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 Max Jacob was traumatized by the change that was occurring. Gedo reports "That Max Jacob understood the full import of the change is suggested by the fact that he fell ill immediately afterward and did not recover until Picasso brought him to his new apartment to convalese. ...In later years, Jacob compared his love for Picasso became so involved with Braque. (Gedo 83).

Penrose commented on the reactions of Picasso's friends upon seeing "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" in 1907, "Among the surprised visitors trying to understand what had happened he (Picasso) could hear Leo Stein and Matisse discussing it together. The only explanation they could find amid their guffaws was that he was trying to create a fourth dimension. In reality, Matisse was angry. His immediate reaction was that the picture was an outrage, an attempt to ridicule the modern movement. He vowed he would find some means to "sink" Picasso and make him sorry for his audacious hoax. (Penrose 130).Leo Stein lost all interest in Picasso and called the painting "a horrible mess, (Rubin 20) and Gertrude Stein called it "a veritable cataclysm." (Stein qtd. Rubin 20).

Salmon said "Nudes were born whose distortion came as no surprise, prepared for it as we were by Picasso himself, by Matisse, Derain, Braque, van Dongen, and earlier by Cezanne and Gauguin. It was the hideousness of the faces that froze the half-converts with horror. (Salmon qtd. Rubin 42-52).

The art dealer Kahnweiler recalled "...that Picasso had been abandoned by all at that time, ...And Derain said to me personally: "Well we will find Picasso hanged behind that stretcher one day," so desperate did that undertaking seem. He was absolutely, appallingly alone. (Derain qtd. Rubin 237).

Picasso spoke about his isolation and the lack of understanding from the Steins and Braque, "Yes, I was alone, very much alone. (Vallentin 150).

Picasso turned his painting to the wall. The first public showing was in 1916 in the Salon d'Antin in Paris. It was purchased by Jacques Doucet in 1924 who sold it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1939. Until that time not many persons had seen the painting.

Jean Cocteau said the minor Cubist painters would hide their latest

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