Picasso Sold For Record Price

At an auction at New York's auction house Christie's the painting Nude, Green Leaves and Bust

by Pablo Picasso sold for $106,500,000. A bidder who prefers to remain anonymous has won the auction earlier in May 2010 by bidding via phone.

The painting which measures 150 x 120 cm, depicts a female reclining nude with an image of Picasso himself in the background watching over her. The painting belonged to the deceased Californian art lover Frances Lasker Brody who had bought it in the 50's. The artwork remained in her family for over 50 years. A part of the proceedings from the auction will go to the Huntington Library in California, a library in which Brody settled in the board.

The previous record paid for a Picasso painting was $104 200 000 for Boy with a Pipe. Although Picasso has created many works, the work that he has done for modern art still remains truly appreciated by art collectors and art lovers around the world. The most expensive painting by any artist is a work of Jackson Pollock (Number 5) which fetched $140 million dollars in 2006 at Sotheby's.

Due to the economic crisis we have noticed a sharp decline in the prices private collectors as well as museums are paying for contemporary art. However strong pieces by strong artists have managed to keep the momentum going. In an over-hyped world, everything sells well but in a world that is tightening, true class still gets the praise it should.

Picasso's Weeping Woman

There is much scholarly speculation as to the degree to which Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman series, of which this picture is a prime example, is a meditation on the artist's relationship with his mistress at the time, Surrealist photographer Dora Maar.

While the translation of Maar's distinctive features onto the canvas encourages a reading of the painting as personal working-through of the lovers' tumultuous affair, the painting is more aptly thought of as a continuation of Picasso's response to the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. In fact the anguished woman seen here echoes the writhing, screaming civilians in Picasso's monumental mural "Guernica," painted to memorialize the senseless bombing of the eponymous village, as well as those brutalized victims depicted in his satiric etching "Dream and Lie of Franco," a searing attack against General Francisco Franco.

With Weeping Woman, Picasso traces the after-effects of widespread violence. Rather than depicting the woes of war directly, Picasso does something perhaps more profound: he vivifies in paint the sadness and sense of despair that follows such inhumanity.

Focusing on female suffering, Picasso underlines the tragedy of those without agency in times of war. With this picture Picasso pushes cubist principles and tendencies to their emotive limits. The woman's face appears distorted with grief.

Her features shattered by loss, the woman cries out as needle-like tears splinter from her teardrop shaped eyes. The harsh palette and angular almost architectural brush-strokes lend a piercing heaviness to the picture. The painting is an exquisite demonstration of Picasso's awe-inspiring ability to create pictures that at simultaneously shock and elicit empathy from viewers.

Pablo Picasso - The African Period

Picasso's Rose Period was followed by an even more radical departure in style. From 1907 to 1909 Picasso's art was influenced by his interest in so-called "primitive" arts, especially African Masks. This period, consequently, became known as the African Period. His paintings, typified by simplified, angular forms, were rendered in a muted palette of reds and browns.

Around this time, the French empire was expanding into Africa, and African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums, exposing Picasso to a truly unique form of art. It explored emotional and psychological areas not seen in western art, which was regarded by the avant garde as subservient to the world of appearances. For them, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical experience was more important than that of mere sight. In African art, which possessed remarkable expressive power, they saw a response to those higher faculties.

Picasso's most remarkable achievement from this period, the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, came at the beginning of 1907 and is arguably the most influential painting of the twentieth century. Following this work, Picasso began painting in a style influenced by the two figures on the right side of the painting, the figures themselves inspired by African masks, with their striped patterns and oval forms.

In 1907 the painting was considered extremely daring. The influence of African art led to distortions and visual incongruities. For example, at the bottom right of the picture, the figure's head is turned in a way which is anatomically impossible. Surprisingly, even Picasso's fellow painters, stalwarts of the avant garde, reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Henri Matisse is alleged to have told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

The Many Styles Of Picasso

Pablo Picasso. Is there any other artist so versatile? The man felt it a tragedy if a person stayed the same, with the same style their whole lives. The world changes all around, and one must constantly change along with it. The co-inventor of Cubism (along with Georges Braque) had a long, successful, and prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and potter. Nine of his paintings are in the list of the 25 most expensive paintings sold at auction. He is truly one of the most well known artists of the 20th century.

Early Art: Shades of Blue and Red

Pablo Picasso was the son of Jose Ruiz y Blasco, a painter and art professor, perhaps influencing young Pablo into a life of art. But according to his mother, Maria Picasso y Lopez, Pablo's first word was "pencil," thus the boy was born to be an artist. Picasso would reflect, "My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso." He received his first formal training under his father and began with academic realism. Slowly, being influenced by El Greco and Edvard Munch, he developed a more modernist style.

His career can be broken down into several periods. His Blue Period (1901- 1904), is rightly named for the characteristic somber hues and sad subjects that dominate these canvasses. Often poor mothers with undernourished children, sad lower class families, and overall just depressed people in desolate surroundings were the main subjects. His bleak outlook on life at this juncture was probably the result of losing a friend to suicide.

First Communion-Oil on canvas Picasso

First Communion. 1895/96. Oil on canvas. Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain.

The Barefoot Girl-Musée Picasso

The Barefoot Girl. Detail. 1895. Oil on canvas. Musée Picasso, Paris, France

Young Girl - Pablo Picasso

Painting: A Young Faun Playing a Serenade to a Young Girl Artist: Pablo Picasso

A guide to Edinburgh's art treasures

Art is the ideal way to recover your equilibrium between festival shows. There are plenty of exhibitions, but don't forget the permanent collections

Indelible gaze ... Titian's The Three Ages of Man. Photograph: Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh/PR

If you are in Edinburgh and you want to catch some art between comedy acts – it is the perfect hangover cure, the ideal chilled moment amid the hubbub of live performance – there are good exhibitions on, to be sure, but don't forget also to visit the free, permanent collection of the National Gallery between the old and new towns. Edinburgh has a world-class museum of European painting with masterpieces of the highest order.

Visiting to review festival art shows, I popped in for a quiet half-hour. As I had just been in Venice on holiday I naturally gravitated to the Titians. There are more Titian nudes in Edinburgh than in Venice itself, but the painting that peculiarly attracted me on this visit was his great work The Three Ages of Man. I can't get the face of the young woman in this picture, gazing with deep sensitivity at her lover, out of my mind.

Picasso shows a softer face in London

The artist's later statues and ceramics, on show at the Gagosian gallery's Mediterranean Years, reveal a tender family man

If you are in or visiting London this August and have not yet seen it, do not miss Picasso: The Mediterranean Years at the Gagosian gallery. No other current exhibition in London will enrich your day, your summer, or your life as much.

Picasso – so many things to so many people – shows yet another face to the world in this luxurious selection of works from the private holdings of his family. Here are "new" Picassos, and a new Picasso: the tender family man. A less enticing title might have been Picasso: The Retirement Years. I kept thinking of Marlon Brando playing with his grandson in the garden in The Godfather – the fearsome old Don putting orange peel in his mouth to entertain a child, a Picasso-like visual game if ever there was one.

Self Portrait Painting

Painting Title: Self Portrait with Cloak 1901
Pablo Picasso: Early/Blue Period Paintings
Famous Spanish artist - 20th Century Painter

About the Self Portrait Painting

Pablo Picasso painted this Self Portrait with Cloak painting during his famous blue period series. Like many of his other paintings from this period, this self portrait uses all blue tones and is very melancholy in nature.

