A Life of Picasso

by John Richardson

18. See Chapter 30.

  19. A silversmith, François Hugo, executed Picasso’s designs for silver plates and fruit dishes in the 1950s and 1960s.

  20. Buckle 1979, 366.

  21. Sokolova 1960, 163.

  22. Buckle, 370.

  23. Grigoriev, 169.

  24. According to the late Genya Smakov, the Russian ballet historian, in conversation with the author.

  25. See Cooper, no. 284; and Kochno, 283.

  26. Picasso to the author.

  27. Buckle 1979, 378.

  28. According to Claustre Rafart, “Cuadro Flamenco,” Picasso y el teatro (Barcelona: Museu Picasso, 1966), 120, d’Albaicín’s real name was María García Escudero. Buckle 1979, 378, claims that Diaghilev made her follow her bullfighter brother’s example and change her name to d’Albaicín (after the caves outside Granada where the Gypsies lived).

  29. Buckle 1979, 380–1.

  30. Letter from Gris to Kahnweiler, April 21, 1921, Kahnweiler-Gris 1956, 110.

  31. Telegram from Diaghilev to Picasso, April 20, 1921, Archives Picasso.

  32. Letter from Gris to Kahnweiler, April 29, 1921, in Kahnweiler-Gris 1956, 112.

  33. See MP 1824.

  34. Buckle 1979, 381.

  35. Ibid.,

  36. Beaumont, 186.

  37. Charles-Roux, 211.

  38. Beaumont, 186–7.

  39. See Cooper, 52, on the fate of the curtain.

  40. Cooper, 53. Cowling 2002, 667 n. 95, reveals that Picasso also envisaged a ballet to be called La Petite Fille écrasée with “scenario, choreography, mise-en-scène and music” by himself.

  41. Cooper, 52.

  42. Letter from Georges Auric to Picasso, September 17, 1962, Archives Picasso.

  43. Cooper, 71.

  44. Z.I.308, Z.II.550, Z.II.529, Z.I.300, and Z.II.555.

  45. Z.IV.331–332.

  46. Reverdy, 9. A related pastel (Z.IV.202) was also reproduced in La Révolution surréaliste with the caption “Adam et Eve.”

  47. See Vol. II, 29.

  48. See L’Amour de l’art, 1921: Maurice Ray-nal, “Picasso et l’Impressionisme,” 213–16; and Roger Bissière, “L’Exposition Picasso,” 209–12.

  49. Braque to the author.

  50. Although written in 1921, Reverdy’s text did not appear in book form until 1924.

  51. Danchev, 136.

  52. Reverdy, 8.

  53. Ibid., 13.

  54. Braque in conversation with the author.

  55. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

  56. Letter from Pierre Reverdy to Picasso, July 1, 1922, Archives Picasso.

  57. Musée Picasso, Paris (MP 72).

  58. The one and only time Picasso reprimanded me was for mentioning in an article that Braque had turned down Picasso’s offer of a studio space in La Californie so that they could work together as they had in the distant past. He felt I had put him at a disadvantage, Jacqueline told me.

  59. Stein 1933, 194.

  CHAPTER 15

  Summer at Fontainebleau

  1. For detailed accounts of the Kahnweiler sales see Assouline, FitzGerald 1995, and Gee.

  2. Although Goetz had been a friend of Picasso’s there were no works by the artist in his sale, which took place in February 1922.

  3. According to Cooper, who took advantage of the fall in cubist prices to form an exceptionally rich cubist collection.

  4. Z.II.217, Z.II.235.

  5. Kunsthaus, Zurich.

  6. Danchev, 212.

  7. Assouline, 168.

  8. Ibid., 169.

  9. See Vol. II, 35–6.

  10. Adolphe Basler, “Über Kunst und Künstler in Frankreich,” Der Cicerone, July 6, 1922, 547–52.

  11. Assouline, 173.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid., 174.

  14. Ibid., 174–5.

  15. See Vol. II, 352.

  16. Jean Cocteau, Journal: 1942-1945 (Paris: Gallimard, 1989), 70.

  17. Assouline, 175.

  18. See Piet de Jonge, “Helene Kröller-Müller e il cubismo,” Il Cubismo: Rivoluzione e tradizione (Ferrara: Palazzo Diamanti, 2004), 79–86.

