Pablo Picasso was an artist.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ( The Young Ladies of Avignon , and originally titled The Brothel of Avignon ) is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso ( 1881 -- 1973 ) . Pablo Picasso . After 1906 , the Fauvist work of the slightly older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles , beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists , who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art . The Blue Period ( Período Azul ) is a term used to define the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1901 and 1904 when he painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green , only occasionally warmed by other colors .