Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901

Evening Standard“This is a formidable exhibition, didactic, intense and moving...” We know Picasso painted some 120 oil paintings and many others lost, destroyed or painted over, to say nothing of pastels and drawings; the quality of the best is astonishing, even sublime...

Time Out“Not just a show about art. It’s about the birth of a modern master...” Most striking is the deeply painful imagined portrait of Casagemas in his coffin. Saturated in the shades that would define his 'Blue Period', the deathly pallor of a beloved friend almost leaks from the canvas. It’s Picasso’s pain made paint...

The Telegraph“Beautifully installed exhibition, full of first-class works of art...” The narrative of this exhibition, then, is one of the most exciting stories that can be told about the life of any major artist — that of breakthrough. Once again, the Courtauld Gallery has excelled itself...

Guardian“Small but incendiary exhibition...” Picasso is inevitable. His art, with its thick (yet always delicate, always correct) black outlines and piquant palette of turquoise blues, volcanic reds and sunflower yellows, takes shape in front of you at this exhibition...

The Arts Desk“Not so much a decorous announcement of a new talent as an explosion...” The Blue Room is a haunting painting of his studio in which he acknowledges those he has been looking at so attentively - Lautrec, Degas. Tenderness is evident in awkward but compelling versions of harlequins and columbines, absinthe drinkers...

The Independent“The maturing of an individual style comes across remarkably...” You can see both why he so wowed the critics and how he then moved in another, much less commercially successful direction in this compulsive show. It has obtained 10 of the 60 paintings in the original Vollard exhibition...

Financial Times“Magnificently focused selection...” The Courtauld has pulled off spectacular, precisely chosen, loans to unravel the drama of how diverse masterpieces from the same year at once relate to each other, look back to art history and anticipate the future of Picasso’s oeuvre...