  19. Assouline, 176.

  20. Ibid., 175.

  21. Now 33, avenue Leclerc.

  22. Z.IV294.

  23. Z.IV295–8.

  24. See Z.IV282. The coach house (seven by nine meters) has been remodeled.

  25. Penrose, 239.

  26. Ibid., 240.

  27. Charles-Roux, 211–12.

  28. Morand 1976, 121.

  29. Ibid., 124.

  30. Ibid., 93.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Ibid., 63.

  33. Baer, 63.

  34. Whereabouts unknown.

  35. Charles-Roux, 220.

  36. Rosenberg paid 18,000 francs for Two Nudes on June 22, 1921, and sold them two months later to Quinn for 27,000 francs. The following year Quinn would buy Three Women at the Spring directly from Picasso. FitzGerald 1995, 119.

  37. Letter from Roché to John Quinn, June 12, 1922, Reid, 551.

  38. Although the “Small Giants” has not been identified, the work that fits Quinn’s description most closely is Z.IV278.

  39. Letter from Roché to Quinn, July 11, 1922, Reid, 551.

  40. Bemberg’s second wife was the widow of Count Alexander Vrubov, the young naval lieutenant who had been obliged by the Tsarina to marry her manipulative lady-in-waiting, Anya Taneeva, who had served as her go-between with Rasputin. Eighteen months later, after discovering the extent of the intrigues between his wife and the Tsarina, Vrubov asked the Tsar for an annulment. It was instantly granted, so long as he retired to his country estate. Vrubov remarried. After his death his wife would marry Bemberg.

  41. Napoleon III had renovated the springs; see Terrasse, 94.

  42. PF.III.1082 and Z.IV.322.

  43. Harold Osborne, ed., The Oxford Companion to Art (Oxford University Press, 1971), 687–8.

  44. See Geneviève Brese-Bautier, “La Sculpture de l’attique du Louvre par l’atelier de Jean Goujon,” Revue de Louvre 2 (1989), 1997. Also, Alexandra Parigoris, “Pastiche and the Use of Tradition, 1917-1922,” in On Classic Ground (London: Tate Gallery, 1990), 301–4.

  45. Gilot 1964, 20.

  46. Terrasse, 93.

  47. Z.IV.301–3 and PF.III.1045. The spring at Fontainebleau was supposedly discovered by a hound named Bliaud; see Katharina Schmidt, “Pablo Picasso: Three Women at the Spring,” in Boehm, Mosch, and Schmidt, 247.

  48. PF.III.1046 and Z.IV.304.

  49. Picasso sent one of these sketches to Rosenberg, who commented in his thank you letter, July 7, 1921, Archives Picasso, “vous êtes tout à fait Ecole de Fontainebleau!”

  50. Z.II.108.

  51. Z.XXX.257. One of many drinking fountains set up in Paris by Sir Richard Wallace (illegitimate son of the Marquess of Hertford) after whom the Wallace collection is named.

  52. See Z.IV.358, Z.IV.365, and Z.XXX.259–61.

  53. Letter from Fry to Vanessa Bell, March 15, 1921, Sutton, 505.

  54. John Pearson, Façades (London: Macmil-lan, 1978), 143.

  55. See Vol. II, 167–72.

  56. Z.IV331–2.

  57. Reff, 124–42.

  58. Z.II.555.

  59. On October 29, 1920 Bell informs Mary Hutchinson that “Picasso … is strangely isolated and solitary” (Ransom Center).

