Picasso Penrose Roland

"The Girls of Avignon"

The difficulties that created uncertainty in Picasso's soul and forced him to write under the influence of two diametrically opposed trends were overcome in the spring of 1907. After working on sketches for months, the artist creates a canvas measuring over six square feet in just a few days. He prepared the canvas for this painting with extraordinary care. The smooth canvas he usually preferred was not strong enough for such a large painting. Therefore, to strengthen it, he used a stronger canvas as a base, covering it with an even smooth canvas and ordering a special stretch for a painting of such an unusual size. Before finishing the work, he invited his friends to look at it. The amazed guests became the first witnesses of the emergence of a new style, full of expression and dynamism.

The painting attracts the viewer primarily with its inherent unartificial beauty. The pink bodies of five naked girls stand out sharply against the background of the curtain, the blue of which resembles the indescribable depth of the Gozol sky. But the artist’s first impulse was obviously restrained by a group of frozen women, like Greek goddesses, piercing the viewer with wide-open black eyes. Their very presence in the picture is surprising. A small pile of juicy fruit at their feet, poured out of an empty half of a watermelon, reminiscent of an upside-down Harlequin hat, seems unnecessary. The figure on the farthest left moves aside the pink curtain with his hand, revealing the angular forms of his friends. Judging by appearance, and above all, from her severe profile, she is undoubtedly Egyptian, while the other two figures in the center, whose delicate pink skin contrasts with the blue background, are more reminiscent of images descended from the medieval frescoes of Catalonia.

There is no sense of movement in the figures. Despite the unusualness of the poses and the absence of the usual gracefulness, there is a sense of calm and dignity in them. Their general appearance contrasts sharply with the two figures on the right, which, when placed one above the other, give the group a complete compositional appearance. The faces of the two figures on the right are so hideously distorted that it seems as if they are from another world. The girl placed at the top right looks through the curtain she has parted, and the figure sitting with her back below, turns around, gazes intently at the viewer with blue eyes.

Amazed friends strongly criticized the work. None of them could understand the reasons that prompted him to depart so sharply from his characteristic style. Among the surprised guests who tried to explain the change that had happened to the artist were Leo Stein and Matisse. The only reason for this transformation, in their opinion, was Picasso’s desire to create a fourth dimension on the canvas. Matisse expressed his sharpest rejection of the painting. His first reaction was that the painting represented a challenge, a caricature of modern trends in painting, and was simply a bad prank of a friend. Braque, who had met Picasso shortly before, also did not approve of the painting. “You might think that instead of regular food we are being offered a candle,” he expressed his impression. The Russian collector Shchukin exclaimed in his hearts: “What a loss for French art!”

Even Apollinaire, who a year earlier, in his first critical review of Picasso’s works, had shown such a subtle understanding of the work of the young Spaniard, could not at first perceive this unthinkable turn in the artist’s manner. In 1905, he expressed his opinion about Picasso’s work in Le L’Etre Moderne: “It is said about Picasso that the canvases he created reveal his premature disappointment. I think completely differently. The artist is fascinated by everything, and his undeniable talent seems to me to complement his imagination, in which the beautiful and the terrible, the subtle and the rough are proportionally intertwined.” Now Apollinaire looked at the dramatic change, the reflection of which was this unusual work, with deep anxiety in his soul.

Apollinaire, who came to get acquainted with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, brought with him the critic Felix Fenion, who had a reputation as a discoverer of young talents. The only advice he gave Picasso after looking at his new painting was that the artist should take up caricature. Recalling this episode later, Picasso noted that the advice was not so bad, since all good portraits are, to a certain extent, caricatures.

However, he could not help but react to the unanimous criticism of the picture by his friends. Judging her not only left him deeply disappointed at their inability to understand him. The prospect of possible hardships again loomed before him, since not a single agent, not even Vollard, wanted to purchase his latest works. The loneliness in which he found himself after creating this truly innovative canvas was so great that Derain, in a conversation with his friend Kahnweiler, once remarked: “One fine day we will find Picasso hanging himself under this outstanding canvas.”

