How Pablo Picasso portrayed the women he loved (and what they really were like). Pablo Picasso and his seven main women Analysis of the reproduction of Pablo Picasso's painting of a crying woman

Love and relationships with women occupied great place in the life of Pablo Picasso. Seven women had an undoubted influence on the master’s life and work. But he did not bring happiness to any of them. He not only “mutilated” them on canvas, but also drove them to depression, mental hospital, and suicide.

Every time I change women, I have to burn the last one. This way I get rid of them. This may be what brings back my youth.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, southern Spain, in the family of the artist José Ruiz. In 1895 the family moved to Barcelona, ​​where the young Pablo was easily enrolled in art school La Lonja and through the efforts of his father acquired his own workshop. But a big ship has a long voyage, and already in 1897 Picasso goes to Madrid to study at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, which, however, disappointed him from the very first steps (he visited the museum much more often than lectures). And already at this time still quite a child Pablo being treated for a “bad disease.”

Pablo Picasso and Fernanda Olivier

In 1900, running away from sad thoughts after the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, Pablo Picasso ends up in Paris, where, together with other poor artists, he rents rooms in a dilapidated house on the Place Ravignan. There Picasso meets Fernande Olivier, or "Beautiful Fernanda". This young woman with a dark past (she ran away from home with a sculptor who later went crazy) and a shaky present (she posed for artists) became a lover and muse for several years Picasso. With her appearance in the master’s life, the so-called “blue period” (gloomy paintings in blue-green tones) ends and the “pink” begins, with motives of admiring the nude and warm colors.

Turning to cubism brings Pablo Picasso success even overseas, and in 1910 he and Fernanda moved to a spacious apartment and spent the summer in a villa in the Pyrenees. But their romance was coming to an end. Picasso met another woman - Marcel Humbert, whom he called Eva. With Fernanda Picasso parted amicably, without mutual insults or curses, since Fernanda at that time was already the mistress of the Polish painter Louis Marcoussis.

Photo: Fernanda Olivier and work Pablo Picasso, where she is depicted "Reclining Nude" (1906)

Pablo Picasso and Marcel Humbert (Eve)

Little is known about Marcelle Humbert, as she died early from tuberculosis. But its influence on creativity Pablo Picasso undeniable. She is depicted in the canvas “My Beauty” (1911); the series of works “I Love Eve” is dedicated to her, where one cannot help but notice the fragility, almost transparent beauty of this woman.

During the relationship with Eva Picasso painted textured, rich canvases. But this did not last long. In 1915, Eva died. Picasso could not live in the apartment where he lived with her, and moved to a small house on the outskirts of Paris. For some time he lived a solitary, reclusive life.

Photo: Marcel Humbert (Eva) and work Pablo Picasso where she is depicted is “Woman in a Shirt Reclining in a Chair” (1913)

Pablo Picasso and Olga Khokhlova

Some time after Eve's death, Picasso A close friendship develops with the writer and artist Jean Cocteau. It is he who invites Pablo take part in creating the scenery for the ballet “Parade”. So, in 1917 the troupe, together with Picasso go to Rome, and this work brings the artist back to life. It was there, in Rome, Pablo Picasso meets the ballerina, the colonel's daughter Olga Khokhlova (Picasso called her “Koklova”). She was not an outstanding ballerina; she lacked “high fire” and performed mainly in the corps de ballet.

She was already 27 years old, the end of her career was not far off, and she quite easily agreed to leave the stage for the sake of marriage with Picasso. In 1918 they got married. Russian ballerina makes life Picasso more bourgeois, trying to turn him into an expensive salon artist and an exemplary family man. She did not understand and did not recognize. And since painting Picasso was always connected “with the muse in the flesh” that he had on this moment, he was forced to move away from the cubist style.

