Over the ninety-one years of his life, the Spanish artist created a truly great variety of paintings: the Museum of Modern Art in New York claims that their number is approaching twenty thousand. However, the volume of plots and underlying meanings is incalculable.
Paintings Pablo Picasso to a certain extent, they were always “talking”, and his canvases shouted to the whole world about everything that he himself was silent about.
A clear change in mood has been noticeable since 1928, when during a family holiday on the Cote d'Azur, the artist met Marie-Therese Walter. Picasso was then forty-six, and the young girl was seventeen. Every bather in his famous series of paintings is exactly that.
Here Maria Teresa opens the artist’s house with her key (the key was always written out quite clearly), plays with a ball on the beach, and has fun with friends. The paintings remained just as surreal, but the shades became noticeably softer and more natural, the golden highlights of the sun, the clear sky and the blissfully calm surface of the water became recognizable. The tenderness of feelings for the young girl had to remain a secret, but not from the canvas and brush. For two summers in a row, Picasso painted her alone, almost always next to the changing cabin - a place where he could hide her from prying eyes.
Perhaps the most tender and touching works of Picasso were written with Marie-Therese Walter, who awakened in him the search for a completely new sculpture. The captivating curves of the young lover’s body dictated smooth and elastic lines to the artist, and although photographic resemblance was always in last place, the blonde girl was always recognizable. This is exactly how Picasso painted no one else. He owes this love, the most sensual in his life, the creation of his best masterpieces, such as “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” (Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur), “Dream” (Le Rêve), “Reading” (La Lecture).
Olga gets an absurd replica of Matisse’s painting, an unspoken competition with whom she had been going on all her life - “Nude in a Red Chair” (Grand nu au fauteuil rouge). The open mouth with sharp teeth is thrown towards the ceiling, the arms are tangled with the legs, and the breasts are literally hanging from somewhere from the neck - the imminent rupture is obvious and inevitable.
“When I write, I always try to give people an unexpected image, moreover, one that they do not accept. In this sense, I always try to be annoying. That is, I give a person an image of himself, the elements of this image are collected from the usual vision of things in traditional painting, then regrouped in such an unexpected, exciting way that it is impossible for him to avoid the questions that this image raises.”, - said the artist.
Life for Picasso was invariably a game without rules. Neither the devotion of Marie-Theresa nor their recently born daughter Moya could change the artist’s restless nature. The need for upheavals - social, artistic and love - formed an integral part of his character. Although he maintained a warm relationship with Maria Theresa until the end of his life, a new passionate romance was already developing.
By the end of the 30s, Europe was shrouded in pre-war sentiment, armed conflicts broke out everywhere, and small towns continually found themselves under fire. The horror of the impending disaster gave Picasso’s paintings an alarming tone, but what truly struck him was the raid on Guernica, a town of six thousand that was bombed in a matter of hours and then burned for another three days. Filled with disgust for war, the artist wrote a gigantic indictment of fascism: thus Guernica was born, a tyrannical, frightening and verbose picture.
Three and a half meters high and almost eight meters long, the black and white canvas shows scenes of violence, brutality, death and fear in every inch. Dora Maar, a photographer and lover of Picasso, took seven photographs of the painting in the process of its creation, which was also a new experience for that time.
A few years later, in 1943, Gestapo officers, just looking for a reason to convict Picasso of anti-fascist sentiments, regularly visited his Paris apartment under various pretexts. They checked his documents several times a week, but since it was impossible to attribute Picasso to the Jewish people in any way, the paintings were targeted. Once seeing a reproduction of “Guernica”, the Gestapo asked: “Did you do this?”. "No, - answered the artist, - you did it. You can take it as a souvenir". Punishment was avoided solely thanks to influential friends.
It was not only the meticulousness of the Nazis that irritated Picasso in those years: Dora Maar, being an extremely nervous and eccentric person, amazingly quickly managed to turn passion into hatred. Perhaps no female image has ever been as disfigured as in the “Crying Woman” series, where disgust for Dora and the war merged together. A purple or deathly gray sobbing creature with long claws and a distorted face united in itself all the national and personal suffering of Paris during the period of German occupation. Although Dora could compete intellectually with Picasso and was not only his lover, but also his partner, their relationship fell on a difficult time and was always tense. It is now easy to identify the period from the nervous images, broken forms and dirty shades.
As often happened before, a woman changed everything. Picasso and the young artist Françoise Gilot met in 1943. Attacks of jealousy brought Dora Maar to a psychiatric hospital, but the artist, not noticing even a bit of his guilt in this, soon invited his new mistress to move in with him. Françoise’s own talent quickly languished under the close wing of the great master, but she, one of all former and future lovers, managed to become Picasso’s friend and not lose his respect over the years. Submissive, but not losing her dignity, loving, but not bowing down, Françoise opened up a truly happy life for the artist.
Together they gradually moved to the south of France, where they raised two children and kept many pets and birds, especially pigeons. Françoise later wrote a book about her life with Picasso, where she repeatedly mentioned how the artist loved to greet her sitting in the window with a dove on his shoulder. One day they found a wounded owlet together, went out and left him to live with them. Although the owl did not acknowledge the concern and pointedly turned away, as soon as Picasso entered the room, he still managed to create several paintings with his participation.
