Q 01/05

In which Spanish city was Picasso born in 1881?

A) Málaga

B) Barcelona

C) Seville

D) Madrid

Answer · why

A) Málaga

His father José Ruiz y Blasco was a painter who specialised in naturalistic pictures of birds and game.

Q 02/05

According to his mother, Picasso's first words were 'piz, piz', short for the Spanish word for what?

A) Paintbrush

B) Paper

C) Pencil

D) Pigeon

Answer · why

C) Pencil

He was drawing seriously from a very young age and took formal lessons from his father from seven.

Q 03/05

The surname Picasso, his mother's, originally came from which region of Italy?

A) Tuscany

B) Liguria

C) Sicily

D) Lombardy

Answer · why

B) Liguria

His maternal great-grandfather Tommaso Picasso moved to Spain around 1807.

Q 04/05

An apocryphal story says Picasso's father gave up painting after seeing his 13-year-old son finish a sketch of what?

A) A horse

B) A bullfighter

C) A fishing boat

D) A pigeon

Answer · why

D) A pigeon

The father specialised in birds; the story is told of their years in A Coruña.

Q 05/05

How long did 13-year-old Picasso take on the Barcelona academy entrance exam that usually took a month?

A) A single day

B) Two months

C) Three days

D) A week

Answer · why

D) A week

The family had moved to Barcelona after his seven-year-old sister Conchita died of diphtheria.