According to the NOS, Pablo Picasso rarely went on holiday, but in 1905 he took off to the Netherlands. The 23-year-old artist fled the heat and bustle of Paris and stayed several weeks in Schoorl, at the cottage of his acquaintance Tom Schilperoort whom he knew from Paris.

The Alkmaar Municipal Museum is dedicating an exhibition to Picasso’s rare holiday entitled Picasso in Holland, which opens on June 7 and runs until 28 August. The exhibition will show a special reunion of famous paintings never before shown together: ‘La belle Hollandaise’ from Brisbane, Australia and ‘Les trois Hollandaises’ (shown here) from Paris.

According to the museum, Picasso’s painting ‘La famille de saltimbanques’, a family of circus acrobats with a desert-like background said to have been inspired by the dunes in Schoorl.

(Links: nos.nl, dearkitty1, Photo: picassoinholland.nl)