The southern idyll was complemented by warm sea air, the cries of seagulls, Picasso’s favorite morning grumbles and Françoise’s kisses. Very soon the famous image of the “flower woman” was born - this is how the artist saw his new muse. Her face on each canvas remained equally beautiful, peaceful and friendly, and her body turned into a slender and graceful plant. The idea to give Françoise green hair belonged to Matisse. The first thing he exclaimed when Picasso brought her to visit: “Darling, if I were painting your portrait, your hair would be green.”. Of course, Picasso denied this in every possible way.
“I strive to take the mind in an unfamiliar direction, to awaken it. Help the viewer discover something that he would not have discovered without me. Therefore, my goal is to depict things in motion, to evoke this movement by contradictory aspirations, opposing forces, and in these aspirations or confrontations to find the moment that interests me most.", - Picasso told Françoise.
Along with portraits of Françoise, the artist did not stop painting still lifes, many of which he later sold, making a literal theatrical drama out of it. He forced his customers to wait for hours in the reception area and, while the decorous butler claimed that “Monsieur is very busy,” he himself flatly refused to get out of bed. Then he left his most loyal clients waiting in the reception area, pretending that he was going to sell everything to someone else. However, he didn’t sell anything. Behind closed doors he repeated: “Come tomorrow, or better yet, in a month”, and in front of everyone he patted the unlucky dealer on the shoulder, pretending that the deal had taken place. So the despondent old acquaintances thought that everything had already been sold out, and agreed to take what Picasso offered them, for the exorbitantly high price that he named.
Although new paintings were born under the artist’s brush every day, Picasso’s practicality bordered on the absurd: his schemes for profiting from useful people every year they became more and more sophisticated. Françoise had to resort to tricks to get him to donate at least a couple of paintings to museums. It was only when he was predicted to become the first living artist to see his work in the Louvre that Picasso's vanity prevailed over his stinginess.
According to the recollections of many of his acquaintances, the artist never betrayed his bad character. When the relationship with Françoise seemed too monotonous to him, he again became interested in another woman, not at all expecting that the next morning he would wake up in an empty house without his beloved and children.
“When I was their age, I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them.”, he said about his children, whom he could now see only during the holidays.
Françoise was the only one who did not allow herself to be driven to a psychiatric hospital or suicide, as happened more than once with Picasso’s other mistresses, but her departure turned out to be the beginning of severe depression for the artist. Always and in everything he had to be the only one. Therefore, he refused visits to both competitors and friends. For the same reason, he forced his former lovers to lead the life of recluses and not go out in the evenings, every day, year after year, waiting for his call. He could not stand untalented people just as much as he could not stand talented people. He did not honor the indifferent with the same expression as the fans. Françoise's departure broke the usual pattern: usually Picasso himself chose who would remain in his life.
Since the mid-50s, the works of the now seventy-year-old master have varied in spirit and style. Having married for the second time to a new muse, Jacqueline Rock, who arrived in time, he made her the main character of his paintings in the next twenty years.
Her submissive and enthusiastic behavior might have previously bored Picasso, but now, when the time of fading of strength naturally came, Jacqueline came in handy. He endlessly sublimated her oriental appearance in his erotic plots of the “Algerian Women” series and countless frank, depraved female characters.
Quite often, Picasso turned to the theme of struggle: more than a dozen of his canvases show us an interweaving of bodies, sometimes difficult to understand - female or male. The debate is still ongoing: is it depicting lovemaking or a manifestation of aggression? Massive figures with black outlines seem so voluminous, literally filling the entire space.
Sometimes Picasso returned to old techniques, as if testing whether he could repeat them after so many years. Only respect prevents some of his later paintings from being called vulgar; others appear encouragingly naive to the viewer. The artist was either nostalgic for his Parisian studio, or for the atmosphere of the Mediterranean and his pigeons. Often Picasso was carried away by erotic scenes, eagerly reacting to the sexual revolution that was thundering at that time, and then rushed back to motherhood and the favorite theme of the artist and model.
Of course, Picasso could paint beautiful classical paintings: remembering his early periods, no one would deny him his skill. But he himself argued that his talent and abilities were a straitjacket, and tried to get rid of it until the very end. It is difficult to say whether it was despair or self-irony, but one thing we know for sure: in audacity, as well as in excellence, Picasso has no equal.
The most expensive and most shocking artist in history continues to shock the public even after his death
135 years ago, on October 25, in Malaga, Spain, an art teacher and housewife gave birth to their first child, who was named Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Mártir Patricio RUIS and PICASSO. After some time, the world will recognize him as an outstanding artist. Art critics will begin to discuss the degree of talent and style of painting, give names to periods of creativity and calculate how much this or that painting could cost. But if Pablo had not had another bright ability, he might not have reached heights.
Pablo Picasso picks up a pencil early and immediately makes progress in drawing. But for a long time he cannot learn to read and write, or master the simplest arithmetic operations. Loving parents don't care; they admire their son's artistic abilities and endlessly praise him, gradually cultivating in their child the self-esteem of an over-the-top star. At the age of nine, Pablo painted his first serious oil painting; at 13, he learned the joys of sex in a local brothel and became a regular. In the long life of the artist, these two paths will become the main ones.
