5 Facts about Pablo Picasso

1. The first preserved painting of Pablo Picasso was made in Malaga when he was eight years old and there is a horse in it. Since then and until his maturity, the animal appears again and again in his work, in which the artist embodies all that is symbolic, noble, grotesque, human and mythological in his figure.

"El pequeño picador amarillo", 1889

2. Pablo Picasso had polo theme drawing that was sold by Sotheby's for 22,500 USD first time directly from the artist’s granddaughter in 2017.

Pencil on paper. 22.2 x 17.3 cm. Executed in 1919. 

3. Horses collected fifty-four works including oil paintings, drawings and engravings, in addition to ceramics, a delicate silhouette made of cut paper and the replica of the stage costume of the character of horse or "Cheval en Parade", designed by the artist for the well-known Rusos Ballets. The resulting set knows the symbolic importance of the horse in his work, as well as the multiple meanings under which his figure presented and the diversity of techniques that he used to perform them.

4. The gigantic circus curtain "Parade" was his largest work. 17 meters long by 10 meters high and was painted by Picasso during a trip to Rome. It illustrates a lively track with clowns, dancers and animals and due to its enormous dimensions it rarely leaves the George Pompidou Center in Paris, which has it in custody. In the curtain the cubist painter returns to his first inspiration closely linked to the universe of the circus.

5. One of the biggest icons of modern art is Picasso’s “Guernica”. It was commissioned by the Republican government of Spain to commemorate the 1600 people killed by German and Italian bombers  that struck Basque village .

The central focus of "Guernica" is the wailing horse; the mortally wounded animal reverberates with torture and horror. This dagger tongue horse is a nod to the horses of the Apocalypse, according to Dora Maar. Dora Maar documented the process of Guernica with her photographs. Some critics look at the terrorized horse as the people of Guernica; while others believe it represents the Republicans against the Fascist bull. Also, the image shows animals are casualties of war.

 Guernica, 1937

Painting on the cover - "Young Amazon" 1905.