Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Date1907
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings
Dimensions8' x 7'8'' (243.9 x 233.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum of Modern Art, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest
Object number333.1939
DescriptionLes Demoiselles d’Avignon marks a radical break from traditional composition and perspective in painting. It depicts five naked women composed of flat, splintered planes whose faces were inspired by Iberian sculpture and African masks. The compressed space they inhabit appears to project forward in jagged shards, while a slice of melon in the still life at the bottom of the composition teeters on an upturned tabletop. Picasso unveiled the monumental painting in his Paris studio after months of revision. The Avignon of the work’s title is a reference to a street in Barcelona famed for its brothels.On View
On viewLocations
- (not entered) Demo Museum (Hanover Square), East Wing, Modern, Objects
1921
1658/1662
1786
1307/1196 BC
1817-1843
14th Century
circa. 1963