Picasso’s behavior and character seem to have been copied from a classic psychology textbook. Adored by his mother and raised by two aunts, he was accustomed to women being ready to fulfill any whim, never being offended and living only for him. Therefore, he unmistakably identifies among the fair sex those who will completely dissolve in him. Drawing energy from sexual pleasures and moral submission, he splashes it onto the canvas. And he throws away the muse as unnecessary, finding a new victim.
For me, there are only two types of women: goddesses and litter,” says the artist. And he proves the theory in practice, turning the former into the latter with the ease of a creator.
Pablo in his youth
First love: peers
By the age of 19, Picasso contracted syphilis and, as a result, temporary sexual impotence. A year later, he is overcome by depression: he is stunned by the suicide of his bosom friend, eternal drinking buddy and brothel companion Carlos Casagemas. In 1901, Pablo finally moved to Paris, took his mother’s surname (Ruiz seemed too commonplace to him) and settled in a commune of poor artists, where everything was common, including models. One will even get pregnant, and it seems to be from Picasso, but the pregnancy will end in a miscarriage.
In a series of endless female bodies, the artist will eventually highlight his peer Fernanda Olivier (real name Amelie Lang), who was considered the first beauty of the commune. He will take her to his workshop and will not want to share her with anyone else. Fernanda will either have to pose for him or have sex with him. And when he leaves, sit quietly at home - Pablo locks her up. During the romance with Olivier, Picasso's paintings will begin to be bought for good money, and the couple will move into a decent apartment. But the time of this muse has come to an end, and another has already appeared on the artist’s path.
Short happiness: she is 27, he is 31
Marcel Humbert is the girlfriend of the Polish artist Ludwig Markoussis. But this doesn’t bother Picasso at all. As well as the fact that Fernanda is waiting for him at home. With Eva - that’s what he will call his new passion - he will travel around Europe. He will paint his beloved in the style of cubism, confessing his feelings to her in the titles of the paintings. The relationship will last about four years. Eva will die of tuberculosis. What would have happened to them next, if not for death, no one can predict.
Russian trace: she is 26, he is 36
For two whole years Pablo did not build a long-term relationship, returning to a wild lifestyle. However, he was never a faithful husband, but if he had a permanent woman, he at least slowed down.
In 1917, he went to Rome at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev to paint the curtain and scenery for the next production of the Russian Ballet.
I have 60 dancers. I go to bed late. “I know all the women of Rome,” Picasso boasts in a letter to his longtime friend Gertrude Stein.
And suddenly the painter seems to forget about all the ballerinas, focusing on Olga Khokhlova - a diligent but not outstanding member of the troupe, the daughter of an officer in the tsarist army. She, after thinking a little, reciprocates: age is running out - she will no longer become Anna Pavlova.
Be careful, you have to marry Russians,” Diaghilev warns the hot Spanish macho, laughing.
He laughs at a successful joke, but does not have time to look back when he finds himself in front of the altar of the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. On their honeymoon, they practically never get out of bed. At first, Pablo is excited by everything: a Russian wife, a real family, a full house, receptions, balls. In 1921, their son Paulo is born, and that’s where it all ends. The woman with the baby now interests the painter only as a model for the painting. However, he is not going to get a divorce, especially since according to the marriage contract, property will have to be divided equally in the event of a divorce. He wants to remain married, but be inspired by new women. Olga, of course, is not happy with this option. Picasso hides his adventures from her until he notices young Marie-Therese Walter in the Parisian crowd.
Woman for Thursdays: she is 17, he is 46
The script, worked out over the years, was applied to this girl, adjusted for the fame that had already fallen.
I'm Picasso! “Together we will accomplish great things,” the strange man shouted, tightly holding Marie-Therese’s sleeve.
She didn’t even know any Picasso, but she was stunned by the pressure. Without allowing her to come to her senses, Pablo quickly dragged the girl into bed, said that he would come to her on Thursdays, and the rest of the time she was obliged to remain faithful to him, preferably without leaving the house at all. The inexperienced Marie-Therese did not have the strength to resist.
First he raped the woman, and then he began to work with triple force. This made him happy, she admitted much later.
In 1935, her daughter Maya was born. Picasso will not give her his last name, but will bring his mistress and child to his legal wife. Like, I’m tired of both of you, now figure it out yourself.
Marie-Therese Walter will drag her daughter on her shoulders, will not be able to get married and will hang herself four years after Picasso’s death.
The one who cries: she is 29, he is 55
An incredibly beautiful young woman was sitting in a Parisian cafe. Her left hand rested on the table, and in her right hand, which flashed quickly, something metal sparkled. Picasso came closer. The lady stuck a knife between her fingers. She touched the skin a couple of times and started bleeding, but she didn’t pay attention, she just accelerated her movements. How can such an eccentric artist pass by?! In addition, it turns out that Dora Maar is well versed in art, admires Picasso’s paintings, and even knows Spanish. She is a photographer and is ready to record for history all the stages of creating masterpieces, distracted by bed pleasures at the first call of the master. The Parisian bohemian star despises conventions and is not afraid of experiments - neither in art nor in bed.
“I beat Dora, she looks so prettier when she cries,” the artist tells his friends without a shadow of embarrassment. And he explains: “For me, she is a woman who cries.” This is precisely the deep essence of Dora.
Already vulnerable in 1945 nervous system plus a break with her lover led the woman to a psychiatric clinic, where she was treated with the then fashionable electric shock. An old friend, psychiatrist Jacques Lacan, miraculously rescued her from there, but she was never the same.
Unconquered: she is 21, he is 61
Occupied Paris, 1943. Pablo Picasso has dinner at his favorite Café de Flore with friends and Dora Maar. Suddenly he grabs a vase of cherries and, almost stumbling, runs to the table where a pretty woman with plump lips and thick hair is whileing away the evening. The casual conversation ends with an invitation to take a bath in Pablo’s apartment. A royal gift for the war years. Françoise Gilot, an aspiring artist, agrees.
But she will not be an easy target. An experienced womanizer will use all his tricks, but Francoise will only laugh at his attempts. Dora will be furious with jealousy, but Picasso is less and less in her bed. He is absorbed in the excitement of the hunt: the next victim keeps slipping away, although he has already acquired her body. Over time, he manages to persuade Gilot to move in with him, however, it turns out to be Dora’s house. Then Pablo oppresses his mistress for several years because she is busy with her career, and he gets too little attention. He uses a forbidden technique: he convinces him that he dreams of having a child together. Françoise does not know that children mean nothing to Picasso. Claude is born in 1947, Paloma two years later. Relationships are falling apart. However, Françoise has enough strength to take the children, run away from the artist and start new life. She would marry twice, write a best-selling book about her life with the master, and create paintings that would be exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London.
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Pablo Picasso– certainly one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He wrote in different styles and directions - he created beautiful classical works, founded cubism, and left his mark on surrealism. We can talk about him as an artist for a very long time. Therefore, let us dwell on one theme of his work - the depiction of women.
Picasso loved women very much. More precisely, he experienced a strange palette of feelings towards them - from love to hatred, from admiration to contempt. This attitude is well expressed in the artist’s paintings - his women in them are sometimes beautiful, sometimes disfigured by strange grimaces and ugly forms.
The first period of Picasso's work is called "blue", it lasted from 1901 to 1904. In 1901, Picasso learns that his friend Carlos Casagemas has committed suicide. This event was reflected in the artist’s work. Over the next four years, the main storyline of Picasso's paintings was sadness, old age, illness, poverty and death. Blue tones predominate in his works. Women painted during this period are ugly, repulsive, creepy creatures.
- "The Absinthe Drinker", 1901
- "Woman with a hairpiece", 1901
- "Head of a Woman", 1902-1903
One of the first serious novels for Picasso was his meeting with the laundress Fernanda Olivier. He lived with her for 9 years, with her he moved from the gloomy “blue” period to the “pink” - to a lighter and more joyful one. At first he portrayed his beloved as a beautiful and poetic person, but over time and with the advent of Cubism, Fernanda’s features in Picasso’s paintings became less attractive.
- "Fernanda in a black mantilla." 1905
- "Portrait of Fernanda Olivier in a headscarf." 1906
- "Portrait of Fernard Olivier." 1909
Picasso's first wife was a Russian ballet dancer. Olga Khokhlova. They say that when Picasso began to passionately court a Russian ballerina, the organizer of the troupe Sergei Diaghilev even warned the artist: " Be careful, she’s Russian, and they don’t joke with Russians, they marry them!”
And Picasso got married. According to Russian tradition, in Orthodox Church. It seems that he seriously thought that this would be forever. That's almost exactly what happened. The marriage contract was drawn up in such a way that Picasso, although he separated from Olga, did not divorce her until her death in 1955. But the artist did not even come to the funeral of his legal wife. Olga is very different in Picasso's work. At first she is a beautiful and airy ballerina, then - a strange asymmetrical woman.
- "Olga Khokhlova" 1917
- "Seated dancer (Olga)". 1920
- "Portrait of a woman with an ermine collar (Olga)." 1923
- "The head of a woman (Olga Khokhlova)." 1935
Seventeen-year-old Maria Teresa Walter became Picasso's model, his mistress, the reason for his separation from his wife and the mother of his daughter. When they met, the artist was already almost 50 years old. Picasso rarely depicted his beloved realistically, but at first her portraits were full of love and romance. Then the situation changed. Picasso separated from Maria Teresa after about ten years because she demanded that he divorce his wife in order to legitimize their relationship.
- "Bust of a girl (Maria Teresa Walter)". 1927
- "Reading (Maria Teresa)". 1932
- "Woman in a Beret (Maria Teresa Walter)." 1937
- "Head of a woman with blond hair (Maria Teresa Walter)." 1939
Another Picasso lover was a surrealist photographer, artist and poetess Dora Maar. Dora had a nervous, unbalanced character. Picasso never depicted her smiling; in his works she remained a “crying woman.” However, the artist himself was not very kind to the unstable psyche of his beloved.
