A Life of Picasso

by John Richardson

  16. Flam, 152.

  17. Bois, 64.

  18. Matisse and Picasso: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1999. Matisse Picasso: Tate Modern, London, May 11–August 18, 2002; Grand Palais, Paris, September 25 –January 6, 2003; MoMA, New York, February 13–May 19, 2003.

  19. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

  20. Z.VII.306.

  21. Flam, 146–7.

  22. Penrose, 397.

  23. Vol. I, 458.

  24. Ibid., 456–60.

  25. Although he had intended Oviri to preside over his tomb, Gauguin left it on deposit with his patron, Gustave Fayet, before returning to Tahiti. In 1925 Vollard acquired Oviri from Fayet. After Vollard’s death, it came into the possession of Edouard Jonas, who had purchased interest in the dealer’s estate from his sisters in Réunion, the family’s birthplace.

  26. Widmaier Picasso 2004, 30.

  27. JSLC 101.

  28. Z.VII.347.

  29. Z.VII.259.

  30. Penrose, 242.

  31. Brassaï’s photographs were commissioned for the first number of Skira’s magazine, Mino-taure. “My photos were to occupy thirty or so pages,” Brassaï, 7.

  32. The earliest drawings for the Tall Figure appear in JSLC 101, which was begun on November 8, 1930.

  33. S.107.

  34. Cowling 2006, 302.

  35. Spies, 167–8.

  36. Subsequent inquiries failed to confirm whether this supposition had been correct.

  37. S.131 and S.132.

  38. See, for example, Z.VII.323 and Z.VII.325.

  39. Brassaï, Conversations avec Picasso (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), 65, 69; translation by the author.

  40. Penrose, 244.

  41. S.133.

  42. From the Baga tribe in French Guinea— one that the wearer carried on his shoulders.

  43. The Nimba mask appears in the 1918 photograph of Olga in the Montrouge studio; see page 79.

  44. Z.VII.379.

  45. Golding, 26.

  46. See the Hen (S.155), identified as a Cock by Spies, and S.154.

  47. S.127.

  48. S.130.

  49. S.198.

  50. S.128.

  51. See Vol. I, 403.

  52. Ibid., 434. Casanovas also did neoclassical bas-reliefs in plaster.

  53. Suggested by Dakin Hart, whose knowledge of Picasso’s sculpture has been of great help.

  54. S.105.

  55. Picasso would have seen Jeanette V and the Large Seated Nude at the Galerie Pierre’s 1930 show of Matisse sculpture.

  56. This piece (S.111) figures in the earlier photographs of the 1931 sculptures. The companion piece (S.110) does not appear until much later.

  57. Princess X was supposedly inspired by Princess Marie Bonaparte, Freud’s favorite disciple and a mistress of Brancusi’s.

  58. See Picasso x-rays: Photographies de Xavier Lucchesi (Paris: Musée National Picasso, Beaux-Arts Magazine, 2006).

  59. S.83, 84, and 85.

  60. S.110.

  61. JSLC 101.

  62. Bach, 259.

  63. Ibid., 378 n. 605.

  64. Ibid., 253. Cassou was director of the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, 1946–65.

  65. Picasso’s drawing (July 7, 1928) appeared in his so-called Carnet Paris. Parigoris pointed out the existence of the plaster cast in González’s studio to the author.

  66. Albert Dreyfus, “Constantin Brancusi,” Cahiers d’art, no. 2 (1927), 69–74; Roger Vitrac, “Constantin Brancusi,” Cahiers d’art, nos. 8–9 (1929), 383–96.

  67. According to Etienne Hajdu, Bach, 264.

  68. According to François-Xavier Lalanne, ibid.

  69. Baer, 204–5, 207–9.

  70. Picasso engraved most of the Vollard suite plates in 1933 and 1934; three more were executed in 1939.

  71. See Chapter 36 n. 24.

  72. Charles W. Millard, The Sculptures of Edgar Degas (Princeton, N J.: Princeton University Press, 1976), compares Degas’s Rose Caron (plate 121) to Brancusi’s Muse (plate 122).

  73. Picasso’s engravings of brothel scenes were executed between March and June 1971; see Baer 1942–2001, 2009–10.

  74. See Vol. 1, 82.

  CHAPTER 38

  Annus Mirabilis II

  1. Archives Picasso.

  2. Linda Simon. The Biography of Alice B. Toklas (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977), 144.

  3. Now in the collection of Beinecke Library.

  4. See Vol. II, 131–2.

  5. See Kosinski, 521.

  6. Marie-Thérèse told Gasman that she was accompanied this summer by her sister Geneviève.

  7. Two drypoints of the sculptor’s studio (see Baer, 205, 207).

  8. MP 1052.

  9. E.g., Sculptor and Model in the Fondation Beyeler, Basel.

  10. See MP 1053–5.

  11. MP 1058–61.

  12. L’Eclaireur de Nice (August 17 and 18, 1931) reported that forest fires had begun on August 16 and had spread to Mougins, Vallauris, and Le Cannet.

