Picasso’s death was announced by the French government on April 10, 1973. The cause was heart attack and pulmonary edema.
The Spanish artist had been suffering from a prolonged illness for many years prior to his death. In his last years, he had become increasingly reclusive, even refusing to see his own children at times. He suffered from severe arthritis which made it almost impossible for him to move around without help.
Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His father was an art teacher and his mother was an artist as well. In 1896, the family moved to Barcelona where Picasso studied art at La Lonja School of Fine Arts before moving back with his parents to Málaga in 1897 where they lived until 1904 when they moved back to Barcelona where he started attending classes at La Llotja School of Fine Arts again until 1905 when he left school and began painting seriously on his own time.
Picasso’s last public appearance had been at a retrospective exhibition of his works held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1972. The exhibition attracted more than 1 million visitors during its ten-month run and was seen by some as a farewell to an artist who had dominated twentieth century art.
His body was cremated in Paris and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea four days later at Palavas-les-Flots near Le Grau-du-Roi.