When Dora Maar accidentally met Maria Theresa Walter In Picasso's studio, the women started a row, demanding that Picasso choose one of them. To which the artist invited them... to fight for him. And they really got into a fight. Picasso later spoke about this as one of the most vivid memories of his life. An unbalanced psyche and an equally nervous life gradually bring Dora to a psychiatric clinic.
It seems that Picasso's attitude towards Dora Maar was as uneven as her character. In some of his paintings she appears as a beautiful, airy creature, in others as a creepy, repulsive image.
- "Portrait of Dora Maar1". 1937
- "Dora Maar". 1938
- "Woman on the Sofa (Dora Maar)." 1939
- "Dora Maar and the cat." 1941
Artist Françoise Gilot was a unique woman for Picasso in every sense of the word. Unlike the others, she, not forgiving the betrayal, left the artist herself, and after breaking up with him she did not break down and lived a long and eventful life. She became known as an artist and published a book " My life with Pablo Picasso". Perhaps, thanks to her strength and independence, Françoise avoided negative images in the artist’s paintings. In Picasso's work she remained in the image of a flower woman and mother of the family.
- "Portrait of Françoise." 1946
- "Flower Woman (Françoise Gilot)." 1946
- "Françoise, Claude and Paloma." 1951
Picasso's second and last wife was Jacqueline Rock. When they met, Jacqueline was 27 and he was 72. Jacqueline adored the artist and cherished his egocentrism so much that it reached the point of absurdity. She called him “my master” and was sincerely surprised how anyone could look out the window if in the room there was “the sun and our king, Monsignor Picasso.” The artist told his wife that she had invented a religion for herself, but it seemed that the role of a deity suited him quite well. Picasso often painted Jacqueline, but even such a devoted woman could not avoid the “cubic” images in his paintings.
- "Jacqueline with flowers" 1954
- "Jacqueline Rock" 1954
- "Jacqueline." 1964
- "Woman on a Pillow (Jacqueline)." 1969
Picasso died on April 8, 1973. 4 years after Picasso’s death, Maria Teresa Walter committed suicide, and nine years later, his widow, Jacqueline Roque, committed suicide. It is dangerous to deal with great artists.
Pablo Picasso.
With a height of 158 centimeters, Picasso had the most powerful masculine energy, amazing charm, and his charisma, like a magnet, attracted women's attention and captivated their hearts. And this “magnetism, colored by an explosive, Spanish temperament and genius, was impossible to resist.”
The entire life of the brilliant painter, 92 years long, is densely strewn with fragments of women's hearts. “For me there are only two types of women - goddesses and doormats”- he said. However, soon all the goddesses in his life became... rags.
"Reclining Nude" (1906). / Fernanda Olivier. Her hungry youth in bohemian Paris was shared with Picasso by Fernanda Olivier, a model with a very dark past, who “wandered” from one artist to another. For almost a whole decade she became the beloved woman and muse of the aspiring artist. Together with her, Picasso’s paintings replaced the gloomy “blue” period with the “pink” one, with nude motifs and warm colors.
She posed naked for the artist and didn’t really protest when she couldn’t leave her apartment for two months, because she didn’t have shoes, and the beggar Picasso didn’t have the money to buy them for her. They barely made ends meet on his meager earnings. The only entertainment for young lovers was sex. However, this could not last forever and they eventually separated peacefully. Pablo found himself a young Marcelle Humbert, and Fernanda went over to a Polish artist.
“Woman in a Shirt Lying in a Chair” (1913). / Marcel Humbert (Eve). Pablo and Marcel met in 1911 at the Hermitage cafe in Paris. Pablo immediately began calling miniature Marcella Eva, emphasizing that she was his first woman. Eva, like all the future lovers of the great and successful Pablo Picasso, could not even imagine that a generous lover once barely made ends meet. Over the past decade, he has already firmly established himself on his feet, and his paintings have been successfully sold.
Marcelle was fragile, quiet and gentle, the complete opposite of tall, healthy and noisy Fernanda. In the artist’s portraits, Eve is depicted everywhere as a symbol of grace, lightness, and weightlessness. Pablo often depicted her in the form of musical instruments: a violin or a guitar. In these works one cannot help but notice the fragility, almost transparent beauty of this woman.
I love Eve. (1912). Marcel was a bright star that flashed for a moment in the firmament of Picasso’s life and quickly went out. Eva died of tuberculosis, but her influence on the work of Pablo Picasso was undoubtedly great.
Olga Khokhlova./ Portrait of a woman with an ermine collar (Olga). (1923). It was his Russian Olya who helped the artist survive the death of his beloved model Marcella Humbert. Being in a creative stagnation, Picasso struck up a close friendship with the writer and artist Jean Cocteau, who offered to create the scenery for the ballet “Parade” for Diaghilev’s troupe. This work brought the master back to life, he meets the ballerina, the daughter of a Russian colonel, Olga Khokhlova (Picasso could only pronounce “Koklova”). The 27-year-old girl quickly agreed to leave the stage for the sake of marriage with Picasso, and in 1918 they got married.
