relations, was a real support for his independence.

      It was here that Picasso summarized the achievements of his school years by executing his first large canvases: The First Communion (winter of 1895–1896) and Science and Charity (beginning of 1897).

      Harlequin and His Companion

      1901

      oil on canvas, 73 × 60 cm

      The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

      The latter received honourable mention at the national exhibition of fine arts in Madrid and was later awarded a gold medal at an exhibition in Málaga. His departure from home for Madrid in the autumn of 1897, supposedly to continue his formal education at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, in fact ushered in the period of post-study years – his years of wandering.

      Child with a Pigeon

      1901

      oil on canvas, 73 × 54 cm

      The National Gallery, London

      Pablo Picasso’s wander-years consisted of several phases within a seven year period, from his initial departure to Madrid in 1897, to his final settling in Paris, artistic capital of the world, in the spring of 1904. To Picasso, Madrid meant first and foremost the Prado Museum, which he frequented more often than the Royal Academy of San Fernando in order to copy the Old Masters (he was particularly attracted by Velázquez).

      The Absinthe Drinker

      1901

      oil on canvas, 73 × 54 cm

      The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

      It might be said that the most important events for Picasso in the Spanish capital were the harsh winter of 1897–1898 and the subsequent illness that symbolically marked the end of his “academic career”. In contrast, the time spent at Horta de Ebro – a village in the mountainous area of Catalonia, where he went to convalesce and where he remained for eight long months (until the spring of 1899) – was of such significance for Picasso that even decades later he would invariably repeat: “All that I know, I learnt in Horta de Ebro.”

      The Absinthe Drinker

      1901

      oil on cardboard, 65.5 × 50.8 cm

      collection Mrs Melville Hall, New York

      The months spent in this village were significant not so much in the sense of artistic production as for their key role in the young Picasso’s creative biography, with its long process of maturation.

      After his first stay at Horta de Ebro, a matured and renewed Picasso returned to Barcelona, which he now saw in a new light: as a centre of progressive trends, as a city open to modern ideas.