In 1921, the couple had a son, Paolo (Paul). The elements of fatherhood temporarily overwhelmed the 40-year-old Picasso, and he endlessly drew his wife and son. However, the birth of a son could no longer cement the union of Picasso and Khokhlova; they grew increasingly distant from each other. They divided the house into two halves: Olga was forbidden to visit her husband’s workshop, and he did not visit her bedroom. Being an exceptionally decent woman, Olga had a chance to become a good mother of a family and make some respectable bourgeois happy, but with Picasso she “failed.” She spent the rest of her life alone, suffering from depression, tormented by jealousy and anger, but remained a legal wife Picasso until his death from cancer in 1955.

Photo: Olga Khokhlova and work Pablo Picasso, where she is depicted in "Portrait of a Woman with an Ermine Collar" (1923)

Pablo Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter

In January 1927 Picasso met 17-year-old Marie-Therese Walter. The girl did not refuse the offer to work as a model for him, although about the artist Pablo Picasso I've never heard of it. Three days after they met, she already became his mistress. Picasso I rented an apartment for her not far from my own house.

Picasso did not advertise his relationship with the minor Marie-Therese, but his paintings gave him away. The most famous work of this period - “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” - went down in history as the first canvas sold for more than 100 million dollars.

In 1935, Marie-Thérèse gave birth to a daughter, Maya. Picasso tried to get a divorce from his wife in order to marry Marie-Therese, but this attempt was unsuccessful. Relationship between Marie-Therese and Picasso lasted much longer than their duration love affair. Even after the separation, Picasso continued to support her and their daughter with money, and Marie-Thérèse hoped that he, the love of her life, would eventually marry her. This did not happen. A few years after the artist’s death, Marie-Thérèse hanged herself in the garage of her home.

Photo: Marie-Thérèse Walter and work Pablo Picasso, in which she is depicted, - “Nude, green leaves and bust” (1932)

Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar

The year 1936 was marked for Picasso getting to know new woman- representative of the Parisian bohemian, photographer Dora Maar. This happened in a cafe, where a girl in black gloves was playing dangerous game- she tapped the tip of the knife between her spread fingers. She got hurt Pablo asked for her bloody gloves and kept them for life. So, this sadomasochistic relationship began with blood and pain.

Subsequently Picasso said that he remembered Dora as a “crying woman.” He found that tears suited her extremely well and made her face especially expressive. At times the artist showed phenomenal insensitivity towards her. So, one day, Dora came to the Picasso talk about your mother's death. Without letting her finish, he sat her down in front of him and began to paint a picture from her.

During the relationship between Dora and Picasso The Nazis bombed the city of Guernica, the cultural capital of the Basque region. In 1937, a monumental (3x8 meters) canvas was born - the famous "" denouncing Nazism." Experienced photographer Dora captured various stages work Picasso above the picture. And this is in addition to many photographic portraits of the master.

In the early 1940s, Dora's “subtle mental organization” develops into neurasthenia. In 1945, fearing a nervous breakdown or suicide, Pablo sends Dora to a psychiatric hospital.

Photo: Dora Maar and work Pablo Picasso in which she is depicted is “The Weeping Woman” (1937)

Pablo Picasso and Francoise Gilot

In the early 1940s Pablo Picasso met the artist Françoise Gilot. Unlike other women, she managed to “hold the line” for three whole years, followed by a 10-year romance, two children together (Claude and Paloma) and full simple joys life on the coast.

But Picasso could not offer Françoise anything more than the role of mistress, mother of his children and model. Françoise wanted more - self-realization in painting. In 1953, she took the children and went to Paris. Soon she released the book “My Life with Picasso", on which the film "Living Life with Picasso" Thus, Françoise Gilot became the first and only woman to Picasso did not crush, did not burn.

