Picasso's World of Children

Pablo Picasso's images of children show him at his most affectionate and sensitive. Ranging from individual and family portraits to groups of a genre-like character, these images encompass various moods, from fragile happiness to a helpless sorrow. This text is a selection of depictions of children, placed in the context of the artist's life and work. The narrative tone of Picasso's early images of children was superseded in the 1920s by portraits of his own offspring. Later, in the 1940s and 1950s, the focus shifted to the existential problems of childhood. Many depictions consciously invoke historical precedents to capture the charm traditionally associated with images of children, while others break entirely with convention to shatter notions of the well-protected seclusion of the child's world. First published in German to accompany an exhibition shown at the Kunstammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, this volume has been updated and includes examples of oils, gouaches, sculptures, prints, drawings and a number of previously unpublished photographs. It contains contributions by Maya Picasso, Sigrid Metken and Doris Krystof.