This superb series provides an invaluable guide to the world's great artists. Each volume contains a comprehensive introduction and a magnificent collection of great works, each of which is accompanied by an explanatory caption.

PICASSO is undoubtedly the most famous - and the most versatile - artist of the 20th century. He was also one of the most prolific, creating thousands of works in his lifetime. From this enormous body of work this volume shows 50 of his most representative paintings, covering every phase of his long, creative life, from his early, mournful Blue Period to the works of the 50s when he was measuring himself against the classics of the past, such as Las Meninas. It includes, of course, his masterpiece of1907, Les Demoiselles d'Auignon, inspired by African sculpture, as well as several works from his Cubist phase, and the icon of the 30s, Guernica, his unforgettable response to the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.