Spanish artist Pablo Picasso dabbled in all sorts of media throughout his career, including visual arts, theatre, music, and writing – though he remains best known as the painter who brought cubist abstraction to the forefront of the art world.

Picasso spent most of his adult life living and working in France, out of a home studio like the one pictured above.

The studio in this photo looks suitably busy – it’s definitely in keeping with Picasso’s image as a work-obsessed, wildly creative abstract artist to have a lovely old-style French home that’s totally cluttered and filled with half-finished paintings. Picasso is pictured here with actress Brigitte Bardot, giving further credence to his image as an artist that tended to be “in” with Hollywood types, a celebrity himself at the time.

I wonder about the artist’s specific work flow, looking at this photo – there seems to be artworks everywhere, with palettes, brushes and other related materials likewise piled throughout the room. It seems to indicate a very spontaneous practice, and one that involved Picasso moving around a space quite a bit, switching gears between paintings every time he grew bored with one work, or was struck with inspiration for another.

While Picasso demonstrated a great talent for realistic painting early in life, it was his move into more expressive, abstract modes of painting that made him famous. Pictured here toward the end of his career, the artist seems to project a certain air of confidence, yet his studio indicates a continued striving for experimentation and novelty. 

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