Photo: Françoise Gilot and work Pablo Picasso in which she is depicted is “Flower Woman” (1946)

Pablo Picasso and Jacqueline Roque

After Françoise left, the 70-year-old Picasso a new and last lover and muse appeared - Jacqueline Rock. They only got married in 1961. Picasso was 80 years old, Jacqueline - 34. They lived more than alone - in the French village of Mougins. There is an opinion that it was Jacqueline who did not favor visitors. Even children were not always allowed on the threshold of his house. Jacqueline worshiped Pablo, like a god, and turned their house into a kind of personal temple.

This was exactly the source of inspiration that the master lacked with his previous lover. For 17 of the 20 years he lived with Jacqueline, he did not draw any other women except her. Each of latest paintings Picasso- This unique masterpiece. And obviously stimulated by genius Picasso it is the young wife who provides for old age and last years artist with warmth and selfless care.

Died Picasso in 1973 - in the arms of Jacqueline Rock. His sculpture “Woman with a Vase” was installed on his grave as a monument.

Photo: Jacqueline Rock and work Pablo Picasso in which she is depicted is “Nude Jacqueline in a Turkish headdress” (1955)

Based on materials:

“100 people who changed the course of history. Pablo Picasso" Issue No. 29, 2008

And also, http://www.picasso-pablo.ru/

"Whenever I want to say something, I say it in the manner in which I
I feel like this should be said." Pablo Picasso.

When he was born, the midwife thought he was stillborn.
Picasso was saved by his uncle. “Doctors at that time smoked big cigars, and my uncle
was no exception. When he saw me lying motionless,
he blew smoke in my face, to which I, with a grimace, let out a roar of rage."
Above: Pablo Picasso in Spain
Photo: LP / Roger-Viollet / Rex Features

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in the city of Malaga, Anadalusian
provinces of Spain.
At baptism Picasso received full name Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula
Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Crispin Crispignano de la Santisima
Trinidad Ruiz and Picasso - which, according to Spanish custom, was a series of names
revered saints and family relatives.
Picasso is the mother's surname, which Pablo took, since his father's surname
seemed too ordinary to him, besides, Picasso’s father, José Ruiz,
he was an artist himself.
Top: Artist Pablo Picasso in Mougins, France in 1971
two years before his death.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Picasso's first word was "Piz" - which is short for "La piz"
which means pencil in Spanish.

Picasso's first painting was called "Picador"
man riding a horse in a bullfight.
Picasso's first exhibition took place when he was 13.
in the back room of the umbrella shop.
At the age of 13, Pablo Picasso brilliantly entered the
Barcelona Academy of Fine Arts.
But in 1897, at the age of 16, he came to Madrid to study at the School of Arts.

"First Communion" 1896 The painting was created by 15-year-old Picasso

"Self-portrait". 1896
Technique: Oil on canvas. Collection: Barcelona, ​​Picasso Museum

"Knowledge and mercy." 1897 The painting was painted by 16-year-old Pablo Picasso.

Already as an adult and once visiting an exhibition of children's drawings, Picasso said:
"At their age I drew like Raphael, but it took me a whole life
to learn to draw like them."

Pablo Picasso painted his masterpiece in 1901,
when the artist was only 20 years old.

Picasso was once questioned by the police for stealing the Mona Lisa.
After the painting disappeared from the Louvre in Paris in 1911, the poet and "friend"
Guillaume Apollinaire pointed his finger at Picasso.
Child and Dove, 1901. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
currently on display as part of the Courtauld Gallery's Becoming Picasso exhibition.
Picture: Private collection.

Picasso burned several of his paintings when he was an aspiring artist in Paris.
in order to keep warm.
Above: Absinthe drinker 1901. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Photo: State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pablo Picasso. Ironing Woman. 1904
Allegedly, this work contains a disguised self-portrait of Picasso!

Picasso's sister Conchita died of diphtheria in 1895.