Any person who relied less on his own judgment and less faith in his own unique individuality would undoubtedly take some radical step, step back or change the direction of his forward movement. But for Picasso, criticism was an incentive to follow alone along his chosen path, which would bring him world fame.

The next few months were spent creating the paintings, which Barr described as “the development of the ideas” contained in his work that so surprised his friends. Gradually, they began to express the opinion that the painting, which initially caused them such serious doubts, was not only a turning point in Picasso’s career, but also opened a new page in modern painting. Everyone, with the exception of Leo Stein, who could not come to terms with the change in the artist’s painting style and subsequently condemned Cubism as “utter nonsense,” sooner or later recognized the incomparable merits of the new direction.

There were, however, two exceptions to this initial general disapproval. The German critic and collector Wilhelm Uhde did not hide his admiration for the new style from the very beginning. His young friend Daniel Henri Kahnweiler agreed with him, to whom Ude described the painting before he saw this unusual canvas, painted in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the Assyrian style of writing.

From his first meeting with the author of this painting that revolutionized painting, Kahnweiler remained a friend of Picasso until the end of his life and an authoritative chronicler of Cubism from its inception. Not long before, he had abandoned a promising career in London and moved to Paris to become a painting agent, attracted by the original and expressive power of such young artists as Picasso, Derain, Vlaminck and Braque. They were the first whom he exhibited in the gallery he opened on Rue Vignon.

Although there are conflicting statements about how the painting's title came about (Picasso himself never gave one to his paintings), it is clear that the title Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was coined by André Salmo several years after its creation. This name was suggested to him by the similarity between the naked figures of girls depicted on the canvas, demonstrating their charms, and what could be observed in the houses that do not have a good reputation on the Rue Avignon in Barcelona. One of the wits who did not have a sense of proportion claimed that the name of the painting was given by the grandmother of Max Jacob, a native of Avignon, who allegedly posed for Picasso for one of the female figures.

Like most of Picasso's outstanding works, this painting is the result of the artist's deep thoughts, it is a deliberate mixture of contradictory styles. It seems as if at the time of working on the painting, Picasso’s attitude towards painting and his understanding of the connection between art and beauty underwent dramatic changes. This process was similar to the commander changing tactics during the battle. But instead of hiding the signs of conflict between the two stages of thought, Picasso interrupted the previous one halfway, thereby allowing its overall evolution to be clearly seen. It is this understanding that allows us to bridge the gap that separates the charming charm of the “pink” period from the severity of the style to which it gave new life. The crude depiction of the faces of the two women on the right and complete disregard for all the classical canons of beauty refuted the established statement that “beauty is truth, and truth is beauty,” because no human face can have such monstrous proportions as on the canvas . Yet their impressive presence deeply affects our senses. “These faces, combining the signs of hell and heaven,” in the prophetic words of Melville, “overturn all established ideas in us and again turn us into inquisitive children in this world.”

Picasso completed work on "Girls" a year after the appearance of Matisse's painting "The Joy of Life", with which it has some similarities. However, the subsequent history of these two paintings is completely different. Matisse, as usual, immediately exhibited his paintings when, as they say, the paint on them had not yet dried. And after a few weeks they usually ended up in rich collections; they were admired by art connoisseurs in all corners of the world. Picasso’s “Girls” remained in the artist’s studio, almost no one saw them. The canvas was exhibited only once at the Anten gallery in 1916. The rest of the time it lay rolled up on the floor. It was in this form that it was bought by Jacques Ducet in the early 20s, who, by the way, had never even seen it before. Ducet, realizing the value of the painting, gave it a prominent place in his collection. Although the surrealists spoke highly of it and reproduced it in their magazine La Revolution Surrealist in 1925, very few knew of its existence until the painting was shown at the Petit Palais in 1937. Shortly thereafter, it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. By decision of the museum's management, the painting was exhibited twice in other galleries - the London Institute of Modern Art in 1949 and the Tate Gallery in 1960.

