What is the title of Picasso's 1907 painting considered the first Cubist work?
Answer
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Answer
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
What is the title of Picasso’s 1907 painting considered the first Cubist work? It is Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Picasso painted the large oil-on-canvas work in Paris in 1907. Its five female figures and sharply fractured forms marked a dramatic departure from conventional European perspective and naturalistic representation. The painting drew on several sources, including Iberian sculpture, African and Oceanic art, and the late work of Paul Cézanne.
Although often called the first Cubist painting, the label requires some qualification. The work is frequently described as proto-Cubist because Picasso had not yet developed Cubism’s fully systematic partnership with Georges Braque. Their joint experiments from 1908 onward produced the fragmented viewpoints and geometric structures more commonly associated with mature Cubism.
A common mix-up is the English translation “The Young Ladies of Avignon.” That wording refers to the same painting, but Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is the standard title used in museum and art-historical contexts. The painting is now held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026