Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor who lived most of his life in France. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. See full article on Wikipedia.

The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. See full article on Wikipedia.

Between 1901 and 1904 Picasso painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green. Picasso’s friend Carles Casagemas took his own life in 1901, marking the beginning of this Blue Period, during which Picasso produced works emanating a melancholy, sad atmosphere. More on Wikipedia. (Image: Pablo Picasso, The blue room (Le tub), 1901, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2011)

The exhibition in the Van Gogh Museum traces Picasso’s artistic development from his arrival in Paris until 1907, when he had grown into a leading figure of the French avant-garde. (Image: Pablo Picasso, Self-portrait with palette, 1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art, A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1950. C/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2011)