The story of this painting convincingly refutes the popular opinion of ill-wishers that Picasso sought by all means to attract the attention of the public.

Already in the first years after the creation of this painting, when only a few saw it, it had a deep impact on them. It was at this time that Derain and Braque began to move away from Fauvism and began to search for new forms in painting. After his first disapproving review of this work, Braque gradually abandoned his negative assessment of it and became one of the active followers of Cubism in the turbulent years of its development, which Picasso began with this work. Even in Matisse's work during the year following the creation of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, there are signs of a departure from the flat images characteristic of The Joys of Life, and a desire to give the object multidimensionality is discernible. From Picasso's book by Penrose Roland

“THE GIRLS OF AVIGNON” (1906–1909) New trends and Matisse The Parisian “Autumn Salon” was created in 1905 as a protest against the lifeless classical movement in art, whose apologists in every possible way prevented the organization of annual exhibitions of avant-garde artists.

From the book Masterpieces of European Artists author Morozova Olga Vladislavovna

Girls on the seashore Until 1894. Musée d'Orsay, ParisThe work of Puvis de Chavannes is at the origins of symbolism, the artist fills everyday concepts and actions with sublime, encrypted meaning. The author himself considered the painting “Girls on the Seashore” to be his best work. This

From the author's book

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907. Museum of Modern Art, New York "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" left no stone unturned from traditional pictorial codes. The painting is fragmented into spiky fragments-edges, obeying a nervous, pulsating rhythm: “nature is only translated into painting

Chapter VII THE GIRLS OF Avignon

Workshop in Bateau-Lavoir. Summer 1907. Several paintings are on display. But only one immediately attracts attention...

Huge canvas, about six square meters, stretched over a massive frame made to a special order by Picasso, and the canvas itself is denser than usual. But it is not the exceptional size of the painting that amazes visitors, but its plot, or rather the manner in which it is painted.

Before us are five naked women, or rather, five creatures - as no one has ever dared to portray them. It's a strange impression, but it seems as if they were painted by different artists. The two women in the center of the canvas have huge, clearly defined eyes and ears shaped like the number eight. Although their faces are facing the viewer, their noses are turned sideways and look like "quarters of Brie cheese", as if they are depicted in profile. (“This is so that they can be seen better,” explains the artist.) And the two women on the right are made in a completely different manner - they are “geometrized” to the extreme, literally saturated with sharp corners. Their wedge-shaped noses - also turned sideways - are set off by dense shading. And, as if by some kind of anatomical miracle, one of them, crouched, turned her back to us and nevertheless manages to look at us from the front... The faces of all these women are like masks that do not express any feelings. But the rigidity of their features and the complete lack of expression in their eyes give them some inexplicably sinister, terrifying appearance.

Picasso created this painting over eight or nine months, having previously written several dozen sketches. But what did he want to achieve? Demonstrate your extreme hostility to all the classical rules of painting still in use. He deliberately chose such a large canvas. Viewers and colleagues must understand it: this is a manifesto. And Picasso, in this break with generally accepted canons, is going to go further than Cezanne in Big bathers and further than his rival Matisse in Joys of life although he admires these works.

What about the plot? Although he draws it from the classical tradition of depicting “women in the bath” or “Turkish baths”, he turns it into a parody in order to strengthen his gesture, since if you paint naked women, then why only depict them in the bath? After all, it is enough to recall the banal presentation of prostitutes in the salon of one of the brothels, where he was a frequent guest. Isn't that where you can meet greatest number naked bodies? And finally, this is another way to “turn your nose” at tradition. Picasso first named his painting Avignon brothel. This name is not associated with the city of Avignon in France, but with the Rue Avignon on the outskirts of Barcelona, where there were several brothels.

But since this name was phonetically consonant with the name of the city of Avignon in France, where, by the way, Max Jacob’s grandmother was born, Pablo’s friends jokingly said that he wanted to portray the poor old woman as one of the inhabitants of this house. And for fun, they added Fernanda, and then the artist Marie Laurencin...

Avignon brothel... No, it is completely unacceptable to give such a title to a painting in 1907. And then Andre Salmon came up with something else - Philosophical brothel, and then one more thing - Avignon girls, finally assigned to the canvas - to the great chagrin of Pablo, who believed that it lacked the sharpness that the first name suggested.

The reaction of friends to Picasso’s new creation was mostly negative, although the artist clarified that the painting was not yet completed.

Apollinaire was confused: he understood perfectly well that Pablo could not demonstrate to the public a new style of writing without causing some confusion, provoking the viewer - these are the rules of the game. But this time it was still too much... Before, as in the case of Traveling acrobats, Apollinaire, inspired by Pablo, tried to create in poetry something equal to the creation of his friend. But how can you do something similar for a work that does not evoke any feelings in it that can be translated into the language of poetry?

And Felix Feneon, a critic from the Revue Blanche, who came with Guillaume to the Bateau Lavoir, important, inspiring timidity, much older than Pablo, advised the artist in a fatherly manner, patting him on the shoulder:

My young friend, you should take up caricature. You have obvious talent.

Gertrude Stein, who called Pablo “little Napoleon,” is shocked by his outburst. And her brother Leo branded this terrible “daub,” agreeing with Matisse, who also could not hide his indignation:

Little traitor! He wanted to ridicule the modernist movement! But, believe me, he will pay for it...

Rumors spread around the block (both the grocery store and the butcher shop) that the poor boy, the “little Spaniard,” has gone crazy...

In addition to misunderstandings from friends, Pablo also faced problems in his personal life. Upon his return from Gosoli, the artist, being strongly impressed by Iberian primitive art, depicted the beautiful Fernanda in the same way as he did in the portrait of Gertrude and in Girls of Avignon. But Fernanda, who was not at all interested in her lover’s aesthetic searches, regarded this in her own way: he disgustingly disfigured her face, which she was so proud of when men cast admiring glances at her. That Gertrude, who had nothing to lose, agreed to see herself portrayed in such a manner is, after all, her business. But she! And then, obeying an irresistible urge, she hurries to Van Dongen, an artist who lives next door in Bateau-Lavoir with his wife and daughter Dolly. Van Dongen, without hesitation, painted several portraits of her, one of which he called Beautiful Fernanda, where he depicts her half naked. One can imagine the reaction of Pablo, who never allowed any of his lovers to pose for another artist, even if the latter was his friend. Pablo is furious. And Van Dongen clumsily tries to prove that these are not portraits of Fernanda at all, but he fails to convince Picasso, who, knowing the frivolity of his friend, becomes even more irritated.

Pablo becomes increasingly gloomy and tense, as Salmon noted, because he conducts his aesthetic searches completely alone.

But soon one event occurred that darkened Pablo even more. Let us remember that he almost became a father when Madeleine was his mistress... This time, in the winter of 1906/07, the then unfulfilled hope almost came true. And again, Picasso’s work, acting as his personal diary, allows us to understand the artist’s state of mind: he paints a picture in a primitivist style, where he depicts himself tenderly looking at a woman holding a child in her arms ( Man, woman and child Museum of Art, Basel). Unfortunately, Fernanda became infertile due to a miscarriage that occurred early in her marriage. And she, feeling Pablo’s condition, goes to the orphanage next door, on Caulaincourt Street, to adopt the baby and thereby cure Pablo of his longing for the child. But at that time there were few babies in the orphanage, so I brought home a twelve-year-old girl. So, in April 1906, Raymonda appears in Bateau-Lavoir. It is unknown what Picasso’s first reaction was to Fernanda’s similar initiative. But such an option could hardly truly satisfy him. And yet Pablo liked the girl, and he painted her portrait, imbued with tenderness. He was touched by her fate: she was abandoned by her mother, a prostitute from a brothel in Tunisia, then a Dutch journalist took her in, but soon kicked the girl out because she did not show enough inclination for music, as he wanted... However, Raymonda is “cheerful and smart” , as Apollinaire noted. But her presence forces Picasso to often leave the workshop, especially if Fernanda was busy with her toilet. Much more upsetting was the event when Fernanda found the girl naked in the bed of her former lover, sculptor Laurent Debien - she allegedly posed for him.