Portraits of Olga Khokhlova. What prompted him to get married? He himself found it difficult to answer this question later. And at that moment he was so enchanted by the Russian dancer that he, without hesitation, walked down the aisle with his beloved, and besides, Orthodox church. After the wedding, Pablo took Olga to her parents in Spain and settled her in a luxurious Parisian apartment. He was so fascinated by Khokhlova that he promised himself to break with his bohemian lifestyle; he so sincerely believed that Olga was simply a gift from heaven for him. An important role was played by the fact that she was a virgin, and Pablo did not miss an opportunity to boast about this.
Olga Khokhlova in a mantilla. (1917). / Olga Khokhlova. (1917). But not everything turned out as planned; the Russian ballerina tried to reduce Picasso’s creativity to the financial well-being of the family, and to enclose him in the framework of an expensive salon artist and an exemplary family man. She did not understand or recognize Cubism and he had to move away from this style for a while. Olga wasted her husband’s money, and he was desperately angry.
Even the birth of his son Paolo in 1921 could not bring the spouses closer together. Although the element of fatherhood did not for long, but strongly overwhelmed Picasso: he endlessly painted his wife and son. And then alienation came.
Olga Such a limited life bored the genius to death, and Pablo began to take revenge on Olga for her failed family life and unfulfilled hopes. The hostility was fully reflected in his paintings: he depicted his wife exclusively as an evil old woman with long sharp teeth, and then created a whole series of portraits of her, depicting a monster woman with skinny breasts and huge genitals.
And of course, Picasso took a mistress, and Olga, having learned about this, decided to file for divorce. But without achieving a divorce, she remained Picasso’s wife until the end of her days. Suffering from depression, tormented by jealousy and anger, she died alone from cancer in 1955. This was the sad ending to their great love.
Portrait of Maria Teresa (1932). / Maria-Therese Walter. It was for the sake of 17-year-old Maria Teresa that Picasso abandoned his son and Olga Khokhlova. Love for the young girl left a noticeable imprint not only on his work, but also on Pablo’s fate. She became his lover, model, object of desire, toy and muse.
Leaning Maria Teresa. Art historians characterize this period as the pinnacle of his creativity. And when Maria Teresa gave birth to a daughter, Maya, from Picasso in 1935, he quickly lost interest in her and openly took a mistress.
“Nude, green leaves and bust” (1932). / Maria-Therese Walter
"The Weeping Woman" (1937). / Dora Maar. The next lover of the hot Spaniard was Dora Maar, a 29-year-old artist and photographer. One day, Maria Teresa and Dora, having met by chance in Pablo's workshop, literally fought over their lover. Picasso later recalled this incident as the most striking event in his life.
Portraits of Dora Maar. (1936-37) He still continued his relationship with both women, he dedicated entire series of portraits to Dora, and went to see Maria Teresa and his daughter Maya twice a week. Dora Maar, possessing the same unbridled temperament as her lover, destroyed her relationship with Pablo with her scandals and jealousy. And he began to visit Maria Teresa and her daughter more and more often.
Dora Maar with a cat. (1941). / Dora Maar. This story ended very tragically for both women. Dora, having a hard time experiencing her breakup with Pablo, ended up in a mental hospital, where she was treated with electric shock. Coming out of which, she became interested in mysticism and astrology. She lived very poorly and alone, and died at the age of 89.
Dora Maar. (1938). Marie-Theresa, living in constant anticipation and depression, years later hanged herself in her own garage.
Bust of Françoise. (1946). / Françoise Gilot. In 1943, during the occupation of Paris, Pablo meets a girl who completely changes his destiny. He was 62 years old, and she was 22. Françoise Gilot became not only his wife, but also Picasso’s most talented student. Taking a lot from the master, she developed her own style and became a famous artist.
Portrait of Françoise. (1946). And only with Francoise Picasso learns new joys of life. This amazing woman fed him with creative energy, without wasting hers. It was she who was able to show Pablo that family life- this is not a heavy burden, and that two loving people can be happy in a family. She gave birth to his children - son Claude and daughter Paloma, who received the surname Picasso, who after the death of their father became the owners of part of his multi-billion dollar fortune.
"Flower Woman" (1946). / Françoise Gilot. Françoise Gilot differed from all Picasso's women in her strong character. Therefore, having learned about Pablo’s betrayal, she left him herself, not allowing herself to be included in the list of abandoned and devastated women.
Francoise, Claude and Paloma. (1951). In 1964, Gilot became famous as a writer by publishing her autobiography, “My Life with Picasso,” where she fully outlined her relationship with the famous artist in 1943-1953. The common-law wife did not miss the opportunity to talk about her husband’s relationships with other women. After the release of Françoise's memoirs, Picasso ended his relationship with both her and their children.
Seated woman in Turkish costume. (1955). / Jacqueline Rock. The last twenty-year period of life next to Picasso was the artist’s last passion - the beautiful and young Jacqueline Roque, who became his second legal wife in 1961. Before that, she was the master’s secretary and model, and it was she who healed the mental wounds that tormented Picasso after the departure of Françoise Gilot.
