The Museu Picasso (Picasso Museum) has one of the most extensive collections of artworks by the 20th century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. This is one of the most popular and most visited museums in Barcelona.
The museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces in Barcelona's La Ribera. The original idea for the museum came from Picasso’s lifelong friend, Jaume Sabartés. Picasso had given Sabartés great many paintings, drawings and prints during the course of their friendship.
Originally Sabartés had planned to set up a museum based on his collection in Málaga, Picasso’s birthplace. It was Picasso himself who suggested that Barcelona would be more appropriate, given his long standing connections with the city.
The museum first opened in 1963 and the original collection was made up of Sabartés donation (574 works), the items that Picasso had previously given to the city of Barcelona, those that had previously been in the possession of the city’s museum of modern art plus other gifts from Picasso’s friends and collectors.
After Sabartés death in 1968, Picasso himself donated a large number of items to the museum, including approximately 1000 items of his early work which his family had been keeping for him ever since the time he first settled in France. This included school books, academic pieces and paintings from Picasso's Blue Period. There are now more than 3,500 works making up the permanent collection of the museum.
Picasso arrived in the city in 1894, when his father, an art teacher, had found work teaching in the city art school. Highlights of the collection include two of his first major works, The First Communion (1896), and Science and Charity (1897). In particular, the Museu Picasso reveals Picasso's relationship with the city of Barcelona, a relationship that was shaped in his youth and adolescence, and continued until his death.
Collection
- Málaga
- A Coruña
- Barcelona
- Málaga: summers of 1896 and 1897
- Madrid
- Horta de Sant Joan
- Barcelona: 1899–1900
- Paris: 1900–1901
- The Blue Period
- The Rose Period
- Barcelona: 1917
- 1917–1957
- Las Meninas
- Picasso engraver
- Picasso ceramist
Exhibitions
The Museu Picasso frequently hosts special exhibitions presenting artworks by Picasso and other artists. From time to time, the museum also organizes seminars and lectures on subjects related to Picasso or on museological issues of interest given by specialists from throughout the world.
Picasso Museum Map
Picasso Museum Opening Hours
- Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 7pm. Thursday, from 9am to 9.30pm.
- 24th and 31st December, from 9am to 2pm.
- Closed: January 1st, May 1st, June 24th and December 25th.
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