Early/Blue Period Paintings

Painting Title: Girl in Chemise 1905
Pablo Picasso: Early/Blue Period Paintings
Famous Spanish artist - 20th Century Painter

Pablo Picasso - The Blue Period

Between 1901 and 1904 Picasso produced a series of paintings marked by his use of the color blue, signaling a transition in his style from classicism to a more abstract style of painting. He began to replace warm scenes of contemporary Parisian life with paintings of beggars, blind men, and poor street artists, often emaciated and standing against vague or empty backgrounds. Though not particularly successful at the time, these paintings would go on to become some of Picasso's most popular, and valuable, works.

The dramatic change in Picasso's style took place not long after his close friend, Carlos

Casagemas, rejected by his married lover, committed suicide. This has led to the assumption that his friend's death was the catalyst for the change. Picasso himself later recalled, "I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas' death". However, many scholars have since called the veracity of this assumption into question.

Picasso and Casagemas had known each other since 1899, having met at a cafe for artists and intellectuals in Barcelona. Together, they traveled to Paris in 1900. While there, both suffered the sting of abject poverty and rejection. By the time of Casagemas' suicide, Picasso had returned to Barcelona, though he finally moved to Paris for good in 1904.

Though it's questionable whether Casagemas' death was the actual impetus for the blue period, the shock and horror that Picasso felt at the death of his friend is clearly evident in several portraits he did of him, including, "The Death of Casagemas". Though this painting didn't display the resignation and silent mourning his later Blue Period paintings would, it remains a stark example of Picasso's mood in those turbulent, and transformative, years.

Pablo Picasso - The African Period

Picasso's Rose Period was followed by an even more radical departure in style. From 1907 to 1909 Picasso's art was influenced by his interest in so-called "primitive" arts, especially African Masks. This period, consequently, became known as the African Period. His paintings, typified by simplified, angular forms, were rendered in a muted palette of reds and browns.

Around this time, the French empire was expanding into Africa, and African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums, exposing Picasso to a truly unique form of art. It explored emotional and psychological areas not seen in western art, which was regarded by the avant garde as subservient to the world of appearances. For them, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical experience was more important than that of mere sight. In African art, which possessed remarkable expressive power, they saw a response to those higher faculties.

Picasso's most remarkable achievement from this period, the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, came at the beginning of 1907 and is arguably the most influential painting of the twentieth century. Following this work, Picasso began painting in a style influenced by the two figures on the right side of the painting, the figures themselves inspired by African masks, with their striped patterns and oval forms.

In 1907 the painting was considered extremely daring. The influence of African art led to distortions and visual incongruities. For example, at the bottom right of the picture, the figure's head is turned in a way which is anatomically impossible. Surprisingly, even Picasso's fellow painters, stalwarts of the avant garde, reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Henri Matisse is alleged to have told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

The Many Styles Of Picasso

Pablo Picasso. Is there any other artist so versatile? The man felt it a tragedy if a person stayed the same, with the same style their whole lives. The world changes all around, and one must constantly change along with it. The co-inventor of Cubism (along with Georges Braque) had a long, successful, and prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and potter. Nine of his paintings are in the list of the 25 most expensive paintings sold at auction. He is truly one of the most well known artists of the 20th century.

Picasso's Weeping Woman

There is much scholarly speculation as to the degree to which Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman series, of which this picture is a prime example, is a meditation on the artist's relationship with his mistress at the time, Surrealist photographer Dora Maar.

While the translation of Maar's distinctive features onto the canvas encourages a reading of the painting as personal working-through of the lovers' tumultuous affair, the painting is more aptly thought of as a continuation of Picasso's response to the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. In fact the anguished woman seen here echoes the writhing, screaming civilians in Picasso's monumental mural "Guernica," painted to memorialize the senseless bombing of the eponymous village, as well as those brutalized victims depicted in his satiric etching "Dream and Lie of Franco," a searing attack against General Francisco Franco.

With Weeping Woman, Picasso traces the after-effects of widespread violence. Rather than depicting the woes of war directly, Picasso does something perhaps more profound: he vivifies in paint the sadness and sense of despair that follows such inhumanity.

