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''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). The work portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó (Avinyó Street) in Barcelona. Each figure is depicted in a disconcerting confrontational manner and none are conventionally feminine. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. Three figures on the left exhibit facial features in the Iberian style of Picasso's native Spain, while the two on the right are shown with African mask-like features. The racial primitivism evoked in these masks, according to Picasso, moved him to "liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force."〔Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, ''Modern Art'', Prentice-Hall, New York, 1977, pp. 135–136〕〔(Gina M. Rossetti, ''Imagining the Primitive in Naturalist and Modernist Literature'', University of Missouri Press, 2006, ISBN 0826265030 )〕 In this adaptation of Primitivism and abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two-dimensional picture plane, Picasso makes a radical departure from traditional European painting. This proto-Cubist work is widely considered to be seminal in the early development of both Cubism and Modern art. ''Les Demoiselles'' was revolutionary and controversial, and led to wide anger and disagreement, even amongst his closest associates and friends. Matisse considered the work something of a bad joke, yet indirectly reacted to it in his 1908 ''Bathers with a Turtle''. Braque too initially disliked the painting, yet perhaps more than anyone else, studied the work in great detail. And effectively, his subsequent friendship and collaboration with Picasso led to the Cubist revolution.〔〔(Emily Braun, Rebecca Rabinow, ''Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection'' ), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014, ISBN 0300208073〕 Its resemblance to Cézanne's ''Les Grandes Baigneuses,'' Paul Gauguin's statue ''Oviri'' and El Greco's ''Opening of the Fifth Seal'' has been widely discussed by later critics. A photograph of the ''Les Demoiselles'' was first published in an article by Gelett Burgess entitled ''The Wild Men of Paris, Matisse, Picasso and Les Fauves,'' The Architectural Record, May 1910.〔(Gelett Burgess, ''The Wild Men of Paris, Matisse, Picasso and Les Fauves,'' The Architectural Record, May 1910 )〕 At the time of its first exhibition in 1916, the painting was deemed immoral.〔(''Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' ), edited by Christopher Green, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, Cambridge University Press, 2001〕 The work, painted in the studio of Picasso at Le Bateau-Lavoir, was seen publicly for the first time at the Salon d’Antin in July 1916; an exhibition organized by the poet André Salmon. It was at this exhibition that André Salmon, who had already mentioned the painting in 1912 under the title ''Le Bordel philosophique'', gave the work its present title ''Les Demoiselles d’Avignon'' (in preference to the title originally chosen by Picasso, ''Le Bordel d’Avignon'') to lessen its scandalous impact on the public.〔〔(John Golding, ''Visions of the Modern'' ), University of California Press, 1994, ISBN 0520087925〕〔〔(Archives de France, ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso'', 2007 (French) )〕 Picasso, who had always referred to it as ''mon bordel (my brothel)'',〔 or ''Le Bordel d'Avignon'',〔 never liked Salmon's title, and as an edulcoration 〔(wiktionary definition )〕 would have preferred ''Las chicas de Avignon'' instead.〔 ==Background and development== Picasso came into his own as an important artist during the first decade of the 20th century. He arrived in Paris from Spain around the turn of the century as a young, ambitious painter out to make a name for himself. Although he eventually left most of his friends, relatives and contacts in Spain, he continued to live and paint in Spain while making regular trips back to France. For several years he alternated between living and working in Barcelona, Madrid and the Spanish countryside, and made frequent trips to Paris. By 1904, he was fully settled in Paris and had established several studios, important relationships with both friends and colleagues. Between 1901 and 1904, Picasso began to achieve recognition for his Blue period paintings. In the main these were studies of poverty and desperation based on scenes he had seen in Spain and Paris at the turn of the century. Subjects included gaunt families, blind figures, and personal encounters; other paintings depicted his friends, but most reflected and expressed a sense of blueness and despair.〔(Melissa McQuillan, ''Pablo Picasso'', MoMA, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2009 )〕 He followed his success by developing into his Rose period from 1904 to 1907, which introduced a strong element of sensuality and sexuality into his work. The Rose period depictions of acrobats, circus performers and theatrical characters are rendered in warmer, brighter colors and are far more hopeful and joyful in their depictions of the bohemian life in the Parisian avant-garde and its environs. The Rose period produced two important large masterpieces: ''Family of Saltimbanques'' (1905), which recalls the work of Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) and Édouard Manet (1832–1883); and ''Boy Leading a Horse'' (1905-06), which recalls Cézanne's ''Bather'' (1885–87) and El Greco's ''Saint Martin and the Beggar'' (1597–1599). While he already had a considerable following by the middle of 1906, Picasso enjoyed further success with his paintings of massive over-sized nude women, monumental sculptural figures that recalled the work of Paul Gauguin and showed his interest in primitive (African, Micronesian, Native American) art. He began exhibiting his work in the galleries of Berthe Weill (1865–1951) and Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939), quickly gaining a growing reputation and a following amongst the artistic communities of Montmartre and Montparnasse.〔 Picasso became a favorite of the American art collectors Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo around 1905. The Steins' older brother Michael and his wife Sarah also became collectors of his work. Picasso painted portraits of both Gertrude Stein and her nephew Allan Stein.〔''(Picasso Portrait de Allan Stein. Spring 1906 )''. duvarpaper.com. Retrieved on 27 November 2008.〕 Gertrude Stein began acquiring Picasso's drawings and paintings and exhibiting them in her informal ''Salon'' at her home in Paris. At one of her gatherings in 1905 he met Henri Matisse (1869–1954), who was to become in those days his chief rival, although in later years a close friend. The Steins introduced Picasso to Claribel Cone (1864–1929), and her sister Etta Cone (1870–1949), also American art collectors, who began to acquire Picasso and Matisse's paintings. Eventually Leo Stein moved to Italy, and Michael and Sarah Stein became important patrons of Matisse, while Gertrude Stein continued to collect Picasso.〔Mellow, James R. ''Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company''. Henry Holt, 2003. ISBN 0-8050-7351-5〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Les Demoiselles d'Avignon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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