  13. See Hélène [S.] Klein’s note on the series in Picasso: Une Nouvelle Dation (Paris: Musée Picasso, 1990), 48.

  14. Letter from Stein to Picasso, September 1931, Beinecke Library.

  15. Stein 1938, 47.

  16. JSLC 101.

  17. Cabanne 1977, 268.

  18. See Vol. I, 27.

  19. L. P. Harvey, Islamic Spain: 1250-1500 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 298–9.

  20. Guillen Robles, 186.

  21. Gijs van Hensbergen, Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon (London: Bloomsbury, 2004) made this point in his lecture on the occasion of the 2006 Guernica exhibit at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofía, Madrid.

  22. Cowling 2006, 261.

  23. See Vol. II, 37.

  24. Pointed out by Dakin Hart.

  25. Ibid.

  26. S.112–15.

  27. Leo Steinberg, “The Algerian Women and Picasso at Large,” Other Criteria (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), 167.

  28. Marina Picasso Collection, 12578.

  29. MP 74.

  30. Z.VII.346.

  31. Gilot 1964, 50.

  32. According to Widmaier Picasso, Picasso first consulted a lawyer about divorce in the autumn of 1933 but when he discovered that Olga would have a claim on half of everything he owned, there was no further question of it. When Marie-Thérèse became pregnant, a legal separation was arranged, July 29, 1935 (Widmaier Picasso 2002, 86–9).

  33. Z.VII.334.

  34. MP 136.

  35. Piot suggests that Abel Gance’s 1929 film Napoléon (in which Antonin Artaud played Marat) might have played a role in Picasso’s choice of subject. See Léal, Piot, and Bernadac, The Ultimate Picasso, trans. Molly Stevens and Marjolin de Jager (Barcelona: Ediciones Polí-grafa, 2000), 262.

  36. Picasso seemingly knew the David painting only from reproductions; the original is in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

  37. See chapter 30, n. 23.

  38. Z.VIII.216.

  39. Archives Picasso.

  40. Bois sees Matisse drawing on this painting for his no less dazzling painting of a woman in a peasant blouse, entitled The Dream. For Matisse’s comments, see Bois, 137 and n. 265.

  41. Marina Picasso Collection, 12584.

  42. Z.VII.358.

  43. See, for example, Z.VII.357, Z.VII.359.

  44. Still Life with a Plaster Bust (Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa.).

  45. Z.VII.361.

  46. Z.VII.263.

  47. Z.VII.362.

  48. Z.VII.364.

  49. Steve Cohen had agreed to pay $139 million, but the deal was annulled after Steve Wynn, the owner of the painting, put his elbow through it before it could be shipped.

  50. Z.VII.269.

  51. Drawings done on January 31 (e.g. Z.VII.330) (dated January 27, 1932) and MP 139 reveal that Picasso contemplated doing a full-length, seated version of what had started as a half-length painting. It was ju
st as well he failed to do so; the addition of legs, as in the drawing, would not have improved it.

  52. Z.VII.375.

  53. Z.VII.376.

  54. MP 140.

  55. Bois, 15, believes this still life derives from Matisse’s 1916 Still Life with a Plaster Bust (Barnes Foundation).

  56. Private collection, California.

  57. Z.VII.377.

  58. See K. Blossfeldt, Urformen der Kunst (Berlin, 1928), trans. as Art Forms in Nature (London: Dover, 1986).

  59. Georges Bataille, “Le Langage des fleurs,” Documents, no. 3 (June 1929), 162.

  60. See, for example, Z.VIII.1–9.

  61. Z.VII.378.

  62. Sleeping Nude, reproduced in Matisse Picasso (London: Tate Modern, 2002), 217; and the smaller Reclining Nude, reproduced in Pablo Picasso Meeting in Montreal (Montreal: Museum of Fine Arts, 1985), 167.

  63. Z.VII.379.

  64. See also Cowling 2002, 496.

  65. Rubin 1972, 138.

  66. In 1955–56 Picasso told the author, apropos his 1954 variations on Delacroix’s Femmes d’Alger, that the penultimate painting of a series was “le plus fort,” the strongest one.

