Everyone knows Pablo Picasso - a brilliant artist, but few people know him from the side that he turned to women. He can safely be called a destroyer - almost everyone he loved went crazy or committed suicide. He said that women prolong life, and if he was fond of someone, he created a whole series of works. Exactly 45 years ago, at the age of 91, Picasso passed away - we suggest recalling the artist's seven muses.
Fernanda Olivier
Model Fernande Olivier - the first great love - Picasso met in Paris in 1904. It was from the appearance of Fernanda that the gloomy painting of Picasso acquired colors. They were young, quickly bonded and went through the poverty and obscurity of the artist's first decade in Paris together. When his paintings began to buy, their relationship was already running out. Picasso broke with former lovers without regret: this happened with Fernanda when the artist met Marcel Humbert, who became his affection for the three-year period of cubism. Portrait of Fernanda "Woman with pears" - one of the first experiments in the period of early cubism.
Olga Khokhlova
The ballerina Olga Khokhlova - the first wife and mother of the first child - Picasso met in Italy in 1917 while working on the Russian Seasons. Diaghilev warned Picasso that they do not joke with Russian women, they marry them. Olga Khokhlova did not just become Picasso's wife - he married her according to the Orthodox rite. After parting after 17 years of conflicting family life, they never divorced - Picasso did not want to share 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, which Khokhlova loved so much. The strained relationship was reflected in the paintings - if at the beginning of their love story the portraits of Olga are realistic, then by the time the marriage broke up, Picasso paints her only in the style of surrealism. "Woman in a Hat" was created in 1935 - the year when Olga found out that Picasso had a child from her mistress Marie-Therese Walter. She left on her own, but long years pursued Picasso - her death in 1955 brought only relief to the artist.
Maria Theresa Walther
Marie-Therese Walter appeared in the life of Picasso in 1927. She was only 17, he was already 45. Before meeting with 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 parting with her mother. Maria Theresa wrote for many years former lover tender letters that he read to new girlfriends. She committed suicide four years after Picasso's death. Usually the artist depicted her as a blonde with a short haircut, but in the 1937 portrait, bright makeup and painted nails appear - a sign that Picasso was having an affair with Dora Maar.
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 pre-war moods in Europe. At the time of their acquaintance in 1935, Dora was already an established artist and photographer herself - their relationship was more intellectual than romantic. The break with Picasso after a nine-year romance brought Dora to a psychiatric clinic, and last years she led a reclusive life. Before you is one of the most famous paintings from the series of "weeping women".
Françoise Gilot
Françoise Gilot is the only woman who managed to get out of the water dry after a ten-year affair with Picasso. The artist met Françoise, who was fit for his granddaughter, in a restaurant in 1943 - she was an excellent companion and over time, Picasso began to need her. Françoise gave birth to two children, son Claude and daughter Paloma, and left with them in 1953, becoming the only woman who managed to get out of the influence of Picasso without psychological problems - she took place as an artist, married twice, wrote a book about Picasso, which formed the basis of the film "Living Life with Picasso" starring Anthony Hopkins. The image of the “flower woman” appeared in the spring of 1946, when the artist finally persuaded Francoise to move in with him.
Jacqueline Rock
Jacqueline Rock - Picasso's last love and second official wife - has become the main character in his paintings in the last 20 years. At the time of their acquaintance in 1953, she was 27, he was 73. Jacqueline endured his difficult character and called him a monsignor - he lived with her until his death. She experienced the departure of Picasso hard, balancing on the verge of insanity, and 13 years later, on the eve of a retrospective of his work, she shot herself. "Jacqueline with Crossed Arms" is one of the most famous portraits of Picasso's last muse.
Pablo Picasso and his women. Women have always adored Picasso. 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 bedding. Bowing before the goddesses, he tried to turn them into ordinary women, whose love he deserves. But, not distinguishing halftones, not knowing the measure in anything, including passion, not recognizing average positions, sooner or later he turned each of his “goddesses” into bedding. According to contemporaries, Picasso had a striking sexual attraction for women. And also - with an unprecedented instinct, which allows choosing from the numerous "tribe" of Eve's daughters those who get excruciating pleasure from emotional suffering, who are ready to completely dissolve in their beloved, giving their energy and vitality. No one knows how many such women were in the life of a brilliant artist, but it is known that 7 of them had a special influence on Pablo, giving him inspiration, shaping emotions and attitudes at different periods of his life. The only enduring passion in Picasso's life was art, and in relations with women he always showed inconstancy. "Every time I change women, I have to burn the last one." Picasso
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 settled 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, Picasso's paintings began to be bought.
