Picasso Paints Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

In 1907, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso completed Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a large oil painting depicting five female figures rendered in a fractured, angular style that abandoned traditional perspective. The faces on the right show the influence of African masks, while the composition deliberately violates Renaissance conventions of beauty and spatial harmony. When first shown privately, the painting shocked even Picasso's closest friends — Matisse thought it was a hoax, and Braque said looking at it was like "drinking gasoline." But it became the foundational work of Cubism and one of the most important paintings of the 20th century, opening the door to abstraction and changing the course of modern art forever.