Picasso [antikvár]

The name of the dark, thickset young man with the piercing eyes, who arrived in Paris for the first time one October day in the year 1900, shivering in a thick overcoat and carrying an umbrella, was Pablo Ruiz. He was 19 years old, and had come from Barcelona for a two months stay in Paris. In that time he managed to see a great deal, and to meet a good many people. In the Montmartre studio of one of his compatriots, he even painted several pictures, notably the Harlequin and Companion, which was the forerunner in both subject and style of the series of portraits later to be known collectively as the "Blue Period." Picasso returned to Paris in May, 1901, and stayed until January, 1902, astonishing his fellow-painters and the art-critics by his extraordinary gifts, his precocious virtuosity, and his capacity for work. "A painter who is not yet twenty years old," wrote a contemporary, "and paints three pictures a day." Ambroisc Vollard exhibited 75 of the young prodigy's works on 24th June, 1901. In the same year, Picasso produced a series of blue portraits: of himself, Gustavc Coquiot, and his inseparable