Pablo Picasso and Fernanda Olivier in Montmartre with dogs. 1904 They lived together for almost a decade, and from this period a large number of portraits of Fernanda, as well as female images in general, painted from her, remained from this period. According to researchers, she was also a model for the creation of "Avignon girls", one of the main paintings by Picasso, a turning point for the art of the twentieth century. She, a tall and beautiful girl of noble appearance, at first was only curious about the “eccentric Spaniard with burning eyes” (the short Pablo was about her shoulder height). But interest quickly turned into love. And with every year of their life together, Fernanda's feelings only intensified. But the young, ambitious, full of creative plans, the artist was not at all up to the family. Picasso starts a relationship on the side. For nine years Picasso was with his First Woman. The features, nature, character of Fernanda Olivier are captured in the works of that time - and these are not only numerous “portraits of Fernanda”, but also all those works where the model lives as a “motive”. According to researchers, she was also a model for the creation of "Avignon girls", one of the main paintings by Picasso, a turning point for the art of the twentieth century. 1. Reclining nude (Fernanda), 1906 2. Portrait of Fernanda, 1906 3. Fernanda in a black mantilla, 1905 4. Portrait of Fernanda Olivier in a headscarf, 1906 5. Woman with pears (Fernanda), 1909 6. " Girls of Avignon", 1907
Marcel Humbert (Eva Güell) Once the writer Gertrude Stein visited Picasso when he was finishing work on the painting "My Beauty" (1911). "It can't be Fernanda Olivier," she immediately reacted. It really was not Fernanda, the canvas depicted a woman who took her place in the heart of the artist - Marcel Humbert. The painting "My Beauty" has become a kind of declaration of love. Pablo and Marcel met in 1911 in the Hermitage cafe in Paris. Picasso had been living with his model Fernanda Olivier for 9 years, Marcel had long been the mistress of the Polish artist Louis Marcoussis. Pablo and Marcel fell in love and broke up with their former passions. They went to travel around Europe so as not to meet anyone they knew - they wanted to be just the two of them. Picasso called his beloved Eve. This symbolized his inner renewal: Eve is the name of the first woman on earth, respectively, he is Pablo - Adam - the first man. Marcel's relationship with Pablo coincided with the transition of his work from analytical to synthetic cubism. It is surprising that Picasso, with his sociable temperament, usually "shouting" from the canvases about his love, did not create a single portrait of Eve, giving an idea of her real appearance. When a gallery of images of Picasso's women was created, not a single portrait of Marseille could be found, except for one single photograph. The fragile physique of Eve also caused her soreness. She contracted tuberculosis, at the beginning of the century this disease was not always successfully cured. In the spring of 1915, Marcel Humbert died in the hospital. 1. Photo 2. Nude, I love Eva, 1912 3. Violin. I love Eve, 1912 4..Guitar `I love Eve`, 1912
Olga Khokhlova This passion consumed him completely. Picasso really thought it was the love of a lifetime. Proof of this is the marriage contract, in which all his paintings belong to him and her equally. Having settled in Paris, Olga furnished the house with chic and luxury, according to the latest fashion. A car with a driver, an artist's studio that occupies the entire second floor, purebred dogs, receptions, dinner parties and receptions. The proximity and warm attitude of the first persons of the state ... Olga loves expensive outfits, caviar and champagne. Pablo is also not averse to sewing a suit for himself from an expensive couturier. A gold watch peeks out of his vest pocket. He is proud of his wife, her ability to keep herself in this high society, her unusual beauty, posture and indulges her in her desire to live in a big way. He writes and paints her portraits, and she reprimands him that she wants to recognize her face. Portraits of that time are recognizable. Focused serious eyes, flawlessly straight nose. Restraint and stiffness, as if she is still wearing that heavy cubic costume invented by Picasso for Diaghilev's Parade ballet. Thirty-year-old Olga gives birth to a son, Paulo, forty-year-old husband. This is the happiest period in their family life. Pablo paints a lot of tender portraits of Olga and little Paul in a Harlequin costume, in a round hat, sitting on a donkey. Can an idyll last forever? Picasso began to be weary of a measured life and the role of a salon portraitist, imposed by Olga. Paintings in the neoclassical style, he wrote already abound. Seeing his cooling, Olga began to be jealous, at first unreasonably. He loved her. Until he met the seventeen-year-old Marie - Therese Walter. A war between once loved ones. It has no winners. Pablo left the battle with fewer losses: he continued to create, pave his way with fragments of women's hearts, and she spent the rest of her life alone, falling into depression and jealousy. Not wanting to share property with his hated wife, Picasso did not file for divorce: Olga Khokhlova remained his legal wife until her death, until 1955. He did not come to the funeral, saying that he was painting ... 1. Portrait of a woman with an ermine collar (Olga), 1923 2. Head of a woman (Olga Khokhlova), 1935 3. Olga Khokhlova, 1917 4. Portrait of Olga 2, 1923 year 5. Portrait of Olga in an armchair, 1917
Mapia Teresa Walter January 8, 1927 Pablo Picasso, walking in the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, met the charming seventeen-year-old blonde Marie-Therese Walter. From this casual acquaintance began a connection that determined an important period in the artist's work and the whole life of this woman. The time of love for Marie-Therese Walter was special - both in life and in creativity. The works of this period differed sharply from the previously created paintings both in style and in color. The period of Marie-Therese Walter, especially before the birth of his daughter, is the pinnacle of his work. She was far from Olga's sophistication, the girl knew nothing about art. However, the creator longed for new forms and he received them. Maria Teresa became the mistress, model and muse of the great master. Picasso was then married to Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, their son Paulo was 5 years old. This, as well as the fact that Mademoiselle Walter was underage, forced Picasso to keep their affair a secret. However, in his work, the presence of this young woman was obvious. Together with the image of Maria Teresa in the surreal period of Picasso's work, the embodiment of femininity comes, this is a kind of "period within a period." Tense, broken lines are replaced by rounded ones. female body seems elastic and soft at the same time, while the rich color contrasts with the smoothness of the outlines. Most of the paintings depicting Marie are subject to the rhythm of the lullaby, the intoxicating “swaying” of colors, they are thoroughly permeated with sensuality. This reflects Picasso's attitude towards Maria Theresa: there is not even a hint of equality in it. She is not a life partner, not a wife, she is an object of desire, a wonderful toy of an artist. Marie's lively temperament, peaceful and cheerful nature allowed her to come to terms with her role in Pablo's life. In July 1930, Picasso bought the Bouagelou castle in Normandy, which served as his studio and Marie-Therese's home. There, the master creates her numerous sculptural images. One of them - "Woman with a vase" - now crowns the tombstone of the artist. One of the paintings from this period - "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" - was sold at auction in March 2010 for 106.5 million dollars, thus setting a new world record for the cost of works of art. In 1935, Marie gave birth to a daughter, the girl was named Maya. Like her mother, she became a model for many of Picasso's works ("Maya with a Doll", 1938). Shortly after