Gradually, Raymonda's behavior irritates Fernanda more and more, who soon began to punish her severely. She realized that she had made a mistake. And yet she believed that she was trying to do a good deed. But she could no longer control the situation.

Finally, her patience ran out, and in July Fernanda asked the kind Max Jacob to return the girl to the orphanage. Raymonda lived with them for three months. What happened to her, we will never know. Sad story…

And Pablo, more sensitive than he seemed, was shocked by what had happened. He reproaches Fernanda that it was she who provoked such a situation and suggests breaking up. Fernanda later confided to Gertrude Stein: “What a disappointment! It seems that nothing can be corrected, since Pablo declares that he has had enough, but no matter what he says, there is nothing to blame me for, he is simply not created for such a life.”

Despite the breakup, Pablo is forced to leave Fernanda in Bateau-Lavoir, since he did not have the funds to rent her a room. He considered it unworthy to throw a woman out into the street. In September, Vollard returned to Paris and bought several paintings from Picasso, paying 2,500 francs. Now Pablo can finally help Fernanda move into a small room at 5 Rue Girardon.

To somehow earn a living, Fernanda gives lessons French Getrude Stein's friend, Californian Alice Toklas, thirty-three years old, who had just arrived in Paris. Soon she will become more than a friend for Gertrude.

A funny incident illustrates some of Picasso's personality traits. One day, during a dinner party, Pablo grabbed Alice's hand under the table and began to squeeze it tightly, which led Alice into complete confusion - she grew up in a Puritan environment and was not at all ready for such direct attacks...

Did Pablo then realize that he was wasting his time with Miss Toklas? He will not make any further attempts...

Pablo's quarrel with Fernanda did not last too long. As Gertrude rightly noted, Picasso, if he is alone, is not able to stay in the studio, and therefore, work. She also notes that Fernanda no longer wears earrings, which means she is in a difficult situation, and if she has nothing to live for, she will return to Pablo.

Gertrude's prediction came true - at the end of 1907, Fernanda was again in Picasso's studio. Apparently, she finally realized that Picasso’s work deserves much more attention, and realized that the artist needs to be morally supported at a time when he is almost alone trying to carry out a revolution in painting. Who, if not he, is capable of breaking so radically with the laws of perspective of the Renaissance and the classical proportions of the human body?

At this time, the primitive art of Africa and Oceania became very fashionable. Everywhere one could find talismans or idols, as they were called then - at the Flea Market, at Porte Clignancourt, on Rue Mouffetard or at Father Sauvage's (from the French. sauvage - savage), as the antiquarian Hayman was nicknamed. Andre Derain, Vlaminck, Matisse, seized by this fever of exoticism, bought figurines and masks. And Pablo, in turn, became interested in the art of Africa and Oceania, and went to the Museum of Ethnography on the Trocadero. He spent more than one day there, carefully studying the dusty display cases. He felt in these masks and sculptures some kind of magical power; this is the clear desire of African masters to prevent the dangers and horrors of which their ancestors were victims, and which still, but in other forms, threatened modern man. He was also fascinated by their special plasticity, completely new and unusually expressive.

And Picasso was just trying to find a completely new language in painting in order to break with the academic traditions of his era...

