If cocottes and women in cafés appear in the works of Picasso beginning with his first stay in Paris in 1900, prostitutes become a key subject during the blue period (end of 1901-1904), following the visits of the young artist to the jail of Saint-Lazare at the end of summer-fall 1901. These characters are dealt with less during the pink period (1905-1906), before playing an essential role in the creative process of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907. The presentation will discuss the ambiguous status of this subject in the early works of Picasso, between a cathartic experience in many satirical drawings, and a denunciation of social and religious mores in the tragic blue paintings.