In 1906 and 1907 Picasso worked on many preparatory drawings and sketches for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and apparently arrived at the final composition in a watercolor, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This composition resembles the first stage of the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon painting, with five nudes posed in a curtained interior and no male figures. This study permitted Picasso to map out his final composition with very few changes. An earlier oil sketch is now in MoMA’s collection. This small, unstretched canvas, measuring only 7 1/2 x 8 inches, depicts seven figures in a curtained room and includes a medical student standing at the left and a sailor at the center—neither of whom is present in the final composition. With feathery brushwork, this tentative and calligraphic study stands in stark contrast to the highly charged atmosphere of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (see Rubin, Studies in Modern Art 3, 1994). Some comparisons can nonetheless be drawn between the physical characteristics of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and MoMA's oil sketch. Both are executed on a linen support with a white ground. Picasso's paint application ranges from thin scumbles to heavy applications of impastoed paint. The palette is restrained, limited mostly to blue, flesh pink, and white. Scientific analysis indicates that similar pigments were used in both the small sketch and the large canvas.

Pictured at top:
Pablo Picasso. Study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. 1907. Watercolor, 6 3/4 x 8 3/4". Philadelphia Museum of Art, A.E. Gallatin Collection

Pictured above left:
Pablo Picasso. Study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Paris, early 1907. Oil on canvas, 7 1/2 x 8" (18.5 x 20.3 cm) irregular. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. © 2003 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS)