Picasso and his women. Great love of Picasso. Picasso's mental disorders

The master's last child was born the same year as his first grandson, and the name “Paloma Picasso” is already a completely independent brand. We continue our journey through the genealogical tree of the genius, drawing on paintings, photos and fresh information about the affairs of his descendants.

This is the second part of a study dedicated to the wives and offspring of the great modernist Pablo Picasso. Read the previous part of the material - about the painter’s first wife Olga Khokhlova, their son Paulo and grandchildren.


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"The Tree of Descendants" by Pablo Picasso

“It’s amazing how I grew up normal with two crazy parents!”: daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso and her children

Picasso's second child was a daughter, born in 1935, Marie-Therese Walter, the master's companion from 1929 to 1937. Picasso appeared as the godfather of the baby, who received the name Maria de la Concepcion at baptism, but was later better known under the secular name Maya.

Pablo Picasso is a Spanish painter, the founder of Cubism, and according to a 2009 poll by The Times, the most famous artist of the 20th century.

The future genius was born on October 25, 1881 in Andalusia, in the village of Malaga. Father Jose Ruiz was a painter. Ruiz did not become famous for his work, so he was forced to get a job at a local fine art museum as a caretaker. Mother Maria Picasso Lopez belonged to a wealthy family of grape plantation owners, but from childhood she experienced firsthand what poverty was, since her father abandoned the family and moved to America.

When Jose and Maria had their first child, he was christened with the name Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Crispin Crispignano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, in which, according to tradition, revered ancestors and Catholic saints were indicated. After the birth of Pablo, two more girls appeared in the family - Dolores and Conchita, whom their mother loved less than her adored son.

The boy was very handsome and talented. At the age of 7, he already began to help his father in painting canvases. At the age of 13, Jose allowed his son to complete a large part of the work and was very surprised by Pablo's skill. After this incident, the father gave all his art supplies to the boy, and he himself stopped writing.

Studies

In the same year, the young man entered the Academy of Arts in Barcelona. It was not without difficulty that Pablo managed to convince the university teaching staff of his professional worth. After three years of study, having gained experience, the young student is transferred to Madrid to the prestigious San Fernando Academy, where for six months he studies the techniques of work of Spanish artists, and. Here Picasso creates the paintings “First Communion”, “Self-Portrait”, “Portrait of a Mother”.

Due to his wayward character and free lifestyle, the young painter was unable to stay within the walls of the educational institution, therefore, having dropped out of school, Pablo set off on a free voyage. By that time, his close friend was the equally obstinate American student Carles Casagemas, with whom Pablo repeatedly visited Paris.

The friends devoted their first trips to studying the paintings of Delacroix, Toulouse Lautrec, as well as ancient Phoenician, Egyptian frescoes, and Japanese engravings. The young people made acquaintances not only with bohemians, but also with wealthy collectors.

Creation

For the first time, Pablo begins to sign his own paintings with the pseudonym Picasso, his mother's maiden name. In 1901, a tragedy occurred that left its mark on the artist’s work: his friend Carles commits suicide due to unhappy love. In memory of this event, Pablo creates a number of paintings that are usually attributed to the first “Blue Period”.

The abundance of blue and gray colors in the paintings is explained not only by the depressed state of the young man, but also by the lack of funds for oil paint of other shades. Picasso painted the works “Portrait of Jaime Sabartes”, “Rendezvous”, “Tragedy”, “Old Jew with a Boy”. All paintings are permeated with a feeling of anxiety, despondency, fear and melancholy. The writing technique becomes angular, torn, perspective is replaced by the rigid contours of flat figures.

In 1904, despite the lack of finances, Pablo Picasso decided to move to the capital of France, where new impressions and events awaited him. The change of residence gave impetus to the second period of the artist’s work, which is commonly called “Pink”. The cheerfulness of the paintings and their plot lines were largely influenced by the place where Pablo Picasso lived.

At the base of the Montmartre Hill stood the Medrano Circus, whose performers served as a model for the young artist’s works. In two years, a whole series of paintings was painted: “Actor”, “Seated Nude”, “Woman in a Shirt”, “Acrobats. Mother and Son", "Family of Comedians". In 1905, the most significant painting of this period, “Girl on a Ball,” appeared. After 8 years, the painting was acquired by Russian philanthropist I. A. Morozov, who brought it to Russia. In 1948, “Girl on a Ball” was exhibited at the Museum. , where it is still located.

The artist gradually moves away from depicting nature as such; modernist motifs appear in his work using pure geometric forms, which make up the structure of the depicted object. Picasso intuitively approached a new direction when he created a portrait of his admirer and philanthropist Gertrude Stein.

At the age of 28, Picasso painted the painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” which became the predecessor of works painted in the style of cubism. The portrait ensemble, which depicted naked beauties, was met with a large stream of criticism, but Pablo Picasso continued to develop the direction he had found.

Since 1908, the paintings “Can and Bowls”, “Three Women”, “Woman with a Fan”, “Portrait of Ambroise Vollard”, “Factory in Horta de San Juan”, “Portrait of Fernanda Olivier”, “Portrait of Kahnweiler”, “ Still life with a wicker chair”, “Bottle of Pernod”, “Violin and guitar”. New works are characterized by a gradual increase in poster-like images, approaching abstractionism. Finally, Pablo Picasso, despite the scandal, begins to earn good money: paintings painted in a new style bring profit.

In 1917, Pablo Picasso was given the opportunity to collaborate with Russian Seasons. Jean Cocteau proposed to the ballet master the candidacy of a Spanish artist as the creator of sketches for the scenery and costumes of new productions. To work for a while, Picasso moved to Rome, where he met his first wife Olga Khokhlova, a Russian dancer, the daughter of an emigrated officer.

The bright period of his life was also reflected in the artist’s work - for a while, Picasso moved away from cubism and created a number of canvases in the spirit of classical realism. These are, first of all, “Portrait of Olga in an Armchair”, “Bathers”, “Women Running on the Beach”, “Children’s Portrait of Paul Picasso”.

Surrealism

Fed up with the life of a wealthy bourgeois, Pablo Picasso returns to his former bohemian existence. The turning point was marked by the painting of the first painting in the surrealist manner, “Dance,” in 1925. The distorted figures of the dancers and the general feeling of morbidity settled in the artist’s work for a long time.

Dissatisfaction with his personal life was reflected in Picaso’s misogynistic paintings “Mirror” and “Girl in Front of a Mirror”. In the 30s, Pablo became interested in creating sculptures. The works “Reclining Woman” and “Man with a Bouquet” appeared. One of the artist’s experiments is the creation of illustrations in the form of engravings for the works of Ovid and Aristophanes.

War period

During the years of the Spanish revolution and war, Pablo Picasso was in Paris. In 1937, the artist created the painting “Guernica” in black and white tones commissioned by the Spanish government for the World Exhibition in Paris. A small town in northern Spain was completely razed to the ground in the spring of 1937 by German aircraft. The people's tragedy is reflected in the collective images of a dead warrior, a grieving mother, and people cut into pieces. Picasso's symbol of war is the image of the bull Minotaur with large, indifferent eyes. Since 1992, the canvas has been kept in the Madrid Museum.

At the end of the 30s, the paintings “Night Fishing in Antibes” and “Crying Woman” appeared. During the war, Picasso did not emigrate from German-occupied Paris. Even in cramped living conditions, the artist continued to work. Themes of death and war appear in his paintings “Still Life with a Bull Skull”, “Morning Serenade”, “Slaughterhouse” and the sculpture “Man with Lamb”.

Post-war time

The joy of life again inhabits the master’s paintings created in the post-war period. The colorful palette and bright images were embodied in the cycle of life-affirming panels that Picasso created for a private collection in collaboration with the artists Paloma and Claude Already.

Ancient Greek mythology became Picasso’s favorite theme of this period. It is embodied not only in the master’s paintings, but also in ceramics, which Picasso became interested in. In 1949, the artist painted the canvas “Dove of Peace” for the World Peace Congress. The master creates variations in the style of cubism on the themes of painters of the past - Velazquez, Goya,.

Personal life

From a young age, Picasso was constantly in love with someone. In his youth, models and dancers became the aspiring artist’s friends and muses. Young Pablo Picasso experienced his first love while studying in Barcelona. The girl's name was Rosita del Oro, she worked in a cabaret. In Madrid, the artist met Fernando, who became his faithful friend for several years. In Paris, fate brought the young man together with the miniature Marcelle Humbert, whom everyone called Eva, but the sudden death of the girl separated the lovers.

While working in Rome with a Russian ballet troupe, Pablo Picasso marries Olga Khokhlova. The newlyweds got married in a Russian church on the outskirts of Paris, and then moved to a mansion on the seashore. The girl's dowry, as well as income from the sale of Picasso's works, allowed the family to lead the life of a wealthy bourgeois. Three years after the wedding, Olga and Pablo have their first child, son Paulo.

Soon Picasso becomes fed up with the good life and again becomes a free artist. He settles separately from his wife and begins dating a young girl, Marie-Therese Walter. From an extramarital union in 1935, a daughter, Maya, was born, whom Picasso never recognized.

During the war, the artist's next muse became a Yugoslav citizen, photographer Dora Maar, who with her creativity pushed the artist to search for new forms and content. Dora went down in history as the owner of a large collection of Picasso paintings, which she kept until the end of her life. Her photographs of the canvas “Guernica” are also known, which show the entire process of creating the painting step by step.

After the war, the artist met Françoise Gilot, who introduced a note of joy into his work. Children are born - son Claude and daughter Paloma. But in the early 60s, Jacqueline left the master because of his constant betrayals. The last muse and second official wife of the 80-year-old artist is the ordinary saleswoman Jacqueline Rock, who idolized Pablo and had a great influence on his social circle. After Picasso's death, 13 years later, Jacqueline could not stand the separation and committed suicide.

Death

In the 60s, Picasso devoted himself entirely to creating portraits of women. His last wife, Jacqueline Roque, poses for the artist as a model. By the end of his life, Pablo Picasso already had a multi-million dollar fortune and several personal castles.

Three years before the death of the genius, a museum named after him was opened in Barcelona, ​​and 12 years after his death, a museum was opened in Paris. During his long creative biography, Picasso created 80 thousand canvases, more than 1000 sculptures, collages, drawings, and prints.

Paintings

• "First Communion", 1895-1896.
• "Girl on a Ball", 1905
• "Harlequin Seated on a Red Bench", 1905
• "Girl in a Shirt", 1905
• "Family of Comedians", 1905
• "Portrait of Gertrude Stein", 1906
• "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", 1907
• "Young Lady", 1909
• "Mother and Child", 1922
• "Guernica", 1937
• "Crying Woman", 1937
• "Françoise, Claude and Paloma", 1951
• "Man and woman with a bouquet", 1970
• "Embraces", 1970
• "Two", 1973

Pablo Picasso is one of the most expensive and profitable artists in history. He is also the author of the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction. The name Picasso is a real brand. How do the descendants of the legendary artist live?

In our time, the Picasso dynasty manages the colossal legacy of its great ancestor. Picasso's descendants are considered the wealthiest people in the art world. Here’s an example: just one of Picasso’s paintings, “Women of Algiers (Version O),” was sold at Christie’s on May 11, 2015, for $179.4 million.

Business on copyright

Today, Picasso remains the most popular artist, copied by a mass of followers. His works become record holders not only for the number of forgeries, but also for thefts. These “black” matters are dealt with daily by the Picasso Administration, an organization founded in 1996 by his son Claude. She received the status of legal administrator of Picasso's property. The purpose of the Administration is to manage the legacy of the great artist, protect copyright when copying paintings and organizing exhibitions, as well as fight against counterfeits and maintain Picasso’s reputation.

With only eight members of the Administration's staff, many have expressed dissatisfaction with the slow processing of applications for permission to use Picasso's paintings or name. In turn, Claude complains that they receive about 900 applications a year, some of which are written incorrectly.

Other dissatisfied people note that the Administration should publish a catalog raisonné of Picasso and convene a council of qualified experts, because none of the artist’s heirs is a scientist in the field of art. However, despite the criticism, Claude Picasso is considered a talented, sometimes even uncompromising manager.

Pablo Picasso left behind more than fifty thousand paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, and ceramics, but never wrote a will. The artist’s five descendants from two wives negotiated for six years over the division of the inheritance. This process cost the family $30 million. These people are son Claude, daughters Maya Widmaier-Picasso and Paloma, as well as grandchildren Marina and Bernard Picasso.

After his father's death, Claude Picasso allegedly said of the family legacy: "We'll have to rent the Empire State Building to house all these paintings." In addition to them, Pablo Picasso left three houses, two castles, securities, $4.5 million in cash and $1.3 million in gold. Experts note that even after the family loses the inherited copyright in 2043 (70 years after the artist’s death), their money will be enough for a cloudless life for the next two generations.

Formal relatives

The whole problem is the artist’s love of love. Picasso is known to have had six women with whom he had long-term relationships. The artist's mistresses are countless.

Paulo, Claude, Françoise Gillot, Paloma, Pablo Picasso and Maya on the Cote d'Azur, 1954. Photo: Edward Quinn

Although he had four children from three women, he, apparently, never felt strong affection for them and, above all, associated them with their mothers, with whom relations were not easy. The artist himself cynically said: “For me, there are only two types of women - goddesses and rags for wiping feet.” Moreover, Picasso quickly turned all the goddesses into rags.

The Titan took almost all of his women to the grave, and his children and grandchildren still continue to dispute some clauses of his wills and the texts of his biographies.

Formally being members of the same family, the artist’s relatives really disliked each other and tried to meet as rarely as possible. If they succeeded in this during the life of the genius, then after Picasso’s death they could not avoid closer contacts.

After 1973, family gatherings became a necessity, which Picasso's descendants did not enjoy. By that time, each of them had acquired their own lawyer, notary and art expert.

From the very beginning everything was very difficult. The son from his first marriage, Paulo, inherited most of the fortune, his second wife, Jacqueline, received the rest. The illegitimate children - Maya, Paloma and Claude - were left empty-handed. Of course, they began to attack the courts and eventually achieved recognition as the legal heirs. After this, negotiations on the heritage continued in an expanded format, but this did not help their participants find a common language.

No one thought about the reputation and good name of the family, no one tried to maintain even the appearance of decency. The heirs quarreled among themselves and happily ruined each other's lives with the help of the press.

When the division of the inheritance was almost over, Paulo asked to receive his own childhood portrait drawn by his father. Family members, without unnecessary sentimentality, offered to contribute the approximate cost of the work to the total amount of the inheritance. Also in 1975, Paulo, who was experiencing health problems, died suddenly.

Despite all the disagreements, each of the family members did not want to sort things out in court. But not at all because they did not want to harm the name of their father, but because of the fear of losing the trial. It took Picasso's descendants only seven years to reach the final decision; it was considered an out-of-court compromise. In 1980, the agreement was signed by all family members who gathered together for the last time for this event.

After receiving Picasso's artistic inheritance, each of his descendants received the right to be an active participant in the large creative market. But for this it was necessary to fight against random sales of works. As a result, the heirs again had to develop agreements, create societies and independent commissions. Meanwhile, Jacqueline, Picasso’s second wife, could not stand the seven-year struggle and committed suicide in 1986.

Drawing by Picasso from the collection of Marina Picasso - “Portrait of a Family” (1962). Photo Sotheby's

“Family” disagreements

During Pablo Picasso's life, his relationship with children could hardly be called ideal. When the memoirs of his former mistress Françoise Gilot “Life with Picasso” (the mother of Claude and Paloma) were published in 1964, the artist practically stopped communicating with them. Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline, only contributed to the heightened passions. Only she and Picasso had no children were present at the artist’s funeral and Pablo’s son from his first marriage to Olga Khokhlova.

In 2012, one of the biggest scandals happened in the Picasso family. Until then, all major auction houses consulted with his children, Claude and Maya, in the process of authenticating Picasso's paintings. This created a lot of problems, since the opinions of descendants often differed. To change the situation, four years ago Claude, Paloma, Bernard and Marina wrote a letter in which they established a new procedure for determining the authenticity of Picasso's paintings - they recognized Claude's exclusive right to this activity.

However, no one informed Maya about this, who later admitted that when she heard about the letter, she “almost fell dead.” Rumor has it that since then she has had a very tense relationship with her family. Although her son Olivier assures that even now his mother takes part in the activities of the Administration, meets with Claude and Bernard, searches for the necessary information and helps in the process of authentication of works.

Neither the bitter experience of the past nor the existence of the Administration could completely protect the family from the emergence of new disagreements over their father’s legacy. After signing a contract with Citroën to produce Picasso cars, some family friends declared this deal a betrayal of the Picasso name by Claude. Marina Picasso also spoke out against this decision. She said at the time: “I cannot accept that my grandfather's name was used to sell something as trivial as a car. He was a genius and now his name is being used in such a stupid way.”

But there is still one thing that unites Picasso's descendants - amazing generosity. Without loud statements, they donated Picasso’s works to museums in different countries and donated money from the sale of paintings to charity. Marina Picasso is the mother of five children, three of whom are adopted Vietnamese.

Jacqueline Picasso's daughter from her first marriage, Catherine, having inherited paintings after her mother's death, gave them to the Picasso Museum in Paris. She also regularly allows visitors to her castle, Pablo Vauvenargues.
In 2015, Maya created The Maya Picasso Foundation for Arts Education. In 2017, she plans to open the studio in Paris where her father once worked as an educational and research institution.

Picasso Administration lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer says that in recent years the cost of Picasso's paintings has increased. This provoked a wave of counterfeits. Sometimes thefts happen. For example, during one of the latest incidents, 271 paintings by the artist were found in the garage of a pensioner who previously worked as an electrician for the Picasso family.

"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 the full name Pablo Diego José 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, St. 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 the 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, the life of the married couple did not 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 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 remains Picasso's last and faithful woman 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, Picasso's new friend. The scandalous picture, the name of which 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 Pushkin Museum, 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 painfully ill for a long time and died of cancer on February 11, 1955.
at the city hospital. Only her son and a few friends attended the funeral.
Picasso was finishing the painting “Women of Algeria” in Paris at that time 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, practically 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 the artist’s last wife, 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 her grandfather’s famous mansion “The 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.

“Every time I change a woman,” said Picasso, “I must burn the one who was the last. This way I get rid of them. This may be what brings back my youth."
Pablo Picasso

When it comes to Pablo Picasso, the first thing that comes to mind is his paintings and the words “the most expensive artist of the 20th century.” Not immediately and not everyone remembers scandalous stories related to the artist’s personal life. Meanwhile, the description of Pablo Picasso's love experiences can become a masterpiece, comparable in power to his creations. Being a genius, Picasso was brilliant in everything, including love. But if in his creativity his genius was creative, then in matters of the heart it had a deafening destructive force.

No matter how rude, blasphemous and vulgar it may sound, but (and the artist himself admitted this) for Picasso there were only 2 categories of women: goddesses and litter. Bowing before the goddesses, he tried to turn them into ordinary women whose love he was worthy of. But, not distinguishing half-tones, not knowing the measure in anything, including passion, not recognizing middle positions, he sooner or later turned each of his “goddesses” into litter.

According to contemporaries, Picasso had an amazing sexual attraction for women. And also - an unprecedented instinct that allows, from the numerous “tribe” of Eve’s daughters, to choose those who receive painful pleasure from emotional suffering, who are ready to completely dissolve in their loved one, giving him their energy and vitality. No one knows how many such women were in the life of the brilliant artist, but it is known that 7 of them had a special influence on Pablo, giving him inspiration, shaping his emotions and attitude in different periods of his life.