Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881–1973)

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"Para mi amigo Arias" by Pablo Ruiz Picasso, 1960, © Succession Picasso 2000 Pyroengraved bullfight motifs on wood box intended for barber's implements Details of lid Gift from Picasso to his friend (and barber) Eugenio Arias

"Para mi amigo Arias" by Pablo Ruiz Picasso, 1960 © Succession Picasso 2000 Pyroengraved bullfight motifs on wood box intended for barber's implements View of lid and two sides Gift from Picasso to his friend (and barber) Eugenio Arias

In the visual arts, world famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) is considered the dominant figure of the 20th century. Although best known for his paintings, Picasso enjoyed other media as well—also well known are his sculptures and etchings.

Plaques, ceramics, lithographs, drawings, posters, as well as the little pyroengraved box exhibited here—about sixty works in all, many with a bullfight motif and almost all bearing a similar dedication: "Para mi buen amigo Arias" ("To my good friend Arias")—can be found in the little known Pablo Picasso Museum of the Eugenio Arias Collection in the very small town of Buitrago del Lozoya, not far from Madrid, Spain.

Eugenio Arias and Pablo Picasso, both Spaniards living in France, met in Toulouse in 1944. Arias became Picasso's barber and most importantly his best friend for the rest of the artist's life, a nearly thirty-year friendship that included countless afternoons at the bullfights both in France and later in Spain when they both moved back there years later. The style of the pyroengraved design on the little box here is similar to that found on a series of well known etchings of bullfights by Picasso. Click on this link to see a wonderful candid photograph by Raph Gatti of Picasso presenting this very box to his friend Arias in 1960.

The story of how the E-Museum acquired its virtual Picasso is featured in the headline article of an on-line publication (the Woodcarvers Online Magazine) linked here. The Eugenio Arias story and the founding of the little Picasso Museum in Buitrago del Lozoya is told in a feature newspaper article (in Spanish) linked here.

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