4. Picasso Used a Prepubescent Girl as a Nude Model
Picasso drew numerous preparatory sketches for his famous Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which features sex workers in various distorted erotic poses. Adult sex workers served as models for the finished version of the painting, which is widely acknowledged when the art is discussed. What is less known is that the preparatory sketches were completed using a naked young girl as a model. The illustrations feature a young girl, nearing puberty, depicted nude with her legs splayed open showing her genitals.
The young girl depicted was not named, but is believed to be a young girl Picasso and his partner at the time, Fernande Olivier, adopted from a nearby convent in 1907. It is unknown why the couple took the child, as she was reportedly returned to the convent sometime after the sketches were complete in the same year she had been adopted.
On a sad note, at least one biographer noted that Picasso took more than a passing interest in young girls. “Young girls excited Picasso,” wrote John Richardson, a noted Picasso biographer. While there is no proof Picasso engaged in inappropriate behavior towards children, beyond the sketches for Demoiselles, it is undoubtedly a troubling statement regarding a man who held so many other problematic views towards females.