Picasso met French artist Henri Matisse in 1905
at the home of writer Gertrude Stein.
Top: Gnome-Dancer, 1901 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
currently on display as part of the Courtauld Gallery's Becoming Picasso exhibition.
Photo: Picasso Museum, Barcelona (gasull Fotografia)

Pablo Picasso.Woman with a Crow.1904

Picasso had many mistresses.
Women of Picasso - Fernanda Olivier, Marcel Humbert, Olga Khokhlova,
Marie Therese Walter, Françoise Gilot, Dora Maar, Jacqueline Roque...

Pablo Picasso's first wife was Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova.
In the spring of 1917, the poet Jean Cocteau, who collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev,
invited Picasso to make sketches of costumes and scenery for the future ballet.
The artist went to work in Rome, where he fell in love with one of the dancers of the Diaghilev troupe -
Olga Khokhlova. Diaghilev, noticing Picasso’s interest in the ballerina, considered it his duty
warn the hot Spanish rake that Russian girls are not easy -
you should marry them...
They got married in 1918. The wedding took place in Paris Orthodox Cathedral
Alexander Nevsky, among the guests and witnesses were Diaghilev, Apollinaire, Cocteau,
Gertrude Stein, Matisse.
Picasso was convinced that he would marry for life, and therefore his marriage contract
included an article stating that their property is common.
In case of divorce, this meant dividing it equally, including all the paintings.
And in 1921 their son Paul was born.
However life married couple didn't work out...
but this was Pablo's only official wife,
they were not divorced.

Pablo Picasso and Olga Khokhlova.

Pablo Picasso.Olga.

Picasso painted her a lot in a purely realistic manner, which she herself insisted on
a ballerina who did not like experiments in painting that she did not understand.
“I want,” she said, “to recognize my face.”

Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Olga Khokhlova.

Francoise Gilot.
This amazing woman managed to fill Picasso with strength without wasting hers.
She gave him two children and managed to prove that a family idyll is not a utopia,
but a reality that exists for free and loving people.
The children of Françoise and Pablo received the surname Picasso and after the artist’s death they became
owners of part of his fortune.
Françoise herself put an end to her relationship with the artist after learning about his infidelity.
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,
without giving him the opportunity to join the list of abandoned and devastated women.
Having published the book “My Life with Picasso”, Françoise Gilot largely went against the will of the artist,
but gained worldwide fame.

Francoise Gilot and Picasso.

With Françoise and children.

Picasso had four children from three women.
Above: Pablo Picasso with two children of his mistress Françoise Gilot,
Claude Picasso (left) and Paloma Picasso.
Photo: REX

Children of Picasso. Claude and Paloma. Paris.

Marie-Therese Walter gave birth to his daughter Maya.

He married his second wife, Jacqueline Rock, when he was 79 (she was 27).

Jacqueline is the last one left faithful woman Picasso and takes care of him,
already sick, blind and hard of hearing, until his death.

Picasso. Jacqueline with crossed arms, 1954

One of Picasso's many muses was the dachshund Lump.
(exactly so, in the German manner. Lump in German is “canal”).
The dog belonged to photographer David Douglas Duncan.
She died a week before Picasso.

There are several periods in Pablo Picasso's work: blue, pink, African...

The "blue" period (1901-1904) includes works created between 1901 and 1904.
Gray-blue and blue-green deep cold colors, colors of sadness and despondency, constantly
are present in them. Picasso called blue “the color of all colors.”
Frequent subjects of these paintings are emaciated mothers with children, tramps, beggars, and the blind.

“Beggar Old Man with a Boy” (1903) Museum of Fine Arts. Moscow.

"Mother and Child" (1904, Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

The Blind Man's Breakfast." 1903 Collection: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The “Rose Period” (1904 - 1906) is characterized by more cheerful tones - ocher
and pink, as well as stable themes of images - harlequins, wandering actors,
acrobats
Fascinated by the comedians who became the models for his paintings, he often visited the Medrano Circus;
at this time the harlequin was Picasso's favorite character.