Portraits of Jacqueline Rock. (1954). Having conquered the artist with her devotion, care and love, which were so necessary for the elderly Don Juan, Jacqueline became his only joy. Over the years of his life with her, Pablo painted about four hundred portraits of her. And the wife elevated her husband’s personality to a cult, calling him “the great maestro,” and surrounded him with servile adoration. What else did he need?
Jacqueline in the studio. (1956). At the age of 92, dying in his French villa, the owner of a billion-dollar fortune, the great painter Pablo Picasso, looked at his works from time to time and thought: "I think about death all the time. She's just a woman who will never leave me.".
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“For me, there are only two types of women - goddesses and doormats.” Pablo Picasso
“Mystery”, “Madness”, “Magic” - these are the first words that came to the minds of patrons when they tried to describe the creation of Pablo Picasso. The artist's special aura was colored by his explosive, Spanish temperament and genius. This is a combination that women could not resist.
website publishes for you the love story of a great painter.
Picasso in his youth and older age
Picasso was an amazing man with that same attractive charm that is now called charisma. However, many women could not come to terms with the artist’s character and committed suicide or went crazy. At the age of 8, Pablo had already written his first serious work, “Picador.” At the age of 16, Picasso, as if jokingly, entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He dropped out of school just as easily. Instead of poring over books, Pablo and his friends began to play around in Madrid brothels.
At the age of 19, the artist set off to conquer Paris. Before leaving, Picasso painted a self-portrait. At the top of the picture he signed in black paint: “I am the king!” However, the “king” had a hard time in the capital of France. There was no money. One winter, to keep warm, he lit a stone fireplace with his own handiwork.
On the personal front, things were going much better.
Women have always adored Picasso.
First lover Fernande Olivier
His first lover was Fernanda Olivier (she was 18, he was 23 years old). In Paris, Pablo Picasso lives in a poor quarter in Montmartre, in a hostel where aspiring artists lived, and where Fernanda Olivier sometimes poses for them. There she meets Picasso, becomes his model and his girlfriend. The lovers lived in poverty. In the mornings they stole croissants and milk. Gradually people began to buy Picasso's paintings.
Pablo Picasso, Fernanda Olivier and Jaquin Reventos. Barcelona, 1906
They lived together for almost a decade, and from this period what remains is large number both the actual portraits of Fernanda and generally female images painted from her.
"Fernanda in a Black Mantilla", 1905
According to researchers, she was also the model for the creation of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, one of Picasso's main paintings, a turning point for the art of the 20th century.
But there was a time when they lived apart (summer and autumn of 1907). This summer left behind bad memories. Both he and she had affairs with others. But the worst thing was that he lived with a woman who did not understand Cubism at all, she did not like him. Perhaps Picasso was experiencing organic depression; Later, when he returned to Paris, he was struck by a stomach ailment. His pre-ulcerative condition. From now on, the relationship between the brush and the canvas will not be in vain for the artist - cubism, as a complex, was as simple as playing chess in three dimensions. And they parted - Picasso and Fernanda.
Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova
True love came to the artist in 1917, when he met one of Sergei Diaghilev’s ballerinas, Olga Khokhlova. The history of their relationship began on May 18, 1917, when Olga danced at the premiere of the ballet “Parade” at the Chatelet Theater. The ballet was created by Sergei Diaghilev, Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau, with Pablo Picasso responsible for the costumes and set design.
Photo portrait of Olga Khokhlova.
Olga Khokhlova, Picasso, Maria Shabelskaya and Jean Cocteau in Paris, 1917.
After they met, the troupe went on tour to South America, and Olga went with Picasso to Barcelona. The artist introduced her to his family. Mother didn't like her. Olga is a foreigner, Russian, no match for her brilliant son! Life will show that the mother was right. Olga and Picasso got married on June 18, 1918 in Orthodox Cathedral Alexander Nevsky. Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob were witnesses at the wedding.
“Portrait of Olga in an Armchair”, 1917
After they met, the troupe went on tour to South America, and Olga went with Picasso to Barcelona. The artist introduced her to his family. Mother didn't like her. Olga is a foreigner, Russian, no match for her brilliant son! Life will show that the mother was right.
Olga and Picasso were married on June 18, 1918 in the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral. Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob were witnesses at the wedding.
In July 1919, they went to London for a new premiere of the Russian Ballet - the ballet "The Tricorne" (Spanish: "El Sombrero de tres Picos", French: "Le Tricorne"), for which Picasso again created costumes and scenery.
The ballet was also performed at the Alhambra in Spain and was a great success at the Paris Opera in 1919. This was a time when they were happily married and often participated in public events.
On February 4, 1921, Olga gave birth to a son, Paulo (Paul). From that moment on, the couple's relationship began to rapidly deteriorate.
Olga wasted her husband’s money, and he was desperately angry. And another important reason for the disagreement was the role imposed by Olga on Picasso. She wanted to see him as a salon portrait painter, a commercial artist, moving in high society and receiving orders there.
"Nude in a Red Chair", 1929
This kind of life bored the genius to death. This was immediately reflected in his paintings: Picasso depicted his wife exclusively in the form of an evil old woman, whose distinctive feature was threatening long sharp teeth. Picasso saw his wife this way for the rest of his life.
