Pablo Picasso the premier French art dealers of the 20th century. He was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and the Cubism that they jointly developed. Kahnweiler promoted burgeoning artists such as André Derain, Kees van Dongen, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Maurice de Vlaminck and several others who had come from all over the globe to live and work in Montparnasse at the time. Picasso's African-influenced Period (1907–1909) begins with his painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". Picasso painted this composition in a style inspired by Iberian sculpture, but repainted the faces of the two figures on the right after being
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion canvasses before they were completed. He abandoned the Crucifixion theme, then largely withdrew from painting in frustration, instead immersing himself in love affairs, drinking and gambling. When he returned to the topic of the Crucifixion eleven years later, he retained some of the stylistic elements he had developed earlier, such as the elongated and dislocated organic forms that he now based on "Oresteia". He continued to incorporate the spatial device he was to use many times throughout his career—three lines radiating from this central figure, which was first seen in "Crucifixion, 1933". "Three Studies" was painted over the course of