Editing Francis Picabia (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Francis Picabia, 1912, La Source, The Spring, oil on canvas, 249.6 x 249.3 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Exhibited, 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris.jpg|thumb|left|Francis Picabia, 1912, ''[[The Spring|La Source]]'' (''The Spring''), oil on canvas, 249.6 × 249.3&nbsp;cm, [[Museum of Modern Art]], New{{nbsp}}York. Exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris]]
Francis Picabia was born in Paris of a French mother and a Cuban father of Spanish descent. Some sources would have his father as of aristocratic Spanish descent, whereas others consider him of non-aristocratic Spanish descent, from the region of [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]].<ref>{{citation | title= Picabia, ¿pintor cubano? | author= Javier de Castromori | publisher= La Voz de Galicia from 3 May 2004 quoted on www.penultimosdias.com | date= 28 September 2008 | url=http://www.penultimosdias.com/2008/09/27/picabia-%C2%BFcubano/ | access-date=26 January 2010}}</ref>  His birth year of 1879 coincided with the Spanish-Cuban [[Little War (Cuba)|Little War]]; and though Picabia was born in Paris, his father was involved in Cuban-French relations and would later serve as attaché at the Cuban legation in Paris (see the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of 1898]]). The family ties to Cuba would be important in Picabia's life later on.

The family was affluent, and both parents encouraged Picabia to pursue an art career.<ref name=NYT2016>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/arts/design/francis-picabia-the-playboy-prankster-of-moderism.html |title=Francis Picabia, the Playboy Prankster of Modernism |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=17 November 2016 |website=[[The New York Times]] |publisher= |access-date=7 August 2023 |quote=}}</ref> Picabia's mother died of [[tuberculosis]] when he was five, and he was raised by his father.<ref name=NYT2002>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/21/style/IHT-francis-picabia-awful-artist-and-provocateur-of-genius.html |title=Francis Picabia, awful artist and provocateur of genius |last=Gibson |first=Michael |date=21 December 2002 |website=[[The New York Times]] |publisher= |access-date=7 August 2023 |quote=}}</ref>

Picabia's artistic ability was apparent from his youth. In 1894, he copied a collection of Spanish paintings that belonged to his grandfather, switching the copies for the originals and selling the originals to finance his stamp collection.<ref name="Batterberry">
{{cite book|last=Batterberry|first=Michael|title=Twentieth Century Art|year=1973|series=Discovering Art Series|page=151|publisher=McGraw-Hill Book Company|location=New York}}</ref> A lifelong philanderer,<ref name=JSTOR></ref> Picabia eloped to Switzerland in 1897 with one of his mistresses, causing his father to briefly cut off contact with him.<ref name=NYT2002></ref>