Pablo Picasso, two Acrobats with a dog, 1905

Pablo Picasso, Boy with a Pipe, 1905

"African" period (1907 - 1909)
In 1907, the famous "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" appeared. The artist worked on them for more than a year -
long and carefully, as he had not worked on his other paintings before.
The public's first reaction is shock. Matisse was furious. Even most of my friends did not accept this job.
“It feels like you wanted to feed us oakum or give us gasoline to drink,” -
said the artist Georges Braque, new friend Picasso. Scandalous picture, whose name was given by
poet A. Salmon, was the first step of painting on the path to cubism, and many art historians believe
its starting point for contemporary art.

Queen Isabella. 1908. cubism Museum of Fine Arts. Moscow.

Picasso was also a writer. He wrote about 300 poems and two plays.
Above: Harlequin and Companion, 1901. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
currently on display as part of the Courtauld Gallery's Becoming Picasso exhibition.
Photo: State Museum A. S. Pushkin, Moscow

Acrobats.Mother and son.1905

Pablo Picasso.Lovers.1923

Picasso's painting "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust", which depicts him
mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, was sold at auction for $106.5 million.
This broke the record for paintings sold at auction,
which was set by Munch's painting "The Scream".

Picasso's paintings were stolen more often than any other artist.
550 of his works are missing.
Above: The Weeping Woman 1937 by Pablo Picasso
Photo: Guy Bell/Alamy

Together with Georges Braque, Picasso founded Cubism.
He also worked in the following styles:
Neoclassicism (1918 - 1925)
Surrealism (1925 - 1936), etc.

Pablo Picasso.Two reading girls.

Picasso donated his sculptures to the society in Chicago, USA in 1967.
He gave unsigned paintings to his friends.
He said: otherwise you will sell them when I die.

In recent years, Olga Khokhlova lived in Cannes completely alone.
She was ill for a long time and painfully, and on February 11, 1955, she died of cancer.
at the city hospital. Only her son and a few friends attended the funeral.
At that time, Picasso was in Paris finishing the painting “Women of Algeria” and did not come.

Picasso's two mistresses, Marie-Thérèse Walter and Jacqueline Roque (who became his wife)
committed suicide. Marie-Theresa hanged herself four years after his death.
Rock shot herself in 1986, 13 years after Picasso's death.

Pablo Picasso's mother said: “With my son, who was created only for himself
and for no one else, no woman can be happy."

Top: Seated Harlequin, 1901. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
currently on display as part of the Courtauld Gallery's Becoming Picasso exhibition.
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / Scala, Florence

According to the proverb, Spain is a country where men despise sex,
but they live for him. “In the morning - church, in the afternoon - bullfighting, in the evening - brothel” -
Picasso religiously adhered to this credo of the Spanish machos.
The artist himself said that art and sexuality are one and the same.

Pablo Picasso and Jean Cacteau at a bullfight in Vallauris. 1955

Above: Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Picasso's painting "Guernica" (1937). Guernica is a small Basque town in northern Spain, almost wiped off the face of the earth by German aircraft on May 1, 1937.

One day the Gestapo raided Picasso's house. A Nazi officer, seeing a photograph of Guernica on the table, asked: “Did you do this?” “No,” the artist replied, “you did it.”

During the Second World War, Picasso lives in France, where he becomes close to the communists -
members of the Resistance (in 1944 Picasso even joined the French Communist Party).

In 1949, Picasso paints his famous "Dove of Peace" on a poster
World Peace Congress in Paris.

In the photo: Picasso paints a dove on the wall of his house in Mougins. August 1955.

Picasso's last words were "Drink for me, drink for my health,
you know I can't drink anymore."
He died while he and his wife, Jacqueline Rock, were entertaining friends over dinner.

Picasso was buried in the grounds of the castle he bought in 1958
in Vauvenargues, in the south of France.
He was 91 years old. Shortly before his death, he was distinguished by his prophetic gift
the artist said:
“My death will be a shipwreck.
When a large ship dies, everything around it is sucked into the crater.”

