Left - Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Infanta Margaret, c. 1653, Louvre Collection; Right - Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Infanta Margaret, 1957, Picasso Museum Barcelona

Left - Velázquez The Maids of Honor, Madrid Prado Museum Right - Picasso After Velázquez The Maids of Honor, 1957, Barcelona Picasso Museum

This autumn, a massive Picasso special exhibition was grandly held in both East and West. The Paris show runs from October 8 to February 2 next year, becoming the largest art event in the capital. This unprecedented Picasso retrospective is simultaneously exhibited at three major artistic venues in Paris: the Grand Palais National Gallery, the Louvre Museum, and the Musée d'Orsay.

The Grand Palais presents "Picasso and the Masters (Picsso et les maitres)," systematically showcasing how the modernist master Picasso engaged with greats of Western art history—his unparalleled inheritors such as Rembrandt, Velázquez, Delacroix, Manet, Cézanne, and Matisse. Through this re-reading of these masters alongside Picasso's brilliant creations, 120 world-famous works are displayed. The Louvre exhibits Delacroix's complete series "Women of Algiers." The Musée d'Orsay features Picasso's late-period creative series centered around Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (Picasso/Manet: Le dejeuner sur l herbe).

Simultaneously, in Tokyo, Japan, the National Art Center presents "Master Picasso - Traces of Love and Creation," while the Suntory Museum hosts "Master Picasso - Portraits of the Soul."

This grand Picasso retrospective stems from the resonance of the extraordinary and highly acclaimed "Picasso and Matisse" exhibition at the Grand Palais in 2002. It also arises from Jean Clair, former director of the Picasso Museum, who conceived the "Comparative Masterpieces of Human and Beast Heads" exhibition at the Louvre, and Serge Lemoine of the Musée d'Orsay, who wished to stage a "Picasso and Manet" comparative exhibition. Under this collective broad vision, the grand special exhibition gradually took shape. Coinciding with the closure of the Paris Picasso Museum for renovation this autumn, the collaboration among Paris's four major museums and coordination by national museum units made this significant Picasso event possible. It allows art lovers worldwide to share in this grand occasion and gain a deeper understanding of the master, collectively gathering Picasso's creative energy. As Picasso's friend Coïra said on his paintings: "Picasso was entirely depicting his own love; she used her art to express joy and distress."