The Museu Picasso houses an extensive collection of artwords, including painting, drawing, engraving and ceramics, by the twentieth century Spanish artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso. It opened to the public 9 March 1963 becoming the first museum dedicated to Picasso’s work and the only one created during his lifetime.

The museum has very few paintings after 1917, with the exception of the Las Meninas series painted in 1957

The above painting is the work of Picasso’s father, who was a painter and drawing teacher, at the School(s) of Fine Arts in Malaga, Coruna and finally in Barcelona. Trained in the nineteenth-century academic tradition, Don Jose specialised in painting pigeons, a pleasant subject in keeping with the tastes of the time that brought him a certain clientele but not the longed-for official recognition. It is not surprising that this iconography remained engraved in the memory and eye of Picasso, who depicted this bird at different times in his career.

1895-1897 In Barcelona, Pablo continued his education at La Llotja Fine Art School.

He concentrated more and more on portrait and landscape painting as he strove to capture the essence of the human figure.

He also worked on religious and historical genres, which featured prominently in the school’s curriculum, and at the age of 15, he presented his first important oil painting, First Communion, at the 3rd Exhibition of fine Arts and Artistic Industries in Barcelona in competition against established artists.

Picasso had the opportunity to study El Greco’s work during his visits to the Museo del Prado 1897 and 1898. His admiration for this artist would become especially evident in the Blue Period, at the start of Cubism and during the 1950s and ’60s.

1917. A creative period in the artist’s life that saw Picasso delving into the figurative tradition of neo-classical culture in designing the sets, costumes and backdrop for the ballet Parade (Ballets Russes, Rome, Italy) while also continuing to explore the paths opened up by Cubism.

Las Meninas is a series of 58 paintings that Pablo Picasso painted in 1957 by performing a comprehensive analysis, reinterpreting and recreating several times Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez.

Picasso was the first artist to receive a special honour exhibition at the Grand Gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris in celebration of his 90 years.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso died 8 April 1973 (aged 91) Mougins, France

More of his paintings have been stolen than any other artist’s; in 2012, the Art Loss Register had 1,147 of his works listed as stolen.