the birth of Maya, Olga Khokhlova found out about her husband's relationship on the side and immediately left with her son. A scandalous break with his wife brought Picasso out of balance, he began to write less, bright eroticism disappeared from his canvases. In 1936, Picasso had another mistress - Dora Maar, and their relationship was not a secret. Relations with Walter became strained. One day, Dora and Marie 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 they really began to fight. Perhaps it was this incident that determined the appearance in the sketches for the picture and on the final canvas of weeping, desperate women. Later, in an interview, the artist noted that the fight between his two mistresses became one of the brightest memories of his entire life. Marie was able to forgive her lover even this - they continued to meet occasionally. Gradually, their relationship came down to material support from Picasso and correspondence, which continued until the last days of the artist. Despite the discord, Maria Teresa did not lose hope all her life that Pablo would marry her, but this was not destined to happen. On October 20, 1977, 4 years after the death of Picasso, in the resort town of Juan-les-Pins in southern France, Marie-Thérèse Walter hanged herself in her garage. 1.Portrait of Maria Theresa Walter, 1932 2.Maria Theresa, 1939 3.Maria Theresa Walter in a hat, 1936 4.Reclining woman (Maria Theresa), 1932 5.Maria Theresa, 1932
Dora Maar In the 1920s and 30s, Dora Maar (real name Henrietta Theodora Markovich) was a successful commercial photographer. In addition, she was prominent in Parisian bohemian circles as a surrealist photographer, painter and poet. However, Maar gained worldwide fame thanks to her connection with Picasso. They met in 1936 in the cafe "Two Eggshells", where Pablo usually went after an evening walk. He dined with his friend, the poet Paul Eluard, and Elf - Picasso's dog - begged at the neighboring tables. Dora and Pablo's eyes met. In admiration, he muttered a few words in Spanish, which Dora knew perfectly well: her childhood had passed in Argentina. They started talking, and Picasso moved to her table with a glass of beer. Many years later, Picasso said that Dora that evening was wearing black gloves embroidered with pink flowers. She amused herself by stabbing her knife between the spread fingers of her left hand on the table. At some point, she was off by a fraction of an inch. Picasso asked Dora to give him the bloodied gloves. He kept them all his life in a special glass case. Dora Maar was a nervous, unbalanced nature, she entered the work of Picasso as "a woman in tears." Together with the image of Maar, Picasso made a kind of retrospective "journey" through his work: her image appeared in all the variety of styles and manners of writing previously tried by the artist. However, Picasso himself noted that he could never paint her smiling. The most characteristic feature of Dora's portraits are huge, deep eyes, weeping or thoughtful, full of anxiety or sorrow. Picasso also liked to emphasize her clean oval face, soft cheekbones, thin fingers with sharp red nails that looked like drops of blood. In April 1937, the city of Guernica in northern Spain was destroyed by German bombers, women and children became victims. This was the first case of mass death of civilians in many years - a new face of war, the naked face of evil, was revealed to the world. The impression made on Picasso by this news was expressed in the frenzy with which he rushed to work. Dora, who had a subtle mind and a sense of beauty, perfectly understood the importance of what was happening before her eyes. It is thanks to her that we can see "Guernica", the world-renowned masterpiece of Picasso, in the dynamics of its creation: Dora captured numerous studies and all the intermediate stages of work on the picture on film. In addition, she also made many photographic and pictorial portraits of Picasso, under her influence he creates experimental works that combine photography with engraving and painting. In the relationship between Maar and Picasso, passion was combined with creative, intellectual communication between the two artists; the originality of the characters of both led to the end of their romance. Over the years, Maar became more nervous, and Pablo could not stand female tantrums - there was a gap in their relationship. From the spring of 1945, Dora began to have seizures. Fearing that she would go insane or commit suicide, Picasso and their mutual friends sent Dora to the psychiatric hospital of Jacques Lacan, where, in addition to psychoanalysis, she was treated with the usual method of treatment at that time - electric shock. After Dora left the hospital, their relationship with Pablo did not resume. 1. Photo 2. Bust of a woman (Dora Maar) 3, 1938 3. Portrait of Dora Maar 2, 1942 4. Portrait of Dora Maar 1, 1943 5. Bust of Dora Maar 1, 1936 6. Weeping Dora
Françoise Gilot The connection of women with Picasso crippled the fate of many of them, some went crazy or committed suicide. The story of Françoise Gilot is unique: after 10 years living with Picasso, she left him and lived a long, eventful life. In the life of any destroyer of hearts and destinies, sooner or later there is a woman who cannot be broken and subdued. It was such a strong and self-sufficient woman that Pablo Picasso met in 1943. He 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. With Francoise 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, enjoying simple pleasures, such as the sparkling sea and gently flowing clean sand. This amazing woman managed to fill Picasso with strength without wasting her own. 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 Francoise and Pablo received the surname of Picasso and after the death of the artist became the owners of part of his fortune. Unlike many of the master's lovers, Francoise Gilot did not go crazy and did not commit suicide. Upon learning of his infidelity, she herself left Picasso, not giving him the opportunity to add to the list of abandoned and devastated women. Her later life was rich in events and happy moments. By publishing the book "My Life with Picasso", Francoise Gilot largely went against the will of the artist, but gained worldwide fame. 1,2. Photo 3. Portrait of Francoise, 1946 4. Francoise, Claude and Paloma, 1951 5. Bust of a woman in a hat (Francoise), 1962 6. Woman in an armchair (Francoise Gilot), 1946 7. Portrait of Francoise with loose hair, 1953
As soon as Pablo's father realized that his son was a genius, he forever stopped painting himself, and gave his paints and brushes to his son. In his youth, Picasso was especially inspired by the streets of Montmartre and the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Cezanne. Starting from the age of 20, Pablo began to sign his creations with his mother's maiden name, as required by the Spanish custom. In 1904 he moved to Paris. There he began to work with Georges Braque. They opened a new direction in painting - cubism. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began. She forced Picasso to define his political leanings. The destruction of a small Basque village by Nazi bombings inspired him to create the huge Guernica, which many consider to be the pinnacle of his work.
"Claude and Paloma". Photo from the auction site www.christies.com
Picasso was an unusually energetic person. He usually got up quite late, met with friends during the day, and then set to work, which sometimes ended in the morning. Despite his small stature (158 cm), Picasso seemed to take up much more space due to his explosive temperament. He enjoyed wealth and fame. He made millions every year. It is believed that over the years creative activity Picasso created 14,000 paintings, 100,000 engravings and prints, and 34,000 book illustrations.
When Picasso died at the age of 91 in his villa in France, he left behind a property valued at $1.1 billion.
In women, Picasso valued two qualities: beauty and relative youth. Usually, before the start of sexual intercourse and always after that, his wives and mistresses also became his models.