  60. Cowling (Cowling 2002, 367) identifies the Three Musicians as Satie, Stravinsky, and Falla.

  61. Vol. II, 280.

  62. See Picasso’s drawing of a cobla: Vol. II, 186.

  63. The difference between a tenora and a clarinet has to do with the shape of the reed and the scale of the instrument. Since the tenora is emblematic of French Catalonia and Picasso had a special affection for the cobla and the sardana dances that it accompanied, we can assume that the wind instruments in Three Musicians include a tenora.

  64. Z.IV1344.

  65. See Lewis Kachur, “Picasso, Popular Music and Collage
Cubism (1911–12),” Burlington Magazine, April 1993, 252-60.

  66. See Vol. II, 163–4.

  67. Ibid., 186.

  68. Seckel, 179.

  69. Z.IV310.

  70. See Vol. II, 278.

  71. Reff, 135, sees the dog as a manifestation of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death.

  72. Gilmore 1998, 20, 71.

  73. Ibid., 23.

  74. Letter from Roché to Quinn, February 19, 1922, Reid, 552.

  75. Robert Schmutzler, Art Nouveau (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1962), 137.

  76. Bemberg’s few surviving works belong to the family.

  77. Princess Gortchakow in conversation with the author.

  78. For example, Z.IV273.

  79. Letter from Bemberg to Picasso, April 14, 1922, Archives Picasso.

  80. Letter from Bemberg to Picasso, September 16, 1922, Archives Picasso.

  81. Princess Gortchakow to the author.

  82. An older family member informed the author that no such person existed. However, a younger member, Peter Bemberg, acknowledged that there had been such a person. He also made it possible to consult the cache of his letters in the Archives Picasso. Coincidentally a chance remark to Mrs. Katusha Davison elicited the fact that her cousin, Princess Marie Gortchakow, was a stepdaughter of Georges Bemberg. Princess Gortchakow provided most of the information included in these pages.

  83. C’était Picasso, produced by Leo Scheer and Nathalie Rheims for Antenne 2 (French television), 1991.

  CHAPTER 16

  Beau Monde

  1. In her younger days, when Misia was married to Thadée Natanson, editor of the Revue Blanche, she posed for Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster for the inks of Ault & Wiborg. Misia’s friends, Hoytie Wiborg and her sister Sara Murphy were née Wyborg. See Loys Delteil, Toulouse-Lautrec: Le Peintre Graveur Illustré, vols. X-XI (Paris, 1920), D.365.

  2. According to an Ogden Stewart family member.

  3. Vaill, 272.

  4. Volta 2000, 907.

  5. Tomkins, 27.

  6. Vaill, 104.

  7. Ibid., 105.

  8. Tomkins, 38. Also see Kammen, 133.

  9. Hoytie Wiborg was also the model for Baby Warren in Scott Fitzgerald’s Murphy-inspired Tender Is the Night.

  10. Gold and Fizdale, 233–4.

  11. Tomkins, 151.

  12. Vaill, 166.

  13. Tomkins, 158–9.

  14. Letter from Bell to Mary Hutchinson, May 14, 1923, Ransom Center.

  15. Z.IV363.

  16. Everling thinks that Picasso also attended “un Réveillon cacodylate,” given by Picabia, to which many of the same guests, including Picasso, were invited. See Everling, 138–9.

  17. Hugo 1983, 201. “Caryathis” (Elisabeth Toulemon) was the stage name of a statuesque dancer who married Marcel Jouhandeau and became a writer.

  18. Letter from Marcel Proust to Beaumont, December 31, 1921, Proust 2000, 283.

  19. Hugo 1983, 201.

  20. Letter from Proust to Princess Soutzo, February 28, 1922, Proust 2000, 304.

  21. See Céleste Albaret, Monsieur Proust, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: McGraw Hill, 1997), 233.

  22. See letter from Sydney Schiff to Proust (May 15, 1922, Proust 1993, 195): since the Ritz did not allow music after 12:30, Schiff was obliged to give his famous party at the Majestic.

