The German Pablo Picasso

At the beginning of the 20th century, Picasso was establishing his name as an exceptional artist. He was recognized early on in Germany. No other country followed and supported his career as intensively. The artist was able to live in Paris without any financial worries thanks to German gallery owners and collectors.

The first man to recognize Picasso's potential was Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. While Picasso was painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" in 1907, Kahnweiler supported him financially. The legendary German-born gallery owner truly believed in the genius of the artist. Kahnweiler's theoretical works on Cubism also contributed to making Picasso famous around the world.

The special exhibition at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne was made possible by Kahnweiler and Alfred Flechtheim, another art dealer. The provocative exhibition featured works of the international Avant-garde. One of the halls was dedicated to Picasso's works. Local critics did not greet the Cubist's "cube art" very enthusiastically.

A portrait of a man Picasso painted in Paris in 1908 is considered one of his earliest Cubist works. The German artist Paula Modersohn Becker was also working in Paris at the time. Her portrait of the pianist Lee Hoetger represented a new direction in her career, based on simplicity. The exhibition on Picasso shows both paintings as examples of the development of Avant-garde art.

Picasso was inspired by early African art in 1905-1906. He was not the only one. At that time, the art group "Die Brücke" was established in Dresden. Indigenous art represented for these artists original expressions of life. While Picasso developed Cubism influenced by these works, the Dresden artists created their own style, called German Expressionism.

People resting on a beach was one of the recurring themes painted by "Die Brücke" artists. The shapes of these naked figures give the impression they were carved out of wood. Picasso was also inspired by nature. At the beginning, he was strongly influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne. Later on, he relied on nature as a resource to experiment with new visual forms.

Pablo Picasso painted the portrait of his wife at the time, Olga, in an elegant fur coat, in 1922-1923. They had a son together, who was then a year old. "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was sold for 25,000 francs. Portraits underwent a revival at that time, not just because of Picasso, but also thanks to German artists. Emotional truth became more important than physical accuracy.

Max Beckmann made portraits of all of his five wives. Pictured here is "Naila," from 1934. This work almost seems like a quotation of the painting of Picasso hanging next to it in the exhibition. With the same fur coat and inward looking gaze, the painting focuses on the essential. Wives, lovers and friends became a favorite subject for many portrait artists.

Picasso was a strong influence on his German contemporaries, but he preferred to look back at Germany's old masters for inspiration. The German Renaissance, from Dürer to Lucas Cranach and Matthias Grunewald, stoked his creativity. He did 55 drawings of Matthias Grunewald's famous Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar, simplifying it to its essence: pain as a religious experience.