Fernanda Olivier became Picasso's life partner immediately after he settled in Paris. She was a young green-eyed beauty whom Picasso met near the shabby house in Montmartre in which they both lived. She was 4 months older than him. They were both 23 years old, but Picasso always said, introducing Fernanda to friends: "A very beautiful girl. Old, really." She later said of him that Picasso had "a magnetism that I just couldn't resist". Actually, the provision of any kind of resistance was, one way or another, not in her style. She was very fond of posing, especially in a reclining position, and did not particularly mind when she could not leave the apartment for two months in a row, because she did not have shoes, and Picasso did not have money to buy them for her. Picasso still earned some money, which they somehow managed to survive on, and they always used sex as the only entertainment. Picasso adored Fernanda and was terribly jealous. She later remarked: "Picasso made me live like a recluse."
"Still life with tulips"
From time to time, the hectic life of Picasso required a change of both the model and the source of inspiration. Marcella Amber, whom he called Eva, probably to convince her that she was his first woman, was small, slender and delicate, in contrast to Fernanda, who was strong, healthy and noisy. There is not a single portrait of Marcella painted by Picasso, since they met at the height of his passion for cubism. Picasso immortalized her in a different way. On several of his canvases there is an inscription "my joy", and on two canvases it is written: "I love Eva". Marcella Amber died in 1915 from tuberculosis.
In 1917, Picasso begged to go to Rome with Jean Cocteau and the Russian Ballet troupe. There he designed the curtain for Diaghilev's finished ballet Parade. During a night walk through the moonlit streets of Rome, Picasso noticed Olga Khokhlova, one of the troupe's dancers. Olga was the daughter of a colonel in the Russian army. Picasso liked her taste and manners, which betrayed in her a person who had been brought up in a family with a high social position. His bohemian lifestyle died with Eve; he became rich and famous. Something very Spanish and very bourgeois in his nature told him that he should settle down and start a family. He took Olga to Spain, where he introduced her to his family and friends, and painted her portrait in a Spanish cape, after which he married her. At the same time, the newlyweds went through not only the obligatory civil ceremony of marriage, but also through the corresponding ceremony in the Russian Orthodox Church. After that, the couple settled in a chicly furnished and richly decorated Parisian apartment. They had two beds in their bedroom, which turned out to be a bad omen.
Fragment of the painting by Pablo Picasso "Child and dove"
Picasso's first son, Paulo, was born to Olga in a family that had almost begun to disintegrate. His first daughter Maya was born in 1935 to his mistress and model Marie-Therese Walter. Picasso was delighted. Olga became nervous, demanding and irritable. Picasso took revenge on her as best he could, drawing a whole series of portraits, which depicted monster women with shriveled breasts and exaggeratedly huge genitals. His sexual dissatisfaction was expressed in the appearance of rigid deformed female figures on his canvases. After meeting Maria Theresa, the female breasts on his canvases again became round and strong, the mouths began to smile, and the figures, often still deformed, began to radiate sensual joy. After the birth of Maya, the relationship between her mother and Picasso became complicated, as parental responsibility also appeared. Picasso was soon attracted by the dark eyes and serious expression of Dora Maar, whom he met in a cafe. Dora was a photographer and artist herself and could not only talk about the creative process, but also do it in Spanish. Picasso was fascinated. Soon, Dora Maar began to appear regularly in his Parisian studio, and a woman with flying flowing hair appeared on Picasso's canvases. Dora became Picasso's intellectual and sexual companion. Unfortunately, she often experienced a state of deep depression, and her temperament was as unbridled as the temperament of Picasso himself. There is a whole series of paintings by Picasso, which depict the same crying woman. This is Dora Maar.
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Picasso was already 60. His sexual energy, however, was in full swing. Another mistress of Picasso was Françoise Gilot, a young artist. Françoise was at that time the only woman who shared a bed with Picasso. However, she soon discovered that Olga, Maria Theresa, and Dora Maar played a certain role in Pablo's life. The summer months that they spent in the south of France were enlivened by the presence of Olga, who followed them everywhere, spewing torrents of abuse at them. In Paris, Thursdays and Sundays were the days when Picasso visited Marie-Therese and Maia. If Picasso went somewhere with Françoise from Paris, he received daily letters from Marie-Therese in which she spoke in detail about her successes, worries and difficulties with Maya, especially financial ones. Sometimes Picasso went to visit Dora Maar or invited her to dinner. At the same time, he always insisted that Francoise must accompany him during such visits.
Françoise Gilot was almost 40 years younger than Picasso. Her relationship with him was far more complex than any of her predecessors. When Francoise ceased to like the role she played, Picasso attributed to her the simplest medicine - pregnancy. Francoise, as a result, became the mother of two children: she had a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma. It turned out, however, that life with Picasso was too hard, and after 7 years Francoise took both children and left. Picasso was beside himself with anger. He stated: "Nothing looks more like a poodle than another poodle. The same can be said about women." Françoise later married Dr. Jonas Salk.
Picasso's last long relationship was his affair with the young and beautiful Jacqueline Roque, who divorced her husband shortly before they met. She became something of a secretary and assistant. After Olga's death in 1955, Picasso was finally free from marriage ties. He married Jacqueline in 1961. Jacqueline was, of course, not as sensual as Fernanda, not as gentle as Eva, not as graceful as Olga, not as luxurious as Marie-Thérèse, and not as smart as Dora Maar, and not as talented as Françoise. . She, however, expected to receive much less from Picasso than all her predecessors. She was faithful, capable, always willing and beautiful, just like all the other women in Picasso's life. At different times and with varying degrees of passion, he loved them all. In his relations with them, however, there were always some echoes of anger and hatred. Pierre Cabanne, a connoisseur of Picasso's life and work, pointed out: "Sexual stimuli were the main driving force behind his lyrical upsurge; desire, as he himself saw it, was violence, dismemberment, confusion, indignation, excess."
In 1942, Paul Eluard analyzed Picasso's handwriting. In his conclusion about his character, he wrote the following phrase: "Loves passionately and intensely and kills what he loves."
Picasso once declared: "For me, there are only two types of women - goddesses and rags for wiping feet."
