Located within the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the artwork portrays a setting in a Barcelona brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó, depicting five nude female prostitutes. This famous painting, titled "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," serves as an emblematic exemplar of the cubism artistic genre.
Picasso initiated the concept for "Les Demoiselles d’Avignon" during the winter spanning 1906 to 1907, generating an extensive assortment of preliminary sketches and paintings—comprising a multitude of sketches and studies—surpassing the quantity of his prior undertakings.
The actual commencement of painting on a substantial canvas didn't transpire until the early summer of 1907, almost half a year later. The name of the painting finds its origin on Carrer d’Avinyó, a street in Barcelona distinguished for its assembly of brothels.
Each individual figure is depicted in a disconcerting and challenging manner, challenging traditional notions of femininity. These women emanate a slight sense of threat, portrayed through angular and disconnected bodily forms.
After its finalization in 1907, Picasso retained "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" within his Montmartre studio in Paris for numerous years, largely attributed to the predominantly adverse responses from his intimate circle of friends and colleagues. The painting was presented to the public at the Salon d'Antin in 1916, although a photograph of the artwork had previously been showcased in The Architectural Record in 1910.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso
