Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain. The son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blanco, he began to draw at an early age. In 1895, the family moved to Barcelona, and Picasso studied there at La Lonja, the Academy of Fine Arts. His visit to Horta de Ebro from 1898 to 1899 and his association with the group at the café Els Quatre Gats about 1899 were crucial to his early artistic development.

In 1900, Picasso's first exhibition took place in Barcelona, and that fall he went to Paris for the first of several stays during the early years of the century. Picasso settled in Paris in April 1904. Among the enormous number of Picasso exhibitions that were held during the artist's lifetime, those at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1939) and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (1955) were most significant. Most unusual, however, was the 1971 exhibition at the Louvre, in Paris, until then, living artists had not been shown there.

Picasso died in 1973. In 1980 a major retrospective showing of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Further solo exhibitions were held at the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1992-93), Kunsthal, Rotterdam (1999) and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2000). Most recently a major 'Matisse/Picasso' exhibition was held at the Tate Gallery, London (2002).