  23. Princess Edmond de Polignac had commissioned Renard and financed its production, which would open Diaghilev’s spring season at the Paris Opéra on May 18.

  24. Letter from Bell to Mary Hutchinson, May 6, 1922, Ransom Center.

  25. Letter from Schiff to Proust, June 21, 1922, Proust 1993, 295.

  26. Letter from Bell to Mary Hutchinson, May 6, 1922, Ransom Center.

  27. Letter from Cocteau to Picasso, May 24, 1922, Archives Picasso.

  28. Painter, 341.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Stein 1933, 212.

  31. Letter from Bell to Mary Hutchinson, May 6, 1922, Ransom Center.

  32. Letter from Cocteau to his mother, March 30, 1921, Steegmuller 1970, 271.

  33. Ibid., 260.

  34. “Cacodylic” literally means “shitty.” It may also refer to a lotion that Picabia used for shingles that afflicted his eye. See Raczymow, 89.

  35. William A. Camfield, Francis Picabia: His Art, Life and Times (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979), 170.

  36. Hugo 1983, 204.

  37. Painter, 345.

  38. Hugo 1983, 203. In her lively memoir, Laughing Torso (London: Constable, 1932) Nina Hamnett claims that this occured “some days before the official opening.” Hugo is more dependable.

  39. Radiguet sent the artist a postcard of a Corsican shepherdess, inscribed “Bonjour Monsieur Picasso” and dated January 16, 1922. Archives Picasso.

  40. Baer, 223.

  41. Volta 2000, 797.

  42. The playwright Edouard Bourdet would also satirize his friend Beaumont as Duc “Toto” d’Anche in his beau monde comedy, La Fleur des pois.

  43. Häger, 29.

  44. Ibid., 163.

  45. Assouline, 179.

  46. Ibid., 180. This gave great offense to the purists Ozenfant and Jeanneret, who lashed out at Vauxcelles, accusing him of “playing a double game of hypocrisy.”

  47. JSLC 77 (Z.XXX.332–48).

  48. See Chapter 24.

  49. Penrose, 243–4. See, for example, Z.XXX.412.

  50. March 29, 1922, Hôtel Drouôt, Paris.

  51. Z.IV.330.

  52. See Seckel-Klein, 202.

  53. Z.IV.380.

  54. Z.IV.175–8.

  55. Penrose, 244.

  56. PF.III.1261.

  57. Cabanne 1977, 224, claims that Picasso returned to pick up Paulo, as well as his work. Penrose’s story is more convincing.

  CHAPTER 17

  Paris

  1. Gilot 1990, 223.

  2. Palau 1999, 370.

  3. Gilot 1990, 187.

  4. Z.V.30.

  5. Z.V.38.

  6. Jacques Baron, L’An I du surréalisme (Paris: Denoël, 1969), 59–60.

  7. The horse in Z.V.52 had been carved by Polunin, the scene painter, as a birthday present for Paulo. On March 10, 1923, Picasso wrote to thank him: “mon fils est dans la joie.” Polunin family archives.

