Public view and title
How much was the artist offered for the painting "Les Demoiselles"?
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
From 16 to 31 July 1916 "Les Demoiselles" was exhibited to the public for the first time at the Salon d'Antin, an exhibition organized by André Salmon titled "L'Art moderne en France". The exhibition space at 26 rue d'Antin was lent by the famous couturier and art collector Paul Poiret. The larger Salon d'Automne and Salon des Indépendants had been closed due to World War I, making this the only Cubists exhibition in France since 1914. A review was published in "Le Cri de Paris": The Cubists are not waiting for the war to end to recommence hostilities against good sense. They are exhibiting at the Galerie Poiret naked women whose scattered parts are represented in all four corners of the canvas: here an eye, there an ear, over there a hand, a foot on top, a mouth below. M. Picasso, their leader, is possibly the least disheveled of the lot. He has painted, or rather daubed, five women who are, if the truth be told, all hacked up, and yet their limbs somehow manage to hold together. They have, moreover, piggish faces with eyes wandering negligently above their ears. An enthusiastic art-lover offered the artist 20,000 francs for this masterpiece. M. Picasso wanted more. The art-lover did not insist. Picasso referred to his only entry at the Salon d'Antin as his Brothel painting calling it "Le Bordel d'Avignon" but André Salmon retitled it "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" so as to lessen its scandalous impact on the public. Picasso never liked the title, however, preferring "las chicas de Avignon," but Salmon's title stuck. The only other time the painting might have been exhibited to the public prior to a 1937 showing in New York was in 1918, in an exhibition dedicated to Picasso and Matisse at Galerie Paul Guillaume in Paris, though very little information exists about this exhibition or the presence (if at all) of "Les Demoiselles". Afterwards, the painting was rolled up and remained with Picasso until 1924 when, with urging and help from Breton and Louis Aragon (1897–1982), he sold it to designer Jacques Doucet (1853–1929), for 25,000 francs. 