  67. Daix 1993, 221–2; Cowling 2002, 492.

  68. See chapter 30, note 18.

  69. Z.VII.355–6 and no. 68 in Picasso: Anthology (Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2004).

  70. Elizabeth Cowling, The “Reclining Woman on the Beach” Series (Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga), 38.

  71. Roland Penrose, Scrap Book (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981), 68–9.

  72. Z.VII.339–40, 344.

  73. Z.VII.332.

  74. Z.VII.381.

  75. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung vol. 15 (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1966), 138.

  CHAPTER 39

  Paris and Zurich Retrospective

  1. See Chapter 34.

  2. Paulo was admitted to Prangins in the 1940s.

  3. Raymond Queneau, Journaux 1914-1965 (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 275.

  4. These portrayals are so close in pose, color, and treatment to ones of Marie-Thérèse that her daughter Maya mistook one of them for a portrait of her mother. See the commemorative photograph of her and her family, see Widmaier Picasso 2002, plate XVI.

  5. Otero, 192.

  6. Quoted in FitzGerald 1995, 193.

  7. The contents of Degas’s studio and his great collection were auctioned at the Galeries Georges Petit in four sales in May and December 1918 and April and July 1919.

  8. Z.I.285; Chester Dale bequeathed his collection to the National Gallery, Washington.

  9. See FitzGerald’s book Making Modernism (FitzGerald 1995) for the most comprehensive account of Picasso’s relationship with Rosenberg and other dealers.

  10. Ibid., 194.

  11. Ibid., 206.

  12. According to Alejo Carpentier, Crónicas (Havana, 1975), 265, the architect was André Lurçat.

  13. Brassaï, 4.

  14. Cabanne 1977, 270.

  15. Blanche, 334.

  16. FitzGerald 1995, 214.

  17. Z.VI.686.

  18. Daix 1993, 222.

  19. See Chapter 19.

  20. See Vol. II, 57.

  21. Quoted in FitzGerald 1995, 193.

  22. Tériade’s interview appeared in L’Intran-sigeant, June 15, 1932.

  23. Ibid., 28.

  24. Ibid., 27–8.

  25. Breton loaned his iconic papier collé of a triangular head (1913). Tzara, who had bought a number of important papiers collés at the Kahn-weiler sales, lent nothing.

  26. André Breton, “Picasso in His Element,” Surrealism and Painting trans. Simon Watson Taylor (New York: Icon, 1972), 110.

  27. Picasso told Zervos (Cahiers d’Art, 1935) that Cézanne would never have interested him “if he had lived and thought like Jacques Emile Blanche, even if the apple he had painted had been ten times as beautiful;” see Bernadac and Michaël, 36.

  28. Jacques-Emile Blanche, “Rétrospective Picasso,” L’Art Vivant 8 (July 1932), 334.

  29. Ibid., 333.

  30. Ibid., 334.

  31. Ibid.

  32. See Chapter 10, 129.

  33. Quoted in Cabanne 1977, 271.

  34. Charensol, quoted in ibid.

  35. Quoted in FitzGerald 1995, 190.

  36. Ibid., 192.

  37. Daix 1977, 236, gives no evidence for his statement that Olga did in fact attend the vernissage.

  38. Madeline has confirmed that Olga and Paulo were there during the summer of 1932; see Madeline 2005b, 344.

  39. Z.VII.387.

  40. Z.VII.351.

  41. Z.VII.398.

  42. Z.VIII.12.

  43. See, for example, Z.VIII.26–33.

  44. Z.VIII.70.

  45. Z.VII.395.

  46. Known as Siesta, this painting (reproduced in Picasso: Figur und Porträt [Kunstforum Wien, 2000], 141) is inscribed on reverse: Boisgeloup, 18 août XXXII.

  47. Z.VIII.154.

  48. Z.VIII.133.

  49. Z.VIII.147.

  50. S.135.

  51. Alexandra Parigoris to the author.

  52. Derouet 2006, 154.

  53. Ibid.

  54. See Chapter 29.

  55. Derouet 2006, 11.

  56. In November 1930, Picasso gave the maquette and proofs of the full-page illustrations for Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Zervos, who sold them to Chester Dale. He also gave Zervos fifty copies of the book. See Derouet 2004, 153. Other artists, including Paul Klee, gave Zervos editions of prints that could be sold.

  57. Gilot 1964, 128.

  58. Derouet 2006, 154.

  59. The Braque show was eventually held in April 1933, followed in May by a Léger retrospective.

  60. One of the most zealous investigators of works of art looted during WWII, Cooper had Montag arrested and rearrested—to little avail. Each time, Montag appealed to Winston Churchill, whom he had taught to paint. Churchill could not believe that Montag could have done anything so reprehensible and had him set free.

