Picasso in Paris
Pablo Picasso was one of the great painters of the last century and could even be considered one of the founders of modern art. Like any artist, Picasso was directly inspired by what came before. Copying paintings by Spanish masters was an important part of his formal training and some of his best-known works from later in his career are his "variations" on works by painters such as Delacroix, Velazquez or Manet. The exhibition, Picasso and the Masters, opening this week at the Grand Palais, puts Picasso's works alongside the masterworks that inspired him.
With over 210 works from international public and private collections, the show features the works of an art-history Dream Team: El Greco, Vélasquez, Goya, Zurbaran, Ribera, Melendez, Poussin, Le Nain, Dubois, Chardin, David, Ingres, Delacroix, Manet, Courbet, Lautrec, Degas, Puvis de Chavannes, Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin, Douanier Rousseau, Titien, Cranach, Rembrandt, Van Gogh. See how Picasso's "painting of painting" was more than just an academic exercise by comparing, for example, his Les Ménines to that of Velasquez, painted three hundred years earlier.
The exhibit, which runs through February 2009, has every indication of being an absolute blockbuster, so consider buying tickets in advance online.