For a long time it was believed that it was under the influence of African art that the two female figures on the right in the famous canvas were created. Not at all: as various studies have shown, this is Iberian art and only it inspired Picasso to create similar images, work on which he began already in Gosoli. Where does Pablo’s famous phrase come from: “Negro art? I don’t know such a thing.”

But it is true that much later Pablo would use some techniques borrowed from African sculptures to achieve primitivist effects, especially during the Cubist period.

Returning from Gosoli, Pablo changes his daily routine. Now he works more during the day, which allows him to spend the evenings with friends. They are especially attracted to the Café Closerie de Lilas in Montparnasse; they were first brought here at the end of 1905 by Andre Salmon and Apollinaire. Friends take part in poetry evenings organized in the cafe by the magazine Poems and Prose, founded by Paul Faure (André Salmon was the executive secretary of this magazine). These evenings brought together poets, writers, artists, sculptors and musicians. In the smoky hall, where most of the clients were, as a rule, under the influence of strong drinks, emboldened poets read their poems to the incessant hum of people. Silence fell when Yannis Papadiamantopoulos, better known as Jean Moreas, took the floor. This imposing Greek read his “Stanzas” in a beautiful, sonorous voice, waving his hand covered in gold rings in rhythm. His enemies nicknamed him Matamoreas. Frankly speaking, Pablo also did not like this poet, but he tried not to show it, since Moreas was the idol of Apollinaire and Manolo. “What a life, what a commotion! What madness! - Fernanda wrote about these evenings, and Picasso imagined that he was back in “Four Cats”. He adored these literary collections so much that nothing stopped him from covering the difficult route Montmartre - Montparnasse on foot (he was not able to hire a cab at that time). And on the way back, I tried to find something edible in the trash cans for my dogs and cats, which I could not do without, no matter how poor I was at that time.

During these years, at evenings at the Closerie de Lilas, Picasso could meet writers and artists from all over the world - for example, the Italian Marinetti, the Englishman Stuart Merrill or the Greek student Christian Zervos, who much later would create a unique catalog of Picasso’s paintings and drawings, a monumental work enjoying universal recognition.

Of all the employees of the Poetry and Prose magazine, Alfred Jarry had the greatest influence on Picasso. Apparently they never met in person, but that did not stop them from knowing a lot about each other from mutual friends Apollinaire, Max Jacob and André Salmon. Jarry is only eight years older than Picasso, but, having undermined his health with alcohol, he was too weak and already close to the end, which happened in 1907. He became famous overnight by writing the play “King Ubu,” which turned him into the most famous personality of the theatrical avant-garde. His taste for parody and absurdity, extravagant antics, originality of behavior - all this delighted Picasso. And besides, they were brought together by the fact that Jarry, like Picasso, was short. But he successfully compensated for this deficiency, just like Pablo...

Picasso admired his eccentricities; for example, Jarry sometimes wore paper shirts on which he drew ties. Pablo would later imitate him. In addition, Jarry, like Picasso, was completely indifferent to comfort: he lived in his “country house,” a miserable shack made of planks on four pillars, where he climbed a rope and entered the house through a hatch in the floor.

Everyone knew Jarry's passion for firearms, which, however, at first did not particularly bother anyone, since he was the kindest person. One day, when he was amusing himself by shooting apples in a neighbor’s tree, an excited woman shouted: “Stop it, you unfortunate thing! You can kill my children! To which Jarry condescendingly replied: “Don’t worry, madam, we will make you others!” Another time, he shot at the mirror on the wall of the bistro and, sitting down next to one of the frightened customers, calmly told her: “And now that the ice is broken, if you don’t mind, let’s chat!” There was something of a clown about him, which Pablo especially appreciated. But gradually Jarry became truly dangerous; he not only abused ether as a drug, but also became addicted to absinthe, and drank it undiluted. During one of the feasts organized on the Rue Rennes by Maurice Raynal, he unexpectedly shot Manolo, considering him too sober. Apollinaire immediately took the pistol from him and, not knowing what to do with it, handed it to Picasso. And, oddly enough, Pablo, like Jarry, will use it more than once. “There was always a Browning in his pocket,” noted Fernanda Olivier in her memoirs. One evening, as he was leaving the Agile Rabbit, four Germans accosted him and asked him what one of his paintings meant. Pablo was so irritated by such questions that he shot into the air four times - the frightened Germans immediately disappeared. Sometimes, in the company of friends, while having fun, Picasso would shoot into the air to enliven the atmosphere, pushed either by excessive exaltation or simply by the desire to reinforce his conviction. So, in 1907, he became such an ardent admirer of Cezanne that, putting the pistol on the table, he announced that he would shoot without hesitation at anyone who expressed even the slightest doubt about the genius of this artist...

