What is the title of Picasso's first collage, created in 1912?

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Picasso's first collage, created in 1912, was Still Life with Chair Caning.

The small oval work combines oil paint with printed oilcloth that imitates chair caning, and its canvas is edged with rope. It also includes painted lettering suggesting a newspaper or café setting. Rather than merely depicting objects, Picasso physically inserted everyday materials into the artwork.

The piece belongs to the transition from Analytical to Synthetic Cubism. It is often described as the first Cubist collage and, by some art historians, the first assemblage. A common mix-up is with Georges Braque's later papiers collés, or pasted-paper works, which helped develop collage further in 1912.

Still Life with Chair Caning is held by the Musée Picasso in Paris. Its unusual materials challenged the traditional idea that a painting should be made solely with paint on canvas.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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