Here are 17 Interesting Pablo Picasso facts.
1-5 Pablo Picasso Facts
1. During the Second World War, Pablo Picasso remained in Paris while the Germans occupied the city. During one search of his apartment, a German officer saw a photograph of the painting Guernica. “Did you do that?” the German asked Picasso. To which he replied “No, you did”. – Source
2. Pablo Picasso’s full name is Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de Los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. – Source
3. Pablo Picasso was questioned as a suspect when Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911. – Source
4. Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting “La Lecture” depicts Picasso’s mistress asleep with a book upon her lap. The painting led to the breakup of Picasso’s marriage after his wife saw it at an exhibition and realized that the facial features (though highly stylized) were not her own. – Source
5. The Picasso painting, Le Rêve, presumably shows Pablo’s erect penis on the upturned face of his model. – Source
6-10 Pablo Picasso Facts
6. Pablo Picasso claimed credit for the invention of “dazzle” camouflage (widely used on WWI ships to disguise position and heading), due to its similarity to Cubist art. – Source
7. Pablo Picasso’s famous “The Bull/Bullhead” was defined by him as a picture which was the sum of destruction. This exists as a suite of 11 lithographic plates and is a master class in how to develop an artwork from the academic to the abstract. – Source
8. Pablo Picasso was a not very nice guy, especially to his family. His wife, grandson, and a mistress all committed suicide. His grandson drank a bottle of bleach a few days after not being allowed to attend Pablo’s funeral and died three months later. – Source
9. The widow of the prominent artist Pablo Picasso, Francoise Gilot, later married biological science pioneer Jonas Salk. She continues to make the artwork for The Salk Institute’s philanthropic events-heavily influenced by Picasso’s style. – Source
10. Pablo Picasso was capable of painting incredibly realistic paintings at the age of 15. – Source
11-15 Pablo Picasso Facts
11. Pablo Picasso had to burn his own paintings to keep his room warm. – Source
12. Pablo Picasso’s roommate had a dachshund named Lump, and Picasso was more attached to him than any of his own pets (a boxer and a goat). The lump was his muse, there are several paintings of him in Picasso’s work, and once Lump even ate one of his paintings. Picasso died one week after Lump. – Source
13. Due to lack of funds, Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist was painted over another painting of a woman in a field nursing a child next to a sheep and a bull. – Source
14. Pablo Picasso created a piece in 1951 called “Massacre In Korea” as a protest during the Korean War. – Source
15. Ernest Hemingway once traded a case of hand grenades to Pablo Picasso for a one-of-a-kind cat sculpture. The sculpture was misplaced in a box in the Hemingway house for decades until it was discovered, broken, by the caretaker in 1974. – Source
16-17 Pablo Picasso Facts
16. In 1950, Brian Blessed met famous painter Pablo Picasso at a World Peace Congress in Sheffield. Upon asking Picasso to prove he was really the famous painter, he drew him the dove of peace which Brian turned down. The drawing is now valued around £57,000,000. – Source
17. Pablo Picasso was a fervent member of the French Communist Party and he received the Stalin Peace Prize from the USSR. – Source
