Pablo Picasso showed his truly exceptional talent from a very young age. His first word was lapiz (Spanish for pencil) and he learnt to draw before he could talk. He was the only son in the family and very good looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of the father's pet pigeons with him.

Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so amazingly beautiful and life like that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was just 13.