Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, on October 25, 1881. Picasso's mother was Doña Maria Picasso y Lopez. His father was Don José Ruiz Blasco, a painter and art teacher. 

His gargantuan full name which honors a lot of relatives is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

Picasso was a poor student but always showed talent for drawing at a very young age. According to legend, his first words were "piz, piz," which was an attempt at saying "lápiz," the Spanish word for pencil.

In 1895 his family moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he went to School of Fine Arts. Picasso's entrance exam was so extraordinary that he was quickly admitted. In 1897, He hated the schools strict rules and the fact that the teachers only go on and on about the same techniques over and over again. Then he began skipping class to go around the streets of Barcelona sketching the cities and even texted his friend " they just go on and on about the same old stuff".

In 1899,  he moved back to Barcelona went in a group of artists and intellectuals who made their headquarters at a café called El Quatre Gats (The Four Cats).

Picasso took a break from the classical methods in which he had been trained, and began a lifelong process of experimentation and innovation.

Picasso was one of the founding fathers of the cubing style.

A year before his death, Picasso painted a "Self Portrait Facing Death," using pencil and crayon. 1 year later Picasso died on April 8, 1973, at the age of 91, in Mougins, France. He died of heart failure, reportedly while he and his wife Jacqueline were entertaining friends for dinner. 

He liked Fernande Olivier, he was newly prosperous thanks to the  art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Picasso's most famous paintings from these years include "Family at Saltimbanques" (1905), "Gertrude Stein" (1905-06) and "Two Nudes" (1906).

The were also painting from what he called the geurnica period. In black, white and grays, the painting is a Surrealist testament to the horrors of war, and features a minotaur and several human-like figures in various states of anguish and terror. "Guernica" remains one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.

 The Weeping Woman came at the end of the art that Picasso made in the silent protest. In May 1937, Picasso's mother wrote to him from Barcelona saying the fighting smoke made her cry.

The model for the painting. Dora Maar was Picasso's partner from 1936 until 1944. In the course of their relationship, Picasso painted her in some guises, some realistic, some benign, others tortured or threatening.

Picasso's friend, Roland Penrose was the owner of it and believed it represented a more optimistic faith. “The Weeping Woman's right ear has turned into a bird sipping at her tears, a sign of new life.” This showed that Pablo Picasso's culture was painting in a unique way that he and some other people had created and used his paintings to express how he feels about something from different people through their emotions in facial/ movements as if it was a response to it or a protest about it.

Picasso, on the other hand, was not content to simply dabble in various mediums. He was always coming up with new ideas. He was a key figure in the development of Cubism and collage. He changed the way people thought about created sculpture. His graphic and ceramic works incorporated new techniques that altered the trajectory of both art forms for the rest of the century.
As an artist, Picasso's story isn't one of quantity over quality. It's the story of a man who was so passionate about art, all art, that he dedicated his life to learning everything he could about it.

Picasso admired and respected art, which is perhaps why he left such an indelible mark on the art world of the twentieth century. He was responsible for inspiring a whole generation to rediscover their love of art.

Picasso's museum is divided into 3 sections which are ceramics, engravings, paintings and drawings. The whole museum has 3500 of Picasso's paintings that were donated from himself and his friends and family. Most of his art works are from 1890 to 1917 and very little art work came in after that. Our museum also has a website that shows most of his overall paintings and has been awarded ‘Museums & the Web’ Best of the Web award in 2010 because of the amount of people that has visited through the internet. His work still inspires people now. His life story was trying to tell us to never give up even if people don't support you and your dream. That's why he was so significant today. When he started cubism, no one really appreciated his work saying it was "a devil"   or "deformed( looks like a mental disorder)".  In the 1980's his last pieces of work only JUST started to be appreciated on their meaning and the ability to influence young painters.

This shows that he was a role model in his way. He didn't follow the traditional ways of art, He MADE his own type of art. He didn't get influenced to what other people were saying, He Ignored them and carried on with what he wanted to do. He took his job very seriously which showed his determination even when other people at that time didn't accept him because of his different art work.

 The multiple layers in the paint show that it was reworked to produce the final painting. Picasso used Cubism to break apart the shape of the woman. She is portrayed from the side but her reflection captures her from the front. This portrait also displays a Surrealist style from the 1920s and 1930s.

Girl Before a Mirror has many complicated meanings about it. An art historian Robert Rosenblum noticed that Marie-Thérèse Walter  on one side is painted smoothly and in the other side has bright color which could symbolize youth and old age or light and darkness.

Picasso's rendering of the reflection has been seen as a depiction of Death by Debbie Goldberg at the Museum of Modern Art. His painting might be influenced by a painting belonging to a friend which was the image of Death holding up a mirror to a woman. This theme is "remember that life is brief". Picasso used a traditional way of painting a person of vanitas (A reminder of their inevitability) by combining sensuality and death.

The girl before the mirror was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1932.

Picasso's rendering of the reflection has been seen as a depiction of Death by Debbie Goldberg at the Museum of Modern Art. His painting might be influenced by a painting belonging to a friend which was the image of Death holding up a mirror to a woman. This theme is "remember that life is brief". Picasso used a traditional way of painting a person of vanitas (A reminder of their inevitability) by combining sensuality and death. The purpose of this art work was to probably remind people that they are mortal. In the Girl before the mirror painting, the girl is staring in the mirror which reflects her mortality which means that she knows she is destined to die. Picasso made the two-dimensional nature of the paint. It shows the woman's form unrealistically because curvilinear lines and circular shapes are used. The painting also shows the woman's figure with geometric diamond pattern that frames her body.

It was painted on a oil canvas with oil paint. The painting is about  162.3 cm x 130.2 cm.
Debbie Goldberg at the Museum of Modern Art says that the rendering of the reflection in the mirror looks like a depiction of Death. Picasso made reference to other artworks and could have been inspired by "an image of Death holding up a mirror to a woman. "
23 year old Marie-Thérèse's face is divided into two halves, representing the sun and the moon. The sunny half is heavily covered in makeup which could represent: stylish and mature when the sun is up. Her reflection in the mirror, shows that the colors are sad; "there is grief and pain reflected back at her". Her body is bent out of the shape showing her front and backside.

The multiple layers in the paint show that it was perfected to produce the final painting. Picasso used Cubism. Marie-Thérèse is scared of growing old and losing her beauty; she is reaching out to the mirror to prevent that life. In this painting, the mirror shows the truth about life which means there is always unhappiness. The mirror has been used in art as a symbol of vanity. The real beginning of this started with the myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his reflection in the water and died because of it. People think that what Marie-Thérèse is seeing in the mirror is her old body. The painting might show how Picasso sees her (left) and how Marie-Thérèse sees herself (right). There is no singular meaning of this painting. The girl before the mirror is important today because people see themselves as uglier than they actually are and become insecure.