The most productive painter in the history of mankind.
He also became the most successful artist, earning more than a billion dollars in his life.
He became the founder of modern avant-garde art, starting his journey with realistic painting, discovering cubism and paying tribute to surrealism.
Great Spanish painter, founder of cubism. During his long life (92 years), the artist has created so much great amount paintings, engravings, sculptures, ceramic miniatures, that it cannot be accurately calculated. According to different sources, the heritage of Picasso is from 14 to 80 thousand works of art.
Picasso is unique. He is fundamentally alone, because the destiny of a genius is loneliness.
On October 25, 1881, a joyful event happened in the family of Jose Ruiz Blasco and Maria Picasso Lopez. Their firstborn was born, a boy who was named in Spanish tradition long and ornate - Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los Remedios Crispignano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz and Picasso. Or just Pablo.
The pregnancy was difficult - thin Maria could hardly bear the baby. And childbirth and at all have stood out heavy. The boy was born dead...
So thought the doctor, older brother Jose Salvador Ruiz. He took the baby, examined him and immediately realized - a failure. The boy was not breathing. The doctor spanked him, turned him upside down. Nothing helped. Dr. Salvador hinted at the obstetrician to carry away the dead child, and lit a cigarette. A club of bluish cigar smoke enveloped the baby's bluish face. He tensed convulsively and screamed.
It happened small miracle. The stillborn child was alive.
Picasso was born in the house on Malaga's Merced Square, which now houses the artist's house-museum and the foundation that bears his name.
His father was an art teacher at the art school in Malaga and part-time was the curator of the local Art Museum.
Jose after Malaga, having moved with his family to the town of La Coruña, got a place in the school of fine arts, teaching children painting. He also became the first and, perhaps, the main teacher of his brilliant son, giving humanity the very outstanding artist XX century.
We don't know much about Picasso's mother.
It is interesting that mother Mary lived to see her son's triumph.
Three years after the birth of her first child, Maria gave birth to a girl, Lola, and three years later, the youngest Conchita.
Picasso was a very spoiled boy.
He was allowed to do everything positively, but he almost died in the first minutes of his life.
At the age of seven, the boy was sent to a regular high school but he studied badly. Of course, he learned to read and count, but he wrote poorly and with errors (this remained for the rest of his life). But he was not interested in anything other than drawing. He was kept at school only out of respect for his father.
Even before school, his father began to let him into his workshop. He gave me pencils and paper.
José noted with delight that his son had an innate sense of form. He had a fantastic memory.
At the age of eight, the kid began to draw on his own. What the father did for weeks, the son was able to complete in two hours.
The first painting painted by Pablo has survived to this day. Picasso never parted with this canvas, painted on a small wooden board with his father's paints. This is a Picador from 1889.
Pablo Picasso - "Picador" 1889
In 1894, his father took Pablo out of school and transferred the boy to his lyceum - a school of fine arts in the same La Coruña.
If in a regular school Pablo did not have a single good grade, then at his father's school he did not have a single bad one. He studied not only well but brilliantly.
Barcelona…Catalonia
In 1895, during the summer, the Ruiz family moved to the capital of Catalonia. Pablo was only 13 years old. The father wanted his son to study at the Barcelona Academy of Arts. Pablo, still quite a boy, applied as an applicant. And then he got rejected. Pablo was four years younger than the first-year students. Father had to look for old acquaintances. Out of respect for this honored person, the selection committee of the Barcelona Academy decided to allow the boy to participate in the entrance exams.
In just a week, Pablo painted several paintings and completed the task of the commission - he painted several graphic works in the classical style. When he took out and unfolded these sheets in front of professors from painting, the members of the commission were dumbfounded with surprise. The decision was unanimous. The boy is accepted into the Academy. And immediately to the senior course. He did not need to learn to draw - a fully formed professional artist sat in front of the commission.
The name "Pablo Picasso" appeared precisely during the period of study at the Barcelona Academy. Pablo signed his first works with his own name - Ruiz Blesco. But then a problem arose - the young man did not want his paintings to be confused with those of his father Jose Ruiz Blasco. And he took his mother's surname - Picasso. And it was also a tribute and love to mother Mary.
Picasso never talked about his mother. But he loved and respected his mother very much. He painted his father in the image of a doctor in the painting “Knowledge and Mercy”. Portrait of mother - painting "portrait of the artist's mother" in 1896.
But even more interesting is the painting “Lola, sister of Picasso”. It was written in 1899, when Pablo was under the influence of the Impressionists.
In the summer of 1897, changes came in the family of José Ruiz Blasco. An important letter came from Malaga - the authorities decided to reopen the Art Museum and invited an authoritative person, Jose Ruiz, to the position of its director. June 1897. Pablo graduated from the Academy and received a diploma professional artist. And after that, the family moved on.
Picasso did not like Malaga. For him, Malaga was like a provincial creepy hole. He wanted to study. Then at the family council, in which the uncle also participated, it was decided that Pablo would go to Madrid to try to enter the most prestigious art school in the country - the Academy of San Fernando. Uncle Salvador volunteered to finance the education of his nephew.
He entered the San Fernando Academy without much difficulty. Picasso was simply out of competition. At first, he received good money from his uncle. The unwillingness to learn what Pablo already knew without the lessons of professors led to the fact that after a few months, he dropped out. The money from the uncle immediately stopped, and Pablo fell on hard times. He was then 17 years old, and by the spring of 1898 he decided to go to Paris.
Paris surprised him. It became clear that it was necessary to live here. But without money, he could not stay in Paris for a long time and in June 1898 Pablo returned to Barcelona.
Here he managed to rent a small workshop in old Barcelona, painted several paintings and was even able to sell. But it couldn't go on like this for long. And again I wanted to return to Paris. and even convinced his friends, the artists Carlos Casagemas and Jaime Sabartes, to go with him.
In Barcelona, Pablo often dropped in at the Santa Creu Hospital for the Poor, where prostitutes were treated. His friend worked here. Wearing a white coat. Picasso spent hours on inspections, quickly making pencil sketches in a notebook. Subsequently, these sketches will turn into paintings.