Focusing on female suffering, Picasso underlines the tragedy of those without agency in times of war. With this picture Picasso pushes cubist principles and tendencies to their emotive limits. The woman's face appears distorted with grief.

Her features shattered by loss, the woman cries out as needle-like tears splinter from her teardrop shaped eyes. The harsh palette and angular almost architectural brush-strokes lend a piercing heaviness to the picture. The painting is an exquisite demonstration of Picasso's awe-inspiring ability to create pictures that at simultaneously shock and elicit empathy from viewers.

Pablo Picasso and the Girl in the White Chemise - From Blue to Rose

There is something about a portrait that captures the imagination. While a great photograph is powerful, a painting artist can create magic, interpreting mood and shaping the image. Many people have found that great anniversary gifts are portraits. Artists through the ages have loved doing portraits. Pablo Picasso painted many stunning portraits in many different styles. He painted many self portraits and plenty of paintings of models. His painting of Girl in Chemise is a moody study of a waif like girl.

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, better known simply as Picasso, went through many styles during his long life. These styles are known in the art world as periods. In his early years he went through a period the some call his modern period. His first major period is his blue period which started about 1901. It was a somber period in which his paintings were dominated by blues and greens. Some believe this period was influenced by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. He painted several tributes to Casagemas, but many of his subjects during this period where street urchins and prostitutes. He caught the desperation and sorrow of the streets. These subjects may have simply reflected his inner demons.

Picasso's Les Demoiselles D' Avignon

'The Young Ladies of Avignon', otherwise known in French as 'Les Demoiselles d' Avignon', is a large oil-painting, created in 1907, by Pablo Picasso. This oil-based masterful creation depicts five prostitutes from a soiled and red-light district brothel, in Barcelona Spain. What's disturbing and enlightening about the work by Picasso is that none of the female forms actually show very much if any signs of femininity. Each of the women appear slightly angered and even to the point of violence and destruction. The bodies are done in such a way as to appear disjointed, with body movements and angler perceptions.

Was this done on purpose by Picasso? Obviously the Spanish painter attempted to strike a chord in the human primitive subconscious that was rarely scratched, by any other contemporary artists of his day. Two of the subjects in the painting, are adorned with African-style mask faces, with the remaining three having a resemblance to the Iberian-style of Picasso's homeland of Spain.

In this adaptation of tossing out the usual and installing the primitive and more introspective, Picasso makes a radical departure from the semi-concrete and traditional European society artistic endeavors. 'The Young Ladies of Avignon' is widely considered to be one of his greatest works and one of the earliest development of both Cubism and the world of modern art. Another interesting facet of 'The Young Ladies of Avignon' is that Pablo Picasso sketched literally hundreds of semi-nudes and charcoal-based pencil-drawings, as rough drafts, for the final work.

Two Old Treasures - Picasso and Mike Cunningham

I am a treasure hunter. I don't mean that I leave the house each morning armed with a pick and a shovel and an old map marked with an X. No. My tools are the Antique Trade Gazette's auction guide, my old motor and forty-years accumulated knowledge of art and antiques. I travel the world looking for mistakes made by auction houses and dealers wherever I can find them. I eat most days, but I'm not getting rich.

Picture restorer, dealer, Mike Cunningham was one of the greatest treasures I ever found. We clicked from the moment we met and I was sure we would grow old together. When he died in his sleep in 2000 I was more upset than when I lost my Dad. Mike was fifty-two years old, fit and full of plans for the future. He had recently decided to sell his London home and retire to Hastings, on the south coast of England, where he and partner Sue already owned a small house in the Old Town. Mike and I had bought many pictures together over the preceding twenty years, most of them turned over quickly for a profit. But when Mike died we were still half shares in a painting that, if we had some provenance, would have secured our futures and that of a small African nation.