  61. Quoted in Geelhaar, 184.

  62. Geiser briefly assumed the role of Paulo’s tutor after he came out of the Linden-hofspital in Zurich in 1937; see Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler, “Picasso un Bern,” Picasso und die Schweiz (Kunstmuseum Bern, 2001), 81–2, n. 36.

  63. Apart from the works on paper, the Zurich show included 224 paintings, 43 of them new additions.

  64. Z.V.141, Z.V.426, Z.II.528, and Z.II.550.

  65. Z.I.256.

  66. Z.II.536.

  67. Rafael Inglada provided details of the hotels where the Picassos stayed on their trip to Switzerland.

  68. Hans Welti, “Picasso auf dem Zürichsee,” Neue Zürcherzeitung September 14, 1932.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Ibid.

  71. Douglas Cooper to the author.

  72. Geelhaar, 196. Geelhaar’s essay on the Picasso retrospective in Zurich (Kunstmuseum Bern, 2001), 65–73, is the principal source of information concerning this show and its reception.

  73. Geelhaar, 200.

  74. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 15 (New York: Bollingen Foundation), 138.

  75. Ibid., 139–40.

  76. Ibid., 140.

  77. Christian Zervos, “Picasso étudié par le Dr. Jung,” Cahiers d’art, 1932, 352.

  78. In a letter dated September 8, 1932 (Kunstmuseum Bern), Kahnweiler asks Rupf if he has seen Picasso, since he was under the impression that Picasso only wanted to stay in Zurich one or two days and then drive home through Colmar. Since Picasso had left Paris on the seventh, arriving in Basel that day, it is conceivable he visited Colmar en route to Zurich, rather than on his way back to Paris.

  79. Quoted in Bernadac and Michaël, 84.

  80. Ibid., 108.

  81. Minotaure no. 1 (June 1933), 31–3.

  82. Reproduced in Baldassari 1997, 196.

  83. Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (London: John Murray, 1989 reprint), 85.

  84. Baer 1997, 33.


  85. Gasman cites a poem, August 2, 1940, in which Picasso fantasizes about saving her life; see Bernadac and Piot, 228.

  86. Cowling 2002, 535.

  87. See, for example, Z.VIII.100–3.

  88. See Chapter 37, n. 31.

  89. See, for example, Z.VIII.124–6, 128.

  EPILOGUE

  1. Pablo Neruda, “Explico algunas cosas,” Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems, ed. and trans. Nathaniel Tarn (London: Penguin, 1975), 102.

  2. Kahnweiler 1971, 108. Gasman cites a reference in one of Picasso’s poems, dated December 21, 1935, in which he invents a Spanish word, realeales, in order to make a pun on “royal” and “loyal.”

  3. See Rafael Inglada, Picasso antes del azul (1881–1901) (Málaga: Ayuntamiento, 1995), 180–5.

  4. Xavier Vilató to the author.

  5. Originally from Genoa, branches of the Picassi family had settled in the Sori on the Adriatic coast as well as in Argentina and Spain. Tomasso Picassi (1787–1851), who changed his name to Picasso, was married to a malagueña called Doña María Guardeño. One of Tomasso’s sons, Francisco, married Inez López Robles, whose daughter, María, was Pablo Picasso’s mother. Tomasso’s other son, Juan Bautista, married Dolores González Soto. They had six children: Adela, Amelia, Dolores, Eulalia, Trinidad, and one son, Juan, the future general, who was born in Málaga on August 22, 1857. In 1876, when he was eighteen, Juan enrolled in the Cuerpo de Estado Mayor. He was a good student and an excellent horseman. This information from Pando Despierto about the Picasso family was not available at the time of the publication of Vol. I; see the family tree reproduced in Vol. I, 476.

  6. Pando Despierto, 31.

  7. Carolyn P. Boyd, Praetorian Politics in Liberal Spain (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979), 188.

  8. Pando Despierto, 36.

  9. François Buot, Crevel (Paris: Grasset, 1991), 124.

  10. Pando Despierto, 31.

  11. Brenan, 78–9.

  12. Ibid., 80.

  13. Van Hensbergen, 12.

  14. Olivier Widmaier Picasso claims that Picasso had Marie-Thérèse stashed away “in a neighboring hotel” on this visit to Spain, as well as the one he would make the following year; see Widmaier Picasso 2002, 86.

  15. According to Salvador Madariaga, in Brenan, 79.

  16. Gibson 1997, 263.

  17. Van Hensbergen, 10. Aizpurua was a founder with Josep Lluis Sert of GATEPAC (Grupo de arquitectos y técnicos españoles para el arte contemporania).