The Private Life of a Masterpiece S03E09 - Pablo Picasso: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon

Arguably the first modern painting, this portrayal of five huge prostitutes was so powerful and controversial when it was first revealed that one fellow artist declared that Picasso would be found hanged behind it one day. The programme sets out the origins of the painting in the intense rivalry for the leadership of the Parisian avante-garde between Matisse and Picasso and shows in great detail how Picasso worked and re-worked, changed and changed again his concept for the painting in an endless series of studies.