The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is a key reference for understanding the formative years of Pablo Ruiz Picasso. The genius of the young artist is revealed through the more than 3,800 works that make up the permanent collection.
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is in the heart of the old city on the Carrer Moncada and since its recent expansion now sprawls over a row of five Gothic palaces once - in late medieval times - home to Barcelona's aristocrats. 
The Museum, opened in 1963, contains an important collection of Picasso´s early work. If you start to think as you wander round, "Ooh, our 'arry could do better than that!", just remember that Picasso was only 15 or 16 when he was doing this early stuff. (He doesn't seemed to have learnt to write his own name until about 1900, to judge from the fact that none of the early paintings were signed - but don't take that to be historical fact!)
The collection doesn't immediately strike you as being a very extensive one. Among the early work, there are a couple of curious paintings of the beach at Barceloneta as it was 100 years ago, complete with donkeys and none of the landmarks to be seen there today - no Hotel Arts, no Forum 2004...