Trivia

Billionaire Casino mogul Steve Wynn purchased "Le Reve", a portrait of Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese Walter, for $48m in 1997. In 2006 Wynn agreed to sell the painting to Billionaire Hedge Fund Mogul Steve Cohen. But later, at a celebratory get-together, Steve Wynn accidentally put his elbow through it. The sale was postponed so that the $45m worth of damage could be repaired, and the painting was eventually sold to Cohen in 2013 at a price of $155m, 16m more than it would have sold for in 2006.

He was a Communist, ironic in light of his being the world's wealthiest artist at the time of his death in 1973, leaving an estate valued at between $100 million and $260 million ($442 million and $1.15 billion in 2005 dollars).

He was recognized as the world's most prolific painter by the Guinness Book of World Records: during a career that lasted 78 years he produced an estimated 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations and 300 sculptures or ceramics, making a total of 147,800 works of art.

Picasso's liaison with Marie-Thérèse Walter produced one daughter: Maya Widmaier Picasso (aka "Maya (Maria de la Concepcion) Picasso"), born 1932. Another liaison with artist Françoise Gilot produced Claude Picasso (born 1947) and Paloma Picasso born 1949.

The British rock star David Bowie was nicknamed "The Picasso of Pop" because of the similarity between his influence on pop music and Picasso's influence on the art world.

He was born at 11:15pm-LMT.

Fernande Olivier, Picasso's first love, was unable to marry him because she could not find her husband and secure the necessary divorce. It was not until 50 years later that she learned he had been stabbed to death in a bar fight shortly before she first met Picasso.

He has had more auction sales than any other artist: as of May 1999 his works had been sold 3,595 times for a total worth of $1.23 billion. His most valuable painting was "Femme aux bras croises" (1902), sold for $55.6 million at Christie's on 8/11/2000, making it the most valuable painting made in the 20th century. More of his paintings--190 of them at last count--have sold for over $1 million than those of any other artist.

He had one son by wife Olga, a Russian ballerina: Paulo Picasso, born 1919.

He was the grandfather of Olivier Widmaier Picasso.

An estimated 350 of his works have been stolen, more than any other artist.

He is the subject of the songs "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" by Wings, "Pablo Picasso" by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and "Picasso and Me" by Gretchen Peters (which is written from the point of view of Picasso's cat). He is also mentioned in the song "Big Wedge" by former Marillion singer Fish (a UK Top 40 single in 1990) and Jay-Z's "Friend or Foe" from his 1996 debut album "Reasonable Doubt".

A Rose Period Picasso that Gone with the Wind (1939) financier John Hay Whitney had bought for $30,000 in 1950, "Boy With a Pipe," was auctioned off in 2004 for a record $104.2 million, the proceeds left over from the $93-million bid price to fund the charitable Greentree Foundation established by his wife Betsey Cushing Whitney after his death.

According to an essay by Ayn Rand, he was not impressed with Apollo 11.

The artist's 1938 portrait of daughter Maya Widmaier Picasso - "Fillette au Bateau / "Girl in a Boat" - sold at auction for £18.1 million at Sotheby's auction house (March 2023). Maya, who was two and a half years old at the time, died at age 87 in December 2022.

The Picasso Summer (1969) is about an American architect who travels to Europe to meet his hero Picasso. The artist himself was to have appeared, but later decided against it: in the finished movie, he is played by an uncredited body double, seen in longshot.

Picasso has been characterised as a womaniser and a misogynist, being quoted as saying to long-time partner Françoise Gilot that "women are machines for suffering.".

Picasso's birth certificate and the record of his baptism include very long names, combining those of various saints and relatives.

The surname "Picasso" comes from Liguria, a coastal region of north-western Italy. Pablo's maternal great-grandfather, Tommaso Picasso, moved to Spain around 1807.

Picasso's training under his father began before 1890. His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, which provides one of the most comprehensive extant records of any major artist's beginnings.