Jonathan Stone for Art-Sheep
Pablo Picasso is the biggest 20th century art icon, having created thousands of works, with many of them recognized as masterpieces and the artist pioneering in technique, style and use of media.
From 1948 to 1967, LIFE photographer Gjon Mili visited the artist at his studio and at home, captured him work or took photos of his artworks. Each time Mili would revisit the famous artist he would see a different side of him and a different line of paintings created by the artist.
Meeting Picasso could be an overwhelming experience, as managing editor George P. Hunt wrote in a 1968 special issue of LIFE devoted entirely to Picasso, “To see Picasso for the first time is to see, under that bald brow and pate, two extraordinary deep-brown eyes. They are strangely big for the face. And they change as you watch him talk and listen, so noticeably changing with the reflections of what passes through his mind, perhaps racing back into experience to enrich the present. They brood. They make mischief, they are friendly, offended, hostile, arrogant, bored, then suddenly interested. Mostly, during our visit, they laughed.”
The photos featured here are a small but perfect example to Picasso’s intense working routine, his artistic spirit and his intimate moments, providing a voyeuristic look to some of the places the artist spent time, got inspired and created some of the most famous works of art.
