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Picasso in Spain - Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona
7
days
from
A$6,470
Book today with a deposit from
A$971
8th - 14th November 2027
Tour highlights
- Picasso re-situated in Spain – the culture he carried into exile and never let go.
- From the Málaga of his childhood to the Barcelona of his anarchist youth.
- The Prado out of hours, where the 16-year-old Picasso came to copy Velázquez.
- Las Meninas in Madrid, then the 58 variations Picasso painted on it, in Barcelona.
- Guernica in the Reina Sofía; Picasso museums in Málaga and Barcelona.
- Cafés, houses and churches he knew; first-class high-speed rail between the three cities.
- Gijs van Hensbergen, author of the biography of Guernica, leads the tour.
Few painters have ever dominated their century as much as Pablo Picasso. Yet in his home country, during the long years of Franco’s rule, many dismissed his work as the ‘manic doodles of that artist from Málaga’ and reviled it as Communist bunk. Such works as were in Spain were secreted in clandestine private collections.
All that has now changed. Barcelona – always keen to thwart Castilian orthodoxy, and the beloved city of Picasso’s anarchist youth – honoured him in the 1960s with the opening of its Picasso museum. An ever-expanding collection now occupies five adjacent medieval palaces. In 1981, just months after a coup attempt failed to overturn the new post-Franco order, Guernica arrived in Madrid – the world’s most famous protest against violence, and a symbol of hope for the young and fragile democracy. In late 2003, his home town of Málaga opened its own Picasso museum.
This tour is not just centred on museums. In the country of café culture, his life and personality come into sharper focus on the streets he knew: outside Málaga’s Café Chinitas, his father’s favourite watering hole, and inside Barcelona’s legendary Els Quatre Gats. There, as an 18-year-old, Picasso threw himself in at the deep end of the Catalan culture wars with his first one-man show.
If Picasso was quintessentially modern, he was also completely submerged in Spain’s glorious artistic past. As a 16-year-old student in Madrid he went to the Prado to copy Velázquez. Sixty years later, in 1957, he took Las Meninas apart in 58 variations. In Madrid we see the original; in Barcelona, his feverish response. Long seen as French, Picasso needs to be situated in Spain to be understood. It was a culture he carried with him into exile, guarded fiercely, and hankered for as he grew old and isolated. Surrealist twists of mind, torn scraps of paper, lightning notations, doodles and bottle-top sculptures were endlessly fashioned as he remembered and pored over the Spain of his youth.
Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, whose biography of Guernica traces the painting from Paris to Madrid, this tour recovers Picasso’s world – the world of the strong gaze, the ‘mirada fuerte’.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 7.30am from London Heathrow to Málaga (British Airways). An afternoon walk includes the house where Picasso was born, which houses a small collection of his belongings. It stands on the Plaza de la Merced, whose pigeons his father painted and which became the boy’s first subject. The walk also takes in the church of his baptism and Café Chinitas, his father’s favourite haunt. First of two nights in Málaga.
The Carmen Thyssen museum has a fine collection of old masters and 19th-century Spanish painting – the academic world of Picasso’s father, José Ruiz Blasco, painter, teacher and his son’s first master. The afternoon is spent in the Picasso Museum, housed in a fine 16th-century palace. More than 200 works given by his daughter-in-law Christine and grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso span his entire career.
Travel by high-speed AVE train to Madrid (c. 3 hours), with lunch served on board. In the afternoon, visit the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, one of the greatest modern art museums, to see Guernica in the company of its biographer. First of two nights in Madrid.
A private out-of-hours visit to the Prado, before the crowds arrive, centres on Velázquez’s Las Meninas, which the teenage Picasso came here to copy. There is some free time in the afternoon.
Madrid to Barcelona. High-speed AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona (c. 3 hours) with lunch on board. Visit the National Museum of Catalan Art, with its extraordinary collection of Romanesque church frescoes, plus fine Gothic and modern collections. First of two nights in Barcelona.
A morning walk includes the rooftop views from Gaudí’s Palau Güell; the Carrer d’Avinyó, which gave its name to Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; and Els Quatre Gats, the bar where Picasso held his first one-man show. The afternoon is devoted to the Picasso Museum: portraits, landscape sketches, the Blue Period, Cubism, late oils and the 58 variations on Las Meninas.
Travel to Sitges, one of the most fashionable of coastal towns, and visit Cau Ferrat, the house-museum of Picasso’s friend Santiago Rusiñol, which contains works by both artists. See also the adjoining Museu Maricel with its frescoes by Josep Maria Sert. Drive to the airport for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 6.15pm.
Expert speaker
Gijs van Hensbergen
Art historian and author specialising in Spain and the USA. His books include The Sagrada Familia (2017), Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica and he has published in the Burlington Magazine and Wall Street Journal. He read languages at Utrecht University and Art History at the Courtauld, and undertook postgraduate studies in American art of the 1960s. He has worked in England, the USA and Spain as exhibitions organiser, TV researcher and critic and is a Fellow of the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE. Twitter: @GvanHensbergen | Website: gijsvanhensbergen.com
Practicalities
Two sharing: A$6,970 or A$6,470 without flights. Single occupancy: A$8,160 or A$7,660 without flights.
First class train travel between Málaga, Madrid and Barcelona; travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 light lunch and 5 dinners with wine or beer, soft drinks, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Hotel Molina Lario, Málaga: functional 4-star in the centre. NH Collection Palacio de Tepa, Madrid): small and excellently located 5-star hotel. Rooms are comfortable and décor is contemporary. NH Collection Gran Hotel Calderón, Barcelona: centrally-located contemporary 5-star hotel. Rooms are modern and comfortable. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
This tour involves two train journeys and three hotel changes, but driving is kept to a minimum. There is inevitably a lot of standing around in museums and galleries, and so should not be attempted by anyone who has problems with everyday walking and stair climbing. Dinners tend to be at 8.30 or 9.00pm in Spain, so you might get to bed later than you would usually.
Typically between 10 and 24 participants.
Before booking, please refer to Smartraveller to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting. As a British company we follow the advice of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
8th - 14th November 2027
Speaker:
Gijs van Hensbergen
Price:
from A$6,470
(Based on two sharing)Testimonials
“Gijs was an excellent lecturer and brought the whole era to life.
”
“Hard to say enough wonderful things about Gijs van Hensbergen. He was the reason we so enthusiastically booked a second tour to Spain only a few months after our first one.
”
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