The family atmosphere into which Picasso was born was favourable to his calling, as his father was a teacher of drawing at the School of Fine Arts in Málaga and curator of the Municipal Museum there. In 1895 the family moved to Barcelona and he attended La Llotja, the Barcelona School of Fine Arts, for two years before going to Madrid, where he completed his training at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts). A few years later he returned to Barcelona, but then went to L'Horta de Sant Joan for a few months to recover from an illness. This was an extremely important period for him: he broke away from the more academic features of his painting in order to capture on canvas the rural atmosphere he was living in at that moment. When he went back to Barcelona, early in 1899, he came into contact with the circle that met in Els Quatre Gats café (Montsió, 3 bis) and mixed with the intellectuals of Modernisme. In 1900 he held his first exhibition at Els Quatre Gats consisting of charcoal portraits of people to do with the artistic world of the city (Retrat del Dr. Jacint Reventós [Portrait of Jacint Raventós], 1900; Jacint Reventós collection).

The influence of Modernisme in these early years is patent in his work and he played an active role in the movement, doing illustrations for the magazines of the time, on the one hand, and designing posters, on the other. One of his most popular works in this period was the Menú de Els Quatre Gats (Quatre Gats Menu, 1899-1900; Picasso Museum).

That same year he went to the Universal Exhibition in Paris with his friend C. Casagemas. While in the city they occupied Isidre Nonell's studio and met S. Junyent. His stay there gave him the chance to come into direct contact with the artistic avant-gardes.

From 1901 to 1904 he spent alternate periods in Barcelona and Paris before settling for good in Paris a year later, although he still made occasional trips to Barcelona. His painting evolved, drawing closer to the new trends and acquiring its own style.