Traces the story of Picasso's rise from an obscure young painter in Barcelona to one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, documenting the events of his first visit to Paris, his emergence as a leader of a group of bohemian artists, his gradual recognition by collectors and the 1906 creation of the disturbing masterpiece, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." "When Picasso became Picasso: the story of how an obscure young painter came to Paris and made himself into the most influential artist of the twentieth century. In 1900, eighteen-year-old Pablo Picasso journeyed from Barcelona to Paris, the glittering capital of the art world. For the next several years he endured poverty and neglect before emerging as the leader of a bohemian band of painters, sculptors, and poets. Here he met his first true love and enjoyed his first taste of fame. Decades later Picasso would look back on these years as the happiest of his long life. Recognition came first from the avant-garde, then from daring collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein. In 1907, Picasso began the vast, disturbing masterpiece known as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Inspired by the groundbreaking painting of Paul Cézanne and the startling inventions of African and tribal sculpture, Picasso created a work that captured the disorienting experience of modernity itself. The painting proved so shocking that even his friends assumed he'd gone mad, but over the months and years it exerted an ever greater fascination on the most advanced painters and sculptors, ultimately laying the foundation foe the most innovative century in the history of art. This is the story of an artistic genius with a singular creative gift. It is filled with heartbreak and triumph, despair and delirium, all of it played out against the backdrop of the world's most captivating city."--Dust jacket.