Barcelona Guide
La Ribera
Museu Picasso
Address: c/Montcada 15–23
Telephone: 932 563 000
Website: www.museupicasso.bcn.cat
Opening time: Tues– Sun & hols 10am–8pm
Price: General admission €9, exhibitions €5.80, first Sun of month free
Although born in Málaga, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) spent much of his youth – from 14 to 23 – in Barcelona. Picasso's time in Barcelona encompassed his entire Blue Period (1901–04), and he maintained close links after he left for Paris in 1904, always thinking of himself as Catalan rather than andaluz. While the celebrated Museu Picasso ranks among the world's most important Picasso collections, some visitors are disappointed that it contains none of his best-known works. Nevertheless, almost 4000 pieces provide a fascinating opportunity to trace Picasso's development from his early paintings as a young boy to the major works of later years. Arrive early to beat the crowds.
The museum is much larger than it first appears, occupying five adjoining medieval palaces.
Displays follow the artist's development chronologically, with the early periods by far the best represented. The early drawings, particularly, are fascinating, in which Picasso – still signing with his full name, Pablo Ruiz Picasso – attempted to copy the nature paintings in which his father specialized. Paintings from his art school days in Barcelona (1895–97) show tantalizing glimpses of the city – the Gothic old town, the cloisters of Sant Paul del Camp, Barceloneta beach. Even at 15 and 16 he was producing serious works, including knowing self-portraits. Works in the style of Toulouse-Lautrec, like the menu for Els Quatre Gats tavern in 1900, reflect Picasso's burgeoning interest in Parisian art. His paintings from the Blue Period (1901–04) burst upon you – whether its moody Barcelona rooftops or the cold face of La Dona Morta – and subsequent galleries trace the Pink Period (1905–06), though with the barest nod to his Cubist (1907–20) and Neoclassical (1920–25) stages.
The large gaps in the main collection (for example, nothing from 1905 until the celebrated Harlequin of 1917) underline Picasso's extraordinary changes of style and mood. This is best illustrated by the jump to 1957, a year represented by his 44 interpretations of Velázquez's masterpiece, Las Meninas, completed in just four months between August and December.
Separate rooms display annually changing exhibitions of Picasso's prints, culled from the museum's 1500 or so engravings and lithographs.