to turn at once to Picasso's 1900 Moulin de la Galette, which takes its title directly from Renoir's 1876 painting titled Bal du Moulin Galette. One turns to it necessarily, not because the comparison between the paintings is so obvious (although that is the case), but because it positions historically the fact of Picasso's awareness of art history and art trends, as well as what appears to have been his determination to identify his place in the pantheon of great artists. In other words, that set of two paintings sets the aesthetic context for the postwar influence that Renoir's work was to exert on Picasso. Daix (20) cites the influence of Renoir on Picasso's Moulin, noting that it was unfavorably compared in 1900 to its precursor for its night-life theme; Renoir's picture is set in the light of day.
Mailer, who links Picasso's Moulin to Lautrec, another earlier painter of Parisian night life, analyzes Picasso's connection to other artists as proof of his "competitive" streak.
As soon as another painter had an impact on him, he would proceed to absorb
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