  8. See, for, example, Z.IV.1429, Z.V.177, Z.VII.267, and Z.VI.1452.

  9. Penrose, 330.

  10. Steegmuller 1970, 292–3.

  11. Cooper, 54.

  12. MP Carnets II, cat. 25 (MP 1990-101); and Z.XXX.178, 180, 182–6.

  13. The Journals of Jean Cocteau, trans. Wallace Fowlie (London: Museum Press, 1956), 102.

  14. See, for example, Z.IV.11 and Z.V.13.

  15. Z.V.12.

  16. Sokolova 1960, 30.

  17. Z.V.15.

  18. Z.V.14.

  19. Lagut.

  20. Ibid.

  21. A year or two later, The Lovers would be acquired by Sara Murphy’s sister, Hoytie Wiborg.

  22. Z.V.122.

  23. Pan and Daphnis, Roman copy of Hellenistic original, Museo Archeologic Nazionale, Naples.

  24. See Danièle Giraudy “Pablo Picasso: The Pipes of Pan,” in Bohem, Mosch, and Schmidt, 268–78.

  25. Rubin 1994, 140.

  26. Z.V.141.

  27. Rubin 1994, 144.

  28. Wearing her pearls down her back was a habit Sara copied from Violet, Duchess of Rutland (mother of her friend, Lady Diana Cooper), with whom she had stayed as a debutante. See, for example, Z.V.42.

  29. PF.III.1399.

  30. Salvadó 1924.

  31. Robert Desnos, “La Dernière Vente Kahn-weiler,” Paris-Journal, May 1923.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Assouline, 178.

  34. Jacques Helft, Vive la Chine! Mémoirs d’un antiquaire (Monaco: du Rocher, 1955), 44.

  35. Volta 2000, 515.

  36. Letter from Beaumont to Picasso, May 26, 1923, Archives Picasso. Written a week before the ball, this letter confirms that these entr�
�es were improvised at the last moment.

  37. The poster for the Bal Olympique, held at the Olympia Taverne in Paris (July 11, 1924), lists among the performers “Mme. Koklova (Danse);” however, her name may have been used for publicity purposes only along with the fifty artists (Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, Matisse, Man Ray, Satie, Stravinsky, Sara. Murphy, etc.) who supposedly participated in a competition for the decoration of the ball.

  38. Letter from Satie to Edith de Beaumont, May [23], 1923, Volta 2000, 538.

  39. Letter from Satie to Princesse Edmond de Polignac, May 24, 1923, ibid.

  40. Hugo 1983, 216.

  41. Letter from Beaumont to Picasso, February or March 15, 1923, Archives Picasso.

  42. Z.V.250.

  43. Z.V.249.

  44. Beaumont claimed to have “come into an unexpected windfall,” but “the budget was limited.” See letter of February or March 15, 1923, Archives Picasso.

  45. Letter from Paul Rosenberg to Picasso, November 3, 1923, Archives Picasso.

  46. Sokolova 1960, 203.

  47. Walsh, 366.

  48. Vaill, 118.

  49. André Warnod, “Le Clown et ses pein-tres,” Comoedia, June 6, 1923.

  50. Vaill, 118.

  51. Tomkins, 35.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Marcel Raval was a rich poet whose magazine, Feuilles Libres, published articles by Satie.

  54. Letter from Satie to Marcel Raval, July 6, 1923, Volta 2000, 546.

  55. Despite, or maybe because he had referred to Tzara (real name, Sami Rosenstock) as “a little Romanian Jew,” Massot had been allowed to add an iconoclastic note to the evening; see Sanouil-let, 395 n. 47.

  56. Salvadó 1924.

  57. Sanouillet, 396.

  58. Polizzotti, 181.

  59. Letter from Satie to Jean Guérin, July 9, 1923, Volta 2000, 547.

  CHAPTER 18

  Summer at Cap d’Antibes

  1. Postcard postmarked Royan from Picasso to Stein, July 10, [1923], Beinecke Library.

  2. George Davidson was an eccentric philanthropist who had made a fortune launching the Kodak business in London and then joined the Communist Party.

  3. Besides the summer school at Antibes, Davidson had established a winter school back in Wales.

  4. Morris, 152.

  5. Letter from Bell to Picasso, October 16, 1923, Ransom Center.

  6. Morris, 152–3.

  7. Two years earlier, Miró had offered to see her safely to Paris, as he wrote Picasso from Barcelona on July 25, 1921, Archives Picasso: “I… told her about your plans to bring her to Paris and my offer to accompany her myself on the next trip. The idea of seeing her son, naturally, made her very happy.” Nothing came of this plan.