Godward Paintings

John William Godward brought the world of art some exciting paintings towards the end of the Pre-Raphaelite and Neo-Classicist periods of the late 19th century. Godward followed on from the teachings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema but his work was considered to be somewhat out of date in style when more contemporary artists started to appear, spearheaded by Cubist Pablo Picasso. Picasso's genius and innovation led to other artists falling back in popularity, production and later even motivation. This was symbolised by Godward who famously committed suicide in order to escape a world with him and Picasso in it.

Dolce far Niente was one of Godward's finest paintings and that can be found in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber who holds a particular affection for artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Godward himself led a troubled existence with family breakups and an eventual separation leading him to forge relationships with his models, which led him to move around Europe before coming back to Britain just before his death. Famous Godward paintings have included the likes of Nerissa, Athenais, Dolce Far Niente, By The Blue Ionian Sea, At The Garden Shrine, Pompeii, Classical Beauty, Contemplation and Girl In Yellow Drapery.

Picasso - Malaga's Son

Picasso is considered one of the greatest artists of the last century thanks to his many artistic accomplishments. From an early age he showed his talents, even when he changed styles his ability was profoundly evident.

Picasso was born in Malaga on October 25 1881, and was living in France by the time he died in April 1973. He was known as 'Pablo Ruiz Picasso' (sometimes people called him by his second name) but that wasn't his full name which was 'Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso'. These are a series of names to honour various saints and relatives.

They say he showed skill for drawing at an early age and that his first words were 'piz, piz' - a short version of 'lápiz', the Spanish word for Pencil. At the age of seven his father decided to give him some formal training, in figure drawing and oil painting. Over the years his father noticed that he was improving to the extent that he was surpassing him and, after a family grievance, was determined to get his son in the School of Fine Arts. With help from his Dad and Uncle, Picasso was sent to Madrid's Royal Academy of San Fernando, the country's foremost art school. After studying in Madrid he left on his first trip to Paris, where his first Parisian friend and room-mate. These were hard times for him as he had to burn his work to keep his room warm. Later he founded a magazine in magazine with Francisco de Asís Soler in Madrid where he illustrated cartoons sympathizing with the poor. From then on Picasso's life changed.

Picasso's Most Expensive Artwork

Pablo Picasso is arguably the most well-known artist in the world. His paintings were revolutionary and the prices being paid for these masterpieces today are simply astounding. Born on October 25,1881 in Malaga, Spain Picasso experimented with Cubism and Surrealism among other styles.

The record-setting painting is called Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust) and was sold for $106.5 million at a Christie's auction in May 2010. The painting stands 5x4 feet and depicts Picasso's mistress - Marie-Therese Walter laying down and as a sculptured bust. Only 6 people had the cash to bid on this beauty and the winner remained anonymous. The painting was formerly held by the French philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody who died in November 2009. It took Picasso only one fine day in March 1932 to make the most expensive painting in the world.

The 2nd most expensive Picasso painting is Garcon a la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe). It sold for $104.2 million in 2004. This painting depicts a young boy holding a pipe in his left hand surrounded by a garland of flowers. It was painted in 1905 during Picasso's Rose Period when he was 24 years old.

The 3rd most expensive Picasso painting is Dora Maar au Chat (Dora Maar with a cat) and sold for $95.2 million in 2006. The painting is of Picasso's lover - Dora Maar, who was a French photographer, painter, and poet. The painting shows Dora seated in a chair with a cat perched on her shoulders and an amusing/angry look on her face

Using Picasso in the Primary School Classroom

Pablo Picasso was like a bull, very strong-willed, always looking for new challenges and never satisfied with his achievements. He had an insatiable appetite for creating new ideas and for loving the many women in his life. At the age of 5 he could draw brilliantly and by the time he was a teenager his paintings would not have looked out-of-place next to Rembrandt's. By the age of 19 he was asking 'why should I paint like this for the rest of my life?' so he abandoned academic painting and set about developing his own ideas and ways of painting and, as a consequence, completely changed the course of art in the 20th century.