Marie-Therese Walter
Photo portrait of Marie-Therese Walter.
"Woman in a Red Chair", 1939
In 1927, when Picasso was 46 years old, he ran away from Olga to 17-year-old Marie-Therese Walter. It was a fire, a mystery, madness.
The time of love for Marie-Therese Walter was special, both in life and in work. The works of this period differed sharply from previously created paintings both in style and color. The masterpieces of Marie Walter's period, especially before the birth of his daughter, are the pinnacle of his creativity.
In 1935, Olga learned from a friend about her husband’s affair, and also that Maria Theresa was pregnant. Taking Paulo with her, she immediately left for the south of France and filed for divorce. Picasso refused to divide the property equally, as required by French law, and therefore Olga remained his legal wife until her death. She died of cancer in 1955 in Cannes. Picasso did not go to the funeral. He simply breathed a sigh of relief.
Dora Maar
Photo portrait of Dora Maar.
After the birth of the child, he loses interest in Marie and takes on another mistress - 29-year-old artist Dora Maar. One day, Dora and Marie-Thérèse met by chance in Picasso’s studio when he was working on the famous “Guernica.” The angry women demanded that he choose one of them. Pablo replied that they should fight for him. And the ladies attacked each other with fists.
Then the artist said that the fight between his two mistresses was the most striking event in his life. Marie-Therese soon hanged herself. And Dora Maar, who will forever remain in the painting “The Weeping Woman.”
"Crying Woman", 1937
For the passionate Dora, the break with Picasso was a disaster. Dora ended up in the Paris psychiatric hospital of St. Anne, where she was treated with electric shocks. She was rescued from there and brought out of the crisis by her old friend, the famous psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. After this, Dora completely withdrawn into herself, becoming for many a symbol of a woman whose life was shattered by her love for the cruel genius of Picasso. Secluded in her apartment near the Rue Grand-Augustin, she plunged into mysticism and astrology, and converted to Catholicism. Her life stopped perhaps in 1944, when there was a break with Picasso.
Later, when Dora returned to painting, her style changed radically: now from under her brush came lyrical views of the banks of the Seine and landscapes of the Luberon. Friends organized an exhibition of her work in London, but it went unnoticed. However, Dora herself did not come to the vernissage, explaining later that she was busy, as she was drawing a rose in the hotel room... Having survived for a quarter of a century the one who, according to Andre Breton, was the “mad love” of her life, Dora Maar died in July 1997 at the age of 90, alone and in poverty. And about a year later, her portrait “Sobbing Woman” was sold at auction for 37 million francs.
The love between Picasso and Dora Maar, which blossomed during the war, did not stand the test of the world. Their romance lasted seven years, and it was a story of broken, hysterical love. Could she have been different? Dora Maar was wild in her feelings and in her creativity. She had an unbridled temperament and a fragile psyche: bursts of energy alternated with periods of deep depression. Picasso is usually called a “sacred monster,” but it seems that in human relations he was simply a monster.
Françoise Gilot
The artist quickly forgot the lovers he had abandoned. Soon he began dating 21-year-old Françoise Gilot, who was old enough to be the master’s granddaughter. I met her in a restaurant and immediately invited her... to take a bath. In occupied Paris hot water was a luxury, and Picasso was one of the few who could afford it.
Françoise Gilot with a flower, Vallauris, 1949
In the life of any destroyer of hearts and destinies, sooner or later there will be a woman who cannot be broken and subdued. It was just such a strong and self-sufficient woman that Pablo Picasso met in 1943. Françoise Gilot subsequently wrote the book “My Life with Picasso” about her 10-year romance with the great artist, which was later used in the film “Living Life with Picasso.”
"Reading", 1953
Unlike many of the master’s lovers, Françoise Gilot did not go crazy and did not commit suicide. Feeling that the love story had come to an end, she herself left Picasso, not giving him the opportunity to join the list of abandoned and devastated women.
Françoise and Picasso met on a professional basis: the young woman was interested in art and was engaged in painting. For some time she posed for the artist and took lessons from him. Six months after they met, their relationship developed into a romance. To depict the image of his rebellious lover, Picasso resorted to new techniques, mastering lithography and engraving. With the appearance of Françoise in Picasso's life, lyricism returned to his paintings. "Flower Woman", written in 1946, is an ode to femininity and tenderness.
With Françoise, Picasso learns to enjoy life in a new way. Not absorbing it, but as if watching from the side. This is a period of calm happiness on the coast, pleasure simple joys such as the sparkling sea and gently flowing clean sand. It is these sparks of happiness that we see in “The Joy of Life” - the brightest picture of the period with the name “Françoise”.
This amazing woman managed to fill Picasso with strength without wasting hers. She gave him two children and managed to prove that the family idyll is not a utopia, but a reality that exists for the free and loving people. The children of Françoise and Pablo received the surname Picasso and after the artist’s death became owners of part of his fortune.
Françoise herself put an end to her relationship with the artist after learning about his infidelity. Her future life was rich in events and happy moments. Having published the book “My Life with Picasso,” Françoise Gilot largely went against the will of the artist, but gained worldwide fame.
