Quick pre-show announcement. The story I'm about to tell is very powerful.

At least it was to me the first time I read about it many years ago.

And I'm always surprised that more people have never heard it before.

But regardless, while the events in this story are powerful just when heard, they get even more impactful when you later see the paintings that the events inspired. We'll post the paintings on the website, so if after

you hear the story you become curious as to the works of art as well, visit our website

at go history podcast.

Thank you.

Giants of History presents Pablo Picasso, a story.

Welcome to Giants of History, And thank you for joining us. My mother said to me, if you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.

Instead, I was a painter and became Picasso.

On the cold and dark night of February 17th, 1901, an event took place in a Paris

cafe on the hill of Montmart that would impact the work of one of the greatest

artists who has ever lived in a very deep and

very profound way.

This singular event, though, would lead to some of the most famous and most expensive works

of art that would ever

adorn the walls of the most celebrated museums in all the world.

At the time of this occurrence, Pablo Picasso was just 19 years old. But in order to tell the story properly, we must of course, as always, start at the beginning.

When he was born, the midwife that delivered him thought he was stillborn as he looked

sickly and was not moving. She laid him on a nearby table to attend to his mother who had just suffered through the difficult birth.

But his uncle, who was the attending physician at his birth, walked over to the assumed stillborn baby with a cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth.

He then took a tremendous puff of the cigar and proceeded to blow the smoke into the infant's

...