The extent to which Picasso admired Jarry is evidenced by his numerous drawings dedicated to the hero of Jarry’s famous play “The King of Ubu.” And during civil war in Spain, in 1937, he creates a whole series of anti-Franco drawings, where he likens General Franco to King Ubu. Moreover, in 1941, Picasso wrote the play “Desire Caught by the Tail” - clownish and obscene at the same time, in the spirit of Jarry, and showed his friends precious pages of the manuscript of “The King of Ubu”, many of which he knew by heart.

This kinship of souls between Picasso and Jarry, who were strongly brought together by their desire for “iconoclasm”, for the overthrow of established classical canons, is one of the clearest confirmations of deep unity, despite all the apparent diversity, various types art.

In the fall of 1907, Alfred Jarry died suddenly, at the age of thirty-four. But he continues to inspire Picasso, to guide his pencil, brush and pen. And perhaps it is not too much of an exaggeration to regard Pablo as his most authentic follower.

Description of the painting by Pablo Picasso “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”

The famous cubist artist Pablo Picasso lived in Spain, where more than one of his paintings and sculptures was born. One of his weaknesses was girls of easy virtue. It was they who inspired the creation called “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. Pablo loved to depict female bodies, in various poses and colors, but most often they were naked women. As a creative person, Picasso was always in constant search, in the process of painting he changed the tones and surrounding objects, and he generally began this painting with an image of two men and prostitutes.

One had a skull in his hands as a symbol and personification of death, and the girl represented platonic love as her main activity. Subsequently, the artist removed men from the picture and left only a few prostitutes, whose legs were covered with a curtain. What did the author mean by this? Maybe he decided to introduce at least some intrigue and mystery into the picture, and not put the whole idea on display at once? To ensure that the plot had a harmonious pattern, he added several fruits to the overall composition.

With his painting, the artist challenged the society of that time, a certain psychological message. Taking a closer look at the women depicted, you can see how their forms have sharp outlines, there are no smooth transitions or bends. His approach to this type of depiction of bodies was something new and unknown, which later became the artist’s own style.

Pablo Picasso worked on the painting for a long time, step by step. First, he depicted the women who were in the center, then he completed the details. Special attention the ladies' noses are riveted in the picture. They appear disproportionately large compared to other parts of the body. The author also depicted the women’s faces with sharp angular strokes, which gave rise to a new direction - cubism.

Pablo Picasso "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907).
Canvas, oil. 243.9 x 233.7 cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York

This painting, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1907 and which became a significant stage in the artist’s personal creative path, largely determined the fate of visual arts at all. Despite the fact that the painting first saw the light only thirty years after it was written, it appeared to the world as an open door to the avant-garde. After all, the first viewers of “Les Demoiselles” were artists who were Picasso’s contemporaries: J. Braque, A. Derain, A. Matisse... The latter spoke extremely critically about the canvas, and in this “judgment” a deeply personal motive is seen. It seems reasonable to assume that the ambitious Frenchman, spoiled by public recognition, was simply jealous of the painting, seeing in “The Maidens” and not in his “Dance” the key to the further development of painting.