In the end, Picasso moved to Paris.
At the Barcelona station, his father saw him off. In parting, the son presented his father with his self-portrait, on which he inscribed “I am the king!” on top.
In Paris, life was poor and hungry. But Picasso had all the museums in Paris at his service. Then he became interested in the work of the Impressionists - Delacroix, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin.
He became interested in the art of the Phoenicians and ancient Egyptians, Japanese engraving and Gothic sculpture.
In Paris, he and his friends had a different life. Available women, drunken conversations with friends after midnight, weeks without bread and, most importantly, OPIUM.
The sobering up happened in one moment. One morning he went into the next room where his friend Casagemas lived. Carlos lay on the bed with his arms outstretched. There was a revolver nearby. Carlos was dead. Later it turned out that the cause of suicide was drug withdrawal.
The shock of Picasso was so great that he immediately left the passion for opium and never returned to drugs. The death of a friend turned Picasso's life upside down. After living in Paris for two years, he returned to Barcelona again.
Cheerful, temperamental, seething with cheerful energy, Pablo suddenly turned into a thoughtful melancholic. The death of a friend made me think about the meaning of life. In the self-portrait of 1901, a pale man looks at us with tired eyes. Pictures of this period - everywhere depression, loss of strength, everywhere you see those tired eyes.
Picasso himself called this period blue - "the color of all colors." Against the blue background of death, Picasso paints life with bright colors. Two years spent in Barcelona, he worked at the easel. I almost forgot my youthful trips to brothels.
“Ironer” this painting was painted by Picasso in 1904. Tired fragile woman leaned on the ironing board. Weak thin hands. This picture is a hymn to the hopelessness of life.
He reached the pinnacle of excellence at a very early age. But he continued to search, to experiment. At 25, he was still an aspiring artist.
One of the striking paintings of the "blue period" is "Life" in 1903. Picasso himself did not like this picture, considered it incomplete and found it too similar to the work of El Greco - and yet Pablo did not recognize secondary. The picture shows three times, three periods of life - past, present and future.
In January 1904, Picasso again went to Paris. This time, determined to secure here by any means. And in no case should he return to Spain - until he succeeds in the capital of France.
He was close to his "Pink Period".
One of his Parisian friends was Ambroise Vollard. Having organized the first exhibition of Pablo's works in 1901, this man soon became Picasso's "guardian angel". Vollard was a painting collector and very essentially, a successful art dealer.
Having managed to charm Waller. Picasso secured a sure source of income for himself.
In 1904, Picasso met and became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire.
In the same 1904, Picasso met the first true love of his life - Fernando Olivier.
It is not known what attracted Fernanda in this dense, knocked down, undersized Spaniard (Picasso's height was only 158 centimeters - he was one of the "great shorties"). Their love blossomed rapidly and magnificently. Tall Fernanda was crazy about her Pablo.
Fernanda Olivier became Picasso's first permanent model. Since 1904, he simply could not work if there was no female nature in front of him. Both were 23 years old. They lived easily, cheerfully and very poorly. Fernanda turned out to be a useless housewife. And Picasso could not stand this in his women, and their civil marriage went downhill.
“Girl on a ball” - this picture, painted by Picasso in 1905, experts in painting refer to the transitional period in the artist’s work - between “blue” and “pink”.
During these years, Picasso's favorite place in Paris was the Medrano Circus. He loved the circus. because they are circus performers, people of unfortunate fate, professional wanderers, homeless vagabonds, forced to portray fun all their lives.
Nude figures on the canvases of Picasso in 1906 are calm and even peaceful. They no longer look lonely - the theme of loneliness. anxiety about the future faded into the background.
Several works of 1907, including "Self-Portrait", are made in a special "African" technique. And the experts in the field of painting will call the very time of passion for masks the “African period”. Step by step, Picasso moved towards cubism.
“Avignon girls” - Picasso worked especially concentrated on this picture. For a whole year he kept the canvas under a thick cape, not allowing even Fernanda to look at it.
The picture was of a brothel. In 1907, when everyone saw the picture, a serious scandal erupted. Everyone looked at the picture. The reviewers unanimously declared that Picasso's painting is nothing but a publishing house on art.
At the beginning of 1907, in the midst of the scandal around the "Avignon girls", the artist Georges Braque came to his gallery. Braque and Picasso immediately became friends and took up the theoretical development of cubism. The main idea was to achieve the effect of a three-dimensional image using intersecting planes and constructing geometric shapes using the tool.
This period fell on 1908-1909. The paintings painted by Picasso during this period were still not much different from the same “Avignon Maidens”. For the first paintings in the style of cubism, there were buyers and admirers.
The period of so-called "analytical" cubism fell on 1909-1910. Picasso departed Cezanne's softness of colors. Geometric figures decreased in size, the images took on a chaotic character, and the paintings themselves became more complex.
The final period of the formation of cubism is called "synthetic". It fell on 1911-1917.
By the summer of 1909, Pablo, who was in his thirtieth year, had become rich. It was in 1909 that so much money accumulated that he opened his own bank account, and by autumn he was able to afford both new housing and a new workshop.
Eva-Marcel became the first woman in the life of Picasso, who left him herself, without waiting for the artist himself to leave her. She died of consumption in 1915. With the death of the adored Eva, Picasso lost the ability to work for a long time. The depression lasted for several months.
In 1917, Picasso's social circle expanded - he met an amazing man, poet and artist Jean Cocteau.
Then Cocteau convinced Picasso to go with him to Italy, Rome, to unwind and forget sadness.
In Rome, Picasso saw the girl and instantly fell in love. It was a Russian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova.
“Portrait of Olga in an armchair” - 1917
In 1918, Picasso proposed. Together they went to Malaga so that Olga met Picasso's parents. Parents gave good. In early February, Pablo and Olga went to Paris. Here, on February 12, 1918, they became husband and wife.
Their marriage lasted a little over a year and cracked. This time the reason was, most likely. in temperature differences. Convinced of her husband's infidelity, they no longer lived together, but still Picasso did not divorce. Olga remained the artist's wife, albeit formally, until her death in 1955.
