On 4 Jan, 2011 With
Dora Maar and Picasso (1936-1944) In 1936 54-year old Picasso met Yugoslavian Dora Maar (1907 -1997), the photographer who documented Picasso’s painting of Guernica, the 1937 painting of Picasso’s depiction of the German’s having bombed the Basque city of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. She became Picasso’s constant companion and lover from 1936 through April, 1944. Maar went back to painting and exhibited in Paris soon after Picasso left her for Françoise. Picasso referred to Dora as his “private muse”. In later years she became a recluse, dying poor and alone.
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On 27 Dec, 2010 With
This original etching, Femme assise au Chapeau et Femme debout drapée, 29.1.1934 (Seated woman with a hat and standing woman draped) is one of 100 images from the famous Vollard Suite. Picasso created the etching plate that was used to print this etching on January 29, 1934. In January, 1934 Picasso stayed at his Paris studio, entering a very productive period, continuing to be inspired by Marie-Thérèse. He does not introduce her to friends or publicly acknowledge her as his mistress. In this same month artist Dali and Gala are married in Paris. This is the last full year that Olga and Picasso stay married, separating in June, 1935, but never divorcing as doing so would have required Picasso to…
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On 26 Dec, 2010 With
A Picasso painting of one of his mistresses today sold for £70.3million ($106.5million) — a world record price for any artwork sold at auction. The 1932 Nude, Green Leaves And Bust, which had a pre-sale estimate of £46 million-£59million, was sold to an undisclosed telephone bidder at a Christie’s impressionist and modern art auction in New York. The sale — equivalent to £21,537 for each square inch of the artwork — surpassed the £65million paid for Giacometti’s L’Homme Qui Marche at Sotheby’s in February. The previous highest price for a Picasso was $104.2 million for Boy With A Pipe (The Young Apprentice) sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004. The painting, a large-scale depiction of Pablo Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse…
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On 23 Dec, 2010 With
In 1927 Picasso met Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977), a 17 year old who Picasso then lived with in a flat across the street from his marital home (while still married to Olga). Marie-Thérèse and Picasso had a daughter, Maya (Maria de la Concepcion) on October 5, 1935. (Picasso and Olga later separated although they remained married so Olga would not receive half of Picasso’s wealth — until she died in 1955.) Picasso’s relation with Marie was kept from Olga until Olga was told of Marie’s pregnancy. Marie understandably became jealous when Picasso started to fall in love with Dora Maar in 1936, a year after Maya was born. It was Marie-Thérèse who was the inspiration for many of Picasso’s famous Vollard…
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On 22 Dec, 2010 With
Genevieve Laporte and Picasso (1951-1953) In 1944 17-year old Genevieve Laporte (born in 1927) interviewed Picasso for a school newspaper. Years later in May,1951 Picasso began an affair with the then-24 year old. The relationship started when Laporte visited the 70-year old Picasso at his studio while he was still living with Françoise Gilot. That summer of 1951 Picasso took Laporte to St Tropez, leaving Françoise behind. After declining Picasso’s invitation to move in with him in St. Tropez, she left him in 1953 at the same time that Françoise left the artist. In 1972 she went public with the affair and stored the art that Picasso created of her in a safe. In 2005, at age 79, the poet…
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On 19 Dec, 2010 With
Eva Gouel and Picasso (1912-1915) Fernande left Picasso in 1912, months after Picasso took an interest in Marcelle Humbert, known as EvaGouel (1885-1915). Picasso was devastated by her early death due to tuberculosis or cancer in 1915. Picasso professed his love to Eva by painting “I Love Eva” in some of his paintings. Still, during Eva’s sickness Picasso managed a relationship with Gaby Lespinasse. (Picasso’s father died in May, 1913 at the time that Eva moved in with him.)
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On 17 Dec, 2010 With
A graphic is an original work of art made in two steps. First, the artist creates a prepared surface with the art design or image; and secondly, that image is inked and transferred directly to paper using the force of a press to push the sheet of art paper firmly against the inked surface that contains the prepared image. An original graphic is sometimes referred to as a print, not to be confused with an inexpensively produced reproduction (which is a copy of a work of art that was originally created in another medium). The forms of prints (or original graphics) that are most common are intaglios such as etchings, engravings, linoleum and wood block prints, and the planographic medium…
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On 15 Dec, 2010 With
Fernande Olivier and Picasso (1904-1912) Artist model Fernande Olivier (1881-1966) was Picasso’s first long term relation and subject of many of Picasso’s Rose Period paintings (1905-07). Picasso met her after settling in Paris in 1904. Although Fernande was married, she stayed with Picasso for 7 years. Fernande modeled for other artists between 1900 and 1905 after which she moved in with “the Spanish artist”, Picasso, who then prevented her from modeling for others. Fernande’s having published selections from the memoirs of her life with Picasso infuriated the artist but eventually, at age 70, Picasso paid the ailing and bedridden Fernande a small pension. The full memoir was not published until 1988, “Loving Picasso”. In early 2004 the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. had an exhibition of…
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On 14 Dec, 2010 With
Olga Khokhlova and Picasso (1917-1927) In 1917 ballerina Olga Khokhlova (1891-1955) met Picasso while the artist was designing the ballet “Parade” in Rome, to be performed by the Ballet Russe. They married in the Russian Orthodox church in Paris in 1918 and lived a life of conflict. She was of high society and enjoyed formal events while Picasso was more bohemian in his interests and pursuits. Their son Paulo (Paul) was born in 1921 (and died in 1975), influencing Picasso’s imagery to turn to mother and child themes. Paul’s three children are Pablito (1949-1973), Marina (born in 1951), and Bernard (1959). Some of the Picassos in this Saper Galleries exhibition are from Marina and Bernard’s personal Picasso collection.
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On 3 Dec, 2010 With
Rousseau and Picasso. Whilst the public often ridiculed Rousseau’s work and organisers of the official Salon exhibitions rejected his submissions, he was admired by a younger generation of avant-garde artists, many of whom also lived and worked in Montparnasse at various points in their careers. This group of artists included Picasso, who bought several of Rousseau’s paintings and held a legendary banquet, ‘Le Banquet Rousseau’, in his honour. Many of these younger artists were fascinated by so-called ‘primitive’ art, discovering a powerful form of expression in African tribal masks and other non-Western artefacts. For them, Rousseau was a homegrown curiosity, a ‘modern primitive’ whose paintings captured something of the vitality they admired in these other art forms. Picasso purchased Rousseau’s…
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