Parisian bohemia was divided into two “camps”, one of which was “for” the “Maids”, the other “against”. Georges Braque, for example, belonged to the “right”. Having become one of the “founders” of Cubism, together with Picasso he went through the “analytical” stage. Brak wrote his nude, inspired by “Maids”. But the famous Spaniard also had his own creative “mentor”. Paul Cézanne largely anticipated Picasso's analytical approach, introducing the geometric principle of interpretation of form into painting.

Speaking about Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", one cannot help but recall Cezanne's "Bathers". And this is not the only prerequisite. The canon of Iberian plastic art, a branch of archaic art popular among artists at that time, which formed the basis of Picasso’s “African Period”, was embodied in this painting. Completing the above-mentioned creative stage of the artist, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” “proclaims” the next one. The hand pushing back the curtain has a double meaning: revealing the space of Cubism to the viewer, it testifies to the theatricality of what is happening on the canvas. Painting and theater - two of Picasso's hobbies - meet in this picture.

K: Paintings of 1907

History of creation

"Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" is the first painting of Picasso's cubic period, painted in 1907. The inspiration for this painting may have been Paul Cézanne's painting "Bathers", as well as the exhibition of Iberian sculpture held in Paris in 1906. The original title of the painting was “The Philosophical Brothel”, the final title “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” was given by the writer Andre Salmon, a friend of the artist. The painting attracted great attention among Parisian artists. Impressed by the painting, Georges Braque painted the painting “Nude”; the influence of this painting can also be seen in the works of Andre Derain and Robert Delaunay.

In 1920, the painting was acquired by collector Jacques Doucet, before which the painting had not been exhibited. The painting was first exhibited in 1937.

Plot

According to one version, the “plot” of the painting is inspired by a brothel in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter on Carrer d’Avigno. The canvas depicts five naked women, painted in different manners. The two figures on the right, with faces reminiscent of African masks, mark the birth of a new movement in painting, cubism. The women are painted in pink and ocher tones, the background is in blue tones, which is reminiscent of “pink” [what?] and the “blue” periods of Picasso’s work. [[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]]

Write a review on the article "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

An excerpt characterizing the Les Demoiselles of Avignon

- I give you one week, Madonna. I hope that you will come to your senses and feel sorry for Anna. And myself... - and grabbing my daughter by the arm, Caraffa jumped out of the room.
I just now remembered that I need to breathe... Dad stunned me so much with his behavior that I couldn’t come to my senses and kept waiting for the door to open again. Anna mortally insulted him, and I was sure that, having recovered from the attack of anger, he would definitely remember this. My poor girl!.. Her fragile, pure life hung by a thread, which could easily break at the capricious will of Caraffa...
For some time I tried not to think about anything, giving my fevered brain at least some respite. It seemed that not only Caraffa, but along with him the entire world I knew had gone crazy... including my brave daughter. Well, our lives were extended another week... Could anything have been changed? In any case, in this moment there was not a single more or less normal thought in my tired, empty head. I stopped feeling anything, I stopped even being afraid. I think this is exactly how people who went to their death felt...
Could I change anything in just seven short days, if I failed to find the “key” to Caraffa for four long years?.. In my family, no one ever believed in chance... Therefore, hope that something will unexpectedly bring salvation - that would be the child’s wish. I knew that there was nowhere to wait for help. Father clearly could not help if he offered Anna to take her essence, in case of failure... Meteora also refused... We were alone with her, and we had to help ourselves only. Therefore, I had to think, trying not to lose hope until the last moment, that in this situation it was almost beyond my strength...
The air began to thicken in the room - North appeared. I just smiled at him, without feeling any excitement or joy, because I knew that he had not come to help.
– Greetings, North! What brings you again?.. – I asked calmly.
He looked at me in surprise, as if not understanding my calmness. He probably didn’t know that there is a limit to human suffering, which is very difficult to reach... But having reached even the worst, he becomes indifferent, since there is no strength left even to be afraid...

Picasso girls of Avignon. Painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso