Museu Picasso (El Museu Picasso de Barcelona)
The Museu Picasso (, "Picasso Museum") is an art museum in Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It houses an extensive collection of artworks by the twentieth-century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, with a total of 4251 of his works. It is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces on Montcada Street in the La Ribera neighborhood in the Old City of Barcelona. It opened to the public on 9 March 1963, becoming the first museum dedicated to Picasso's work and the only one created during his lifetime. It has since been declared a museum of national interest by the Government of Catalonia.
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.
The original idea for the museum came from Picasso's lifelong friend and secretary, Jaume Sabartés, whom Picasso had given many paintings, drawings, and prints since meeting in 1899. Originally, Sabartés intended to found the museum 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.
On 27 July 1960, Sabartés signed an agreement with the city of Barcelona to found the museum. The museum opened in 1963, with the collection established through Sabartés' donation of 574 works from his personal collection. Other items included works that Picasso had given to the city of Barcelona, such as Harlequin, works previously in the possession of the city's museum of modern art, and other gifts from Picasso's friends and collectors. The museum opened under the name of the Sabartés Collection, because of Picasso's strong opposition to Franco's regime. In the end, Barcelona mayor Josep Porcioles went against the wishes of the central government in order to open the museum. When it opened, the museum was located in Palau Aguilar on Montcada Street. In this era, the collection consisted mainly of the personal collection Sabartés, some lithographs, and posters. Other donations during the museum's first year included a book of engravings made by Picasso of Ovid's Metamorphoses, donated by Salvador Dalí, as well as a collage given by Gala Dalí, titled No, 1913. In subsequent years, the collection was expanded with donations, including 7-drawings dated between 1899 and 1904 given by Junyer Sebastian Vidal.
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.
The original idea for the museum came from Picasso's lifelong friend and secretary, Jaume Sabartés, whom Picasso had given many paintings, drawings, and prints since meeting in 1899. Originally, Sabartés intended to found the museum 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.
On 27 July 1960, Sabartés signed an agreement with the city of Barcelona to found the museum. The museum opened in 1963, with the collection established through Sabartés' donation of 574 works from his personal collection. Other items included works that Picasso had given to the city of Barcelona, such as Harlequin, works previously in the possession of the city's museum of modern art, and other gifts from Picasso's friends and collectors. The museum opened under the name of the Sabartés Collection, because of Picasso's strong opposition to Franco's regime. In the end, Barcelona mayor Josep Porcioles went against the wishes of the central government in order to open the museum. When it opened, the museum was located in Palau Aguilar on Montcada Street. In this era, the collection consisted mainly of the personal collection Sabartés, some lithographs, and posters. Other donations during the museum's first year included a book of engravings made by Picasso of Ovid's Metamorphoses, donated by Salvador Dalí, as well as a collage given by Gala Dalí, titled No, 1913. In subsequent years, the collection was expanded with donations, including 7-drawings dated between 1899 and 1904 given by Junyer Sebastian Vidal.
Map - Museu Picasso (El Museu Picasso de Barcelona)
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Country - Spain
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| Flag of Spain | |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |