Museu Picasso

Barcelona’s most visited museum occupies five of the many fine medieval stone mansions (worth wandering into for their courtyards and galleries) on narrow Carrer de Montcada. This collection is uniquely fascinating, concentrating on Picasso’s formative years and several specific moments in his later life, but those interested primarily in cubism may not be satisfied. There are additional charges for special exhibitions; entry is free from 3pm Sundays and all day the first Sunday of the month. Allow two hours. The museum’s permanent collection is housed in the first three houses, the Palau Aguilar, Palau del Baró de Castellet and the Palau Meca, all dating to the 14th century. The 18th-century Casa Mauri, built over some medieval remains (even some Roman leftovers have been identified), and the adjacent 14th-century Palau Finestres accommodate temporary exhibitions. A visit starts, naturally enough, at the beginning, with sketches, oils and doodling from Picasso’s earliest years in Málaga and La Coruña – most of it done between 1893 and 1895. Some of his self-portraits, and the portraits of his father, which date from 1896, are evidence enough of his precocious talent. The enormous Ciència i Caritat (Science and Charity) is proof to anyone that, had he wanted, Picasso would have made a fine conventional artist. His first consciously thematic adventure, the Blue Period, is well covered. His nocturnal blue-tinted views of Terrats de Barcelona (Rooftops of Barcelona) and El Foll (The Madman) are cold and cheerless, yet somehow spectrally alive. Among the later works, done in Cannes in 1957, Las Meninas is a complex technical series of studies on Diego Velázquez’ masterpiece of the same name (which hangs in the Prado in Madrid).