The National Gallery of Ireland throws open the doors to Picasso’s private creative realms this autumn, presenting sixty works that chart the artist’s reinvention across studios from Montmartre to Mougins. This exhibition reconstructs the ecosystems where modernism’s most restless mind transformed wallpaper into cubist collages and farmhouse clay into mythological vessels.
Picasso’s 1900 arrival in Paris coincided with his discovery of studio spaces where he could work as an active collaborator. The exhibition’s early sections reveal how the cramped quarters of Le Bateau-Lavoir gave birth to Analytic Cubism’s fractured perspectives, while the sun-drenched villa in Avignon inspired Synthetic Cubism’s material alchemy. Here, visitors encounter Violin and Bottle on a Table (1915)—its twine and wood fragments still bearing traces of café tobacco and studio dust—alongside Glass (1914), where beach sand mixed with pigment creates literal texture from place.
Curator Janet McLean notes how “Picasso’s still lifes became seismographs of his surroundings.” Still Life with a Mandolin (1924) ripples with Mediterranean light captured in Juan-les-Pins, while Fumées à Vallauris (1951) translates ceramic kiln smoke into brooding abstraction. The exhibition’s clever spatial design uses archival studio photographs as ghostly backdrops, allowing Picasso’s Paysage de Juan-les-Pins (1920) to converse with the actual window that framed its view visually.
The 1930s Normandy stable-turned-studio at Château de Boisgeloup emerges as a pivotal site. Within its hay-scented shadows, Picasso’s affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter catalysed a sculptural explosion. Bronze heads, such as Tête de femme (1931-32), loom in the Dublin galleries, their African mask-inspired profiles echoing across paintings like Nature morte: buste, coupe et palette (1932)—a canvas where sculpture and painting perform a dizzying tango.
Post-war Vallauris receives deserved attention, with ten ceramics demonstrating Picasso’s hands-on engagement with local traditions. The Ramis family’s workshop introduced him to black engobe techniques, resulting in pieces like “Head of a Woman ” (1953)—its bold lines dancing between ancient Iberian motifs and modernist reduction. Nearby, Claude Dessinant, Françoise, and Paloma (1951) capture domestic intimacy in the converted perfumery, where family life and artmaking merge.
The exhibition’s poignant closing section reconstructs Picasso’s last studio at Notre-Dame-de-Vie farmhouse through Musician (1972)—a swirling summation of guitars, eyes, and performers that seems to vibrate with accumulated memory. Curator Joanne Snrech observes how “these late works, made in relative isolation, become conversations with his younger selves across time and space.”
Beyond masterworks, the exhibition probes questions about creative habitats. In our era of nomadic digital practice, Picasso’s deep connection to physical studios—whether a Parisian garret or Provençal farm—feels increasingly radical. As National Gallery director Caroline Campbell notes, “These spaces weren’t just backdrops; they were active participants in the creative act.”
Picasso: From the Studio runs at the National Gallery of Ireland from 11 October 2025 to 22 February 2026. The accompanying catalogue features previously unpublished studio photographs from the Musée Picasso archives.