And so it happened. His grandson Pablito asked to be allowed to attend the funeral,
But last wife artist Jacqueline Rock refused.
On the day of the funeral, Pablito drank a bottle of decoloran, a bleaching chemical.
liquid. Pablito could not be saved.
He was buried in the same grave in the cemetery in Cannes where Olga's ashes rest.

On June 6, 1975, 54-year-old Paul Picasso died of cirrhosis of the liver.
His two children are Marina and Bernard, Pablo Picasso's last wife Jacqueline
and three more illegitimate children - Maya (daughter of Marie-Therese Walter),
Claude and Paloma (children of Françoise Gilot) were recognized as the artist’s heirs.
Long battles for inheritance began

Marina Picasso, who inherited famous mansion grandfather's "Residence of the King" in Cannes,
lives there with an adult daughter and son and three adopted Vietnamese children.
She makes no distinction between them and has already made a will according to which
after her death, her entire huge fortune will be divided into five equal parts.
Marina created a foundation bearing her name, which was built in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City
a village of 24 houses for 360 Vietnamese orphans.

“I inherited my love for children,” Marina emphasizes, “from my grandmother.
Olga was the only person from the entire Picasso clan who treated us, grandchildren,
with tenderness and attention. And my book “Children Living at the End of the World” is largely
wrote in order to restore her good name.

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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 fine arts 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 a large number of both the actual portraits of Fernanda and in general female images written from it.

"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 were married on June 18, 1918 in the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral. 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 new premiere“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 had big 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 portraitist, a commercial artist, spinning 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 there were menacing 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 Teresa 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-Therese 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 just a monster.

Francoise 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.

Fernanda Olivier

Picasso met his model Fernanda Olivier, his first great love, in Paris in 1904. It was with the appearance of Fernanda that Picasso’s gloomy painting acquired color. They were young, quickly became close and went together through the poverty and obscurity of the artist's first decade in Paris. When people started buying his paintings, their relationship was already at an end. Picasso broke up with his former lovers without regret: this happened with Fernanda when the artist met Marcelle Humbert, who became his affection for the three-year period of Cubism. Fernanda’s portrait “Woman with Pears” is one of the first experiments in the period of early Cubism.

Pablo Picasso, "Woman with Pears (Fernanda)", 1909
Fernande Olivier, circa 1909

Olga Khokhlova

Picasso met the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, his first wife and mother of his first child, in Italy in 1917 while working on Russian Seasons. Diaghilev warned Picasso that they don’t joke with Russian women, they marry them. Olga Khokhlova not only became Picasso’s wife - he married her Orthodox rite. Separating after 17 years of controversy family life, they never divorced - Picasso did not want to divide the property equally, which was required by the terms of the marriage contract.

Cooling to his wife came along with cooling to the bourgeois life that Khokhlova loved so much. Strained relationships are reflected in the paintings - if at the beginning love story Olga's portraits are realistic, but by the time the marriage broke up, Picasso painted her only in the style of surrealism. “Woman with a Hat” was created in 1935, the year when Olga learned that Picasso had a child with his mistress Marie-Therese Walter. Even though she left on her own, long years pursued Picasso - her death in 1955 brought only relief to the artist.



Pablo Picasso, "Woman with a Hat (Olga)", 1935
Olga Khokhlova, circa 1917

Maria-Therese Walter

Marie-Therese Walter appeared in Picasso's life in 1927. She was only 17, he was already 45. Before meeting the artist, she had not even heard his name. In 1935, Walter gave birth to his daughter Maya, whom he continued to visit even after breaking up with her mother. Maria Theresa wrote for many years ex-lover tender letters that he read to new friends. She committed suicide four years after Picasso's death. Usually the artist depicted her as a blonde with short hair, but in the 1937 portrait, heavy makeup and painted nails appear - a sign that Picasso is having an affair with Dora Maar.



Pablo Picasso, "Portrait of Marie-Theresa", 1937
Marie-Therese Walter, around 1928

Dora Maar

Dora Maar is the one “ crying woman» Picasso. This plot reflects not only the artist’s perception of the character of this woman, but also the pre-war mood in Europe. At the time of their acquaintance in 1935, Dora was already an established artist and photographer herself - their relationship was more of an intellectual nature than a romantic one. The break with Picasso after a nine-year romance brought Dora to a psychiatric clinic, and in recent years she led a reclusive life. Before you is one of the most famous paintings from the series “crying women”.



Pablo Picasso, “The Weeping Woman (Dora Maar)”, 1937
Dora Maar, around 1955

Francoise Gilot

Françoise Gilot is the only woman who managed to get away with it after a ten-year affair with Picasso. The artist met Françoise, who was old enough to be his granddaughter, in a restaurant in 1943 - she was an excellent conversationalist, and over time, Picasso began to need her. Françoise bore him two children, a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma, and left with them in 1953, becoming the only woman who managed to escape the influence of Picasso without psychological problems- she became an artist, married twice, wrote a book about Picasso, which formed the basis for the film “Living Life with Picasso” with Anthony Hopkins in leading role. The image of the “flower woman” appeared in the spring of 1946, when the artist finally persuaded Françoise to move in with him.



Pablo Picasso, "Flower Woman (Françoise Gilot)", 1946
Francoise Gilot, 1973

Sylvette David

Sylvette David, with whom Picasso never had a close relationship, became the artist's muse in the 1950s - she posed for him several times in 1954, which resulted in a whole series of works - you can easily guess them by the fluffy tail of her blond hair. The affair with Sylvette did not happen - the girl was always accompanied by her groom, and she herself felt uncomfortable next to a celebrity, but meeting the great artist played into her hands - Picasso gave her one of the portraits, and with the money from its sale she was able to buy a home in Paris .



Pablo Picasso, “Portrait of Sylvette David in a Green Armchair”, 1954
Sylvette David, 1954

Jacqueline Rock

Jacqueline Rock - last love Picasso and the second official wife - has become the main character of his paintings in the last 20 years. At the time they met in 1953, she was 27, he was 73. Jacqueline tolerated his difficult character and called him monsignor - he lived with her until his death. She took Picasso’s departure hard, teetering on the brink of madness, and 13 years later, on the eve of a retrospective of his works, she shot herself. "Jacqueline with Crossed Arms" is one of the most famous portraits the last muse Picasso.



Pablo Picasso, Jacqueline with Crossed Arms, 1954
Jacqueline Rock, 1955

From the book "Picasso" by Henri Gidel:
In Mougins, Pablo paints portraits of Lee Miller, Nuch, Dora, Vollard... Probably, under the influence of Guernica, he paints many tragic faces. These are sobbing women, most of them endowed with Dora traits. On next year the faces of women in portraits become more and more excited, shocked, distorted, as, for example, in his famous portrait Crying woman. While working on Guernica, Pablo drew from Dora women's faces, drenched in tears. And he continues to do this, and often distorts the correct facial features of a young woman so much that they cause horror.
Unlike Fernanda, who was indignant when her face was distorted, or Olga, who openly despised Pablo’s attempts to disfigure women’s faces, Dora Maar turned out to be the most patient. She sees in such “modifications” only plastic experiments, to which, in her opinion, the artist has the right. Moreover, she is so confident in own beauty that considers herself invulnerable. And Picasso repeatedly repeated that he sees her only in tears. This manner of depicting Dora is not at all dictated by his desire to disfigure her, but by artistic necessity, which subjugates him to himself, for, as he said more than once, his painting is stronger than his will.

Pink dress 1864 - Frederic Basil portrayed Teresa on the terrace
at the far end of the garden. She is wearing a simple dress with vertical
pink and silver-gray stripes, and a black apron. Theresa
sits with his back to the viewer and looks towards the village... -