The Evolution of Style—And Prices

Pablo Picasso
Picasso’s development from an artistically precocious teenager who, at 16, produced the self-portrait below, to a radical innovator happened early and forked in multiple directions. He painted his groundbreaking "Les demoiselles d’Avignon" just 10 years later but continued to reinvent his art over his prolific 91 years.

EARLY: "Autoportrait, Barcelone," c. 1897. Sold for €814,000 ($1.1 million) at Digard, in Paris, in June 2007.

LATE: "Dora Maar au chat," 1941. Sold for $95.2 million at Sotheby’s New York in May 2006.

Courtesy Digard, Paris; Sotheby’s New York