In the summer of 1921, Pablo Picasso, 39, rented a villa in Fontainebleau, a few miles from Paris. He spent most of his time in a garage at the back of the building, working on two monumental paintings. The first was Three Women at the Spring, a portrait of women in tones of clay, their weighty bodies totemic, their fluted dresses neoclassical. The second painting was completely abstract and wildly colorful—Three Musicians. The protean Picasso was not making things easy for scholars and critics, who were thrown by his simultaneous creation of antithetical works. The Museum of Modern Art brings together two versions of each painting, as well as other works created in Fontainebleau. —Elena Clavarino