Let's look at his life and work how it might be used in the classroom to stimulate debate. Picasso is a confident, extrovert character who works extremely hard and is constantly looking for new challenges, yet his personal life is full of contradictions. Here are some general points that could be made.

Pablo Picasso Paintings & Picasso's Art - Biography & Life

Pablo Picasso was encouraged by his father, an art teacher, to follow him into the art scene and at a very early age it was clear that Pablo's natural talent would take him further than his father. He joined the Barcelona School of Fine Arts at the age of 14 and his father sacrificed his own art in order to help Pablo Picasso progress as quickly in his career and training as possible.

Picasso spent the years of 1900 to 1906 in what is referred to as the Blue and Rose Period. The Blue period involved the use of blue in most of Picasso's works to represent a negativity and sadness of his paintings and those within them. Art experts, even those who rejected his later innovative style, respected his blue period. The rose period signaled a choice of brighter pink tones over the previous blues.

Pablo Picasso moved to Paris permanently in 1904. Being the world's capital of arts, Paris helped introduce Picasso to other famous artists such as Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and George Braques. Henri Matisse in particular became a great friend to Picasso and they stayed close friends.

Picasso Portraits - Collectors Pay Huge Prices For Pablo Paintings

Pablo Picasso portraits and paintings command huge amounts of money at art auctions. In fact, there is only one other painter, Vincent van Gogh, whose paintings sold for higher prices than Picasso's. At one time, the highest price paid for a painting ever was for van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, which sold at auction for $82.5 million in 1990.

A self portrait by the same artist sold for $71.5 million in 1998. However, van Gogh, although he was prolific just like Picasso was, died at the young age of 37, and only 870 paintings of his exist. Also, in recent years Picasso's works have broken the record for the highest price ever paid for a painting.

Picasso portraits have spawned almost an industry all of its own. In the year 2000, over 30 Picasso paintings were auctioned and brought in over $150 million dollars. This is, of course, only public sales. Any sales done by private galleries or art dealers are not counted. Nor are Picasso's other works, such as sketches, tapestries, lithographs and other media.

Part of the reason for this massive buying frenzy is that Picasso was a key figure in the shift towards a new form of art. He co-founded Cubism in 1907 along with Georges Braque. Cubism presented an entirely new way of representing reality. Figures were taken apart and then pieced back together in pieces, combining various angles to make the finished work.

The Symbolism on the Paintings of Pablo Picasso

During your art courses in school you will surely be introduced to the world's greatest painters and how their arts have made great historical event in the history of mankind. You will be familiarized with the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and many more. These are all legends in their own way of because each of them has inimitable talent in creating art that can never be surpassed by other artists. One of the greatest painters that were known for his unique artistic style and method in painting is Pablo Picasso. Picasso popularized the art of Cubism wherein his paintings are based on the construction of geometrical shapes forming into abstracted forms. Through time, the paintings of Picasso turned into Synthetic Cubism and various forms were now incorporated to form alternating objects on the paintings including depiction of man and events. Lovers of Picasso's art considered his work as the envelopment of symbolic styles as shown in his work "Guernica", the "Weeping Woman" and the "Dying Horse".

The world famous Guernica represents the Spanish Civil War air attack during the 1930s and it came to show its significance during the Paris World's Fair in 1937. Guernica symbolizes many historical events that have affected Picasso's life and career. He rejected the rule of General Franco of Spain in the 1930s because the general became obsessed with power that he became a fascist. Pablo Picasso was a liberated and a democratic artist and showed his views of life through most of his paintings. Picasso became a wanted man during Franco's rule and so many of his paintings were taken to other countries to avoid confiscation. After Spain's civil war the Guernica was transferred to the New York' museum and stayed there until 1981. It is now displayed at the Queen Sofia Center of Art in Madrid, Spain.