In 1921, Olga gave birth to a son, who was named Paulo or simply Paul.
Pablo Picasso gave 12 years to surrealism creative life, periodically returning to cubism.
Following the principles of surrealism formulated by Andre Breton, Picasso, however, always went his own way.
"Dance" - 1925
A strong impression is left by the very first painting by Picasso, written in a surrealist style in 1925 under the influence of the artistic creativity of Breton and his supporters. This is the painting "Dance". In the work that Picasso designated new period in his creative life, a lot of aggression and pain.
It was January 1927. Pablo was already very rich and famous. One day on the banks of the Seine, he saw a girl and fell in love. The girl's name was Marie-Therese Walter. They were separated by a huge difference in age - nineteen years. He rented an apartment for her near his home. And soon he wrote only Marie-Therese.
Maria Theresa Walther
In the summer, when Pablo took the family to the Mediterranean, Maria Teresa followed. Pablo settled her next to the house. Picasso asked Olga for a divorce. But Olga refused, because day after day Picasso became even richer.
Picasso managed to buy the castle of Bouagelou for Marie-Therese, in which he actually moved himself.
In the autumn of 1935, Maria Teresa gave birth to his daughter, whom she named Maya.
The girl was registered in the name of an unknown father. Picasso swore that immediately after the divorce he would recognize his daughter, but when Olga died, he never kept his promise.
"Maya with a doll" - 1938
Marie-Therese Walther became the main inspiration. Picasso for several years. It was to her that he dedicated his first sculptures, on which he worked in the castle of Bouagelou during 1930-1934.
"Maria-Therese Walther", 1937
Fascinated by surrealism, Picasso completed his first sculptural compositions in the same surrealist vein.
The Spanish war for Picasso coincided with a personal tragedy - two weeks before it began, mother Maria died. Having buried her, Picasso lost the main thread connecting him with his homeland.
There is a tiny town in the Basque country in northern Spain called Guernica. On May 1, 1937, German aircraft raided this city and practically wiped it off the face of the earth. The news of the death of Guernica shocked the planet. And soon this shock was repeated when a painting by Picasso called “Guernica” appeared at the World Exhibition in Paris.
Guernica, 1937
In terms of the strength of the impact on the viewer, not a single pictorial canvas can be compared with “Guernica”.
In the autumn of 1935, Picasso was sitting at a table in a street cafe in Montmartre. Here he saw Dora Maar. and …
It wasn't long before they ended up in a shared bed. Dora was Serbian. The war separated them.
When the Germans launched their invasion of France, there was a great exodus. Artists, writers and poets moved from Paris to Spain, Portugal, Algeria and America. Not everyone managed to escape, many died ... Picasso did not go anywhere. He was at home and wanted to spit on both Hitler and his Nazis. It's amazing they didn't touch him. It is also surprising that Adolf Hitler himself was a fan of his work.
In 1943, Picasso became close to the communists, and in 1944 he announced that he was joining the French Communist Party. Picasso was awarded the Stalin (in 1950). and then the Lenin Prize (in 1962).
At the end of 1944, Picasso went to the sea, to the south of France. Dora Maar found him in 1945. It turned out she was looking for him throughout the war. Picasso bought her a cozy house here, in the south of France. And he announced that everything was over between them. The disappointment was so great that Dora took Pablo's words as a tragedy. Soon she suffered from her mind and landed in a psychiatric clinic. There she lived the rest of her days.
In the summer of 1945, Pablo briefly returned to Paris, where he saw Francoise Gilot and immediately fell in love. In 1947, Pablo and Francoise moved to the south of France in Valoris. Soon Pablo learned the good news - Francoise is expecting a baby. In 1949, Picasso's son, Claude, was born. A year later, Francoise gave birth to a girl, who was given the name Paloma.
But Picasso was not Picasso if the family relationship lasted long. They were already arguing. And suddenly Francoise quietly left, it was the summer of 1953. Because of her departure, Picasso began to feel like an old man.
In 1954, Fate brought Pablo Picasso together with his last companion, who at the end of the great painter would become his wife. It was Jacqueline Rock. Picasso was older than Jacqueline by as much as 47 years. At the time of their acquaintance, she was only 26 years old. He is 73.
Three years after Olga's death, Picasso decided to buy a large castle where he could spend the rest of his days with Jacqueline. He chose Vauvering Castle on the slopes of Mount Saint Victoria, in the south of France.
In 1970, an event took place that became his main award in these last years. The city authorities of Barcelona turned to the artist with a request for permission to open a museum of his paintings. It was the first Picasso museum. The second - in Paris - opened after his death. In 1985, the Salé Hotel in Paris was turned into the Picasso Museum.
In the last years of his life, he suddenly began to rapidly lose his hearing and vision. Then the memory began to weaken. Then the legs gave out. By the end of 1972, he was completely blind. Jacqueline has always been there. She loved him very much. No moaning, no complaining, no tears.
April 8, 1973 - on this day he died. According to Picasso's will, his ashes were buried next to Woverang Castle...
Source - Wikipedia and Informal Biographies (Nikolai Nadezhdin).
Pablo Picasso - biography, facts, paintings - the great Spanish painter updated: January 16, 2018 by: website
Love passions and relationships with women were the whole meaning of life Pablo Picasso- the famous Spanish painter. Art historians note the role of the seven main women who had a special influence on the life and work of a genius. However, he could not give any of them simple human happiness. At the same time, Picasso managed not only to “disfigure” their wonderful features in his portraits, but also to bring them to depression, a mental hospital, and suicide.
With a height of 158 centimeters, Picasso had the most powerful male energy, amazing charm, and his charisma, like a magnet, attracted women's attention and captivated their hearts. And this "magnetism, colored with explosive, Spanish temperament and genius, was impossible to resist."
The whole life of a 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 rags for wiping feet" he said. However, soon all the goddesses in his life became ... rags.
Fernanda Olivier
Hungry youth in bohemian Paris shared with Picasso Fernanda Olivier - a model with a very dark past, "wandering" from one artist to another. For almost a decade, she became the beloved woman and muse of the novice artist. Together with her, Picasso's painting, to replace the gloomy "blue" period, came - "pink", with nudity motifs and warm colors.
She posed naked for the artist and didn’t really protest when she couldn’t leave the apartment for two months, because she didn’t have shoes, and the beggar Picasso didn’t have money then to buy them for her. They barely made ends meet on his meager earnings. The only entertainment for young lovers was only sex. However, this could not last forever and in the end they parted amicably. Pablo found himself a young Marcel Humbert, and Fernanda went over to a Polish artist.
Marcel Humbert (Eve)
Pablo and Marcel met in 1911 in the Hermitage cafe in Paris. Miniature Marcella Pablo immediately began to call Eve, emphasizing that she was his first woman. Eva, like all future lovers of the great and successful Pablo Picasso, could not even imagine that the generous lover once barely made ends meet. Over the past decade, he has already firmly established himself, and his paintings were successfully sold.
Marcel was fragile, quiet and gentle, the complete opposite of the tall, healthy and noisy Fernanda. In the portraits of the artist, Eve is depicted everywhere as a symbol of grace, lightness, weightlessness. Pablo often depicted her in the form of musical instruments: a violin or a guitar. In these works it is impossible not to notice the fragility, almost transparent beauty of this woman.
Marseille was a bright star, flashing for a moment in the firmament of Picasso's life and quickly extinguished. Eva died of tuberculosis, but her influence on the work of Pablo Picasso was undoubtedly great.
Olga Khokhlova - the first legal wife
It was his Russian Olya who helped the artist survive the death of his beloved model Marcella Humbert. Being in a creative stagnation, Picasso strikes up a close friendship with the writer and artist Jean Cocteau, who offered to create scenery for the ballet "Parade" for the Diaghilev troupe. This work brought the master back to life, he met a 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 to Picasso, and in 1918 they got married.
What prompted him to marry? He himself found it difficult to answer this question later. And at that moment he was so fascinated by the Russian dancer that he did not hesitate to go down the aisle with his beloved, and besides, to an Orthodox church. After the wedding, Pablo took Olga to her parents in Spain, and settled in a chic Parisian apartment. He was so fascinated by Khokhlova that he promised himself to break with his bohemian lifestyle, so sincerely believed that Olga was just a gift from heaven for him. The fact that she was a virgin played an important role, and Pablo did not miss the opportunity to boast about this.
But not everything turned out as planned, the Russian ballerina tried to reduce the work of Picasso 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 and did not recognize cubism, and he had to move away from this style for a while. Olga squandered her husband's money, and he was desperately angry.
Even the birth of a son in 1921, Paolo, could not bring the spouses together. Although the elements of fatherhood did not last long, but strongly overwhelmed Picasso: he endlessly painted his wife and son. And then came the alienation.
Such a limited life bored the genius to death, and Pablo began to take revenge on Olga for the failed family life and unfulfilled hopes. 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 her portraits 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 never having achieved the dissolution of the marriage, she remained the wife of Picasso until the end of her days. Suffering from depression, tormented by jealousy and anger, she died alone from cancer in 1955. Such was the sad ending of their great love.
Maria Theresa Walther
It was for the sake of the 17-year-old Marie-Therese that Picasso left his son and Olga Khokhlova. Love for a young girl left a noticeable imprint not only in creativity, but also in the fate of Pablo.
She became for him a mistress, a model, an object of desire, a toy and a muse.
Art historians characterize this period as the pinnacle of his work. And when Marie-Teresa in 1935 gave birth to Picasso's daughter Maya, he quickly lost interest in her and openly took a mistress.
Dora Maar
The next mistress 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 got into a fight over a lover. Picasso later recalled this incident as the brightest event in his life.
He still continued his relationship with both women, he dedicated a whole series of portraits to Dora, and went to Maria Theresa and his daughter Maya twice a week. Dora Maar, having the same unbridled temperament as her lover, destroyed her relationship with Pablo with her scandals and jealousy. And he increasingly began to visit Maria Teresa with her daughter.
This story ended very tragically for both women. Dora, having a hard time breaking up with Pablo, ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where she was treated with electric shock. Coming out of which, was fond of mysticism and astrology. She lived very poorly and alone, died at the age of 89.
Marie-Teresa, living in constant expectation and depression, hanged herself years later in her own garage.
Marie Francoise Gilot
In 1943, during the occupation of Paris, Pablo meets a girl who completely changed his fate. He was 62 years old, and she was 22. Francoise Gilot became not only a wife, but also the most talented student of Picasso. Taking a lot from the master, she developed her own style and became a famous artist.
And only with Francoise Picasso will know the new joys of life. This amazing woman fed him with creative energy, while not wasting her own. It was she who was able to show Pablo that family life is not a heavy burden, and that two loving people can be happy in a family. She bore him children - the son of Claude and the daughter of Paloma, who received the surname Picasso, who, after the death of their father, became the owners of part of his multi-billion dollar fortune.
Françoise Gilot differed from all the women of Picasso with a strong character. Therefore, having learned about Pablo's betrayal, she herself left him, not allowing herself to get into the list of abandoned and devastated women.
In 1964, Gilot became famous as a writer by publishing her autobiography, My Life with Picasso, in which she fully outlined her relationship with famous artist in 1943-1953. The common-law wife did not miss the opportunity to tell about her husband's relationship with other women. After the release of Francoise Picasso's memoirs, he ended his relationship with both her and their children.
Jacqueline Rock
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The last twenty years of life next to Picasso was the last passion of the artist - the beautiful and young Jacqueline Rock, who became his second legal wife in 1961. Before that, she was the secretary and model of the master, and it was she who healed the emotional wounds that tormented Picasso after the departure of Francoise Gilot.
Having conquered the artist with her devotion, care and love, which were so necessary for the elderly Don Juan, Jacqueline became his only joy. During the years of life with which, 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?
At 92, dying in his French villa, the owner of a billion-dollar fortune, the great painter Pablo Picasso, looked at his work from time to time and thought: "I think about death all the time. She is just a woman who will never leave me".
And no matter how many women a genius had, the number one woman in his life was his mother - dona, who literally created a genius out of him, who sincerely believed that no woman was worthy of her son.