Pablo Picasso's Stunning Repetitions (jillianhess.substack.com)
From Jillian Hess’s excellent Noted, a post on the path Picasso took to “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”
One need only look at Picasso’s notebooks to recognize the staggering amount of work that went into “Les Demoiselles.” He carried out 809 preliminary studies and filled 16 different sketchbooks with his attempts to represent the women. It was with this painting that he introduced the world to what would become known as cubism.