BOOK REVIEW / Paperbacks: A Life of Picasso, Vol I, 1881-1906 - John Richardson: Pimlico, pounds 15

Prodigy in Spain, bohemian in Paris: seldom has an artistic biography justified itself so well as this account of Picasso's immensely active early years (we break off just before the Demoiselles d'Avignon). Richardson gives a fine sense of the already formidable personality - the 'Andalusian obsession of mirada fuerte (strong looking)', the eye as a sexual organ - and the intimate connections of work and everyday life, especially with his intelligent use of continuous illustration (pictures in the margin of almost every page).