Becoming Picasso

1901 was a momentous and turbulent year for the nineteen-year-old Picasso. His first visit to Paris, at the end of 1900, had fuelled his ambitions and led to the prospect of an exhibition with one of the city's most important modern art dealers, Ambroise Vollard. As he prepared work for the show he received news that his closest friend, Carles Casagemas, had committed suicide. The tragedy would have a profound impact upon his art as the year unfolded. Picasso left for Paris in May with around 20 paintings and little over a month to produce enough work to fill his Vollard exhibition. Once there, he painted unstintingly, sometimes finishing three canvases in a single day. This great outpouring of creative energy resulted in more than 60 paintings for the exhibition. The canvases express Picasso's desire to take on and reinvent the styles and motifs of his artist heroes, such as Van Gogh, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec.