Biographies

Pablo Picasso spent a great deal of his life painting his self-portrait often showing himself as a kind of fully narcissic half-god who behaved in fact like a tyrant and almost a vampire with his wives, mistresses and family.

When this genius died in 1973 leaving behind him thousands of incredible works that made him the greatest master of the 20th Century, his heirs, between Jacqueline, his last wife, Paulo, his legitimate son from his marriage with Olga, Maya, the daughter he had from Marie-Thérèse Walter and Paloma and Claude, the children born following his love affair with Françoise Gilot, fought an intense and somewhat disgusting battle to share the bulk of his unbelievable production worth billions of dollars.

The life of Picasso, who was first thought to be still-born and was saved at the last minute by a rather shrewd nurse, was marred by tragedies. It all started at the turn of this century when some of his friends, notably Eusebio Guell or Casagemas who killed themselves, died prematurely while he himself faced a terrifying situation until at least 1905 in Paris. As an example he was more than once forced to burn his drawings to heat his Montmartre hotel room during the cold winter of 1902 while two of his neighbours of his Bateau-Lavoir studio, a Polish comedian and a German painter, committed suicide in 1904.

Picasso, who invented Cubism with Braque and once said that he needed not to look for new concepts because he was finding them naturally, had quite a strong appetite for women who were mostly like toys in his hands.

A STRONG APPETITE FOR WOMEN

Described by Christian Zervos as the proudest man of his time, Picasso had a strange attitude with people most probably because he had to protect himself against so many courtesans during his lifetime but he was selfish by nature and never really paid much attention to his mistresses, wives, children or grand-children. As an example, Paulo's son called Pablito killed himself at 24 the day after Picasso's burial to which he had been forbidden to attend while his sister Marina eventually managed to eschew the destructive influence of her grand father in committing herself to humanitarian deeds and in adopting Chinese or Vietnamese orphans.

Picasso, who found his existence much boring when staying idle, also had an ackward habit of being a destroyer in normal life as if he could not dissociate his activity as an artist eager to bring about new revolutions in art from the man he should have been outside his studio. He was in fact an artist from head to toes 24 hours a day and being with him was for a woman like sacrificing her life to a vampire.

In 1935, Picasso was living with Marie Thérèse Walter, a blonde girl, who gave birth to a daughter called Maria de la Concepcion, who was nicknamed «Maya» by her father.

SUICIDES AND MADNESS

Marie-Thérèse had a harsh time living with Picasso but remained by his side during his seven-year long tormented love-affair with Dora Maar, a photographer, he had picked up in a café. She was probably the woman he was most fond. While living with Françoise Gilot, he once angrily told her his mistress that she did not love him as much as Marie-Thérèse who in fact never openly complained regarding his attitude. Still, Marie-Thérèse did not get over his many infidelities and lived in misery after their separation until she committed suicide in 1977.

For a woman, living with Picasso was equivalent to being a slave and many of his mistresses, who first accepted their fates, eventually became prone to madness like Dora Maar, who found it so hard to accept a final split in 1944 and went on to live like a nun surrounded by Picasso's works, souvenirs and gifts in her Parisian apartment.

In 1943, Picasso met Françoise Gilot, a 21-year-old woman artist and invited her to visit his studio. While courting her there he said : « You will live here without seeing anybody else than me. We will thus share that secret together ». Françoise later gave birth to Claude in May 1947 and to Paloma in April 1949 but she was so independent-minded and untameable that Picasso became frustrated and did not accept the fact that she could escape from his grips.

Françoise, left him in 1953, before he could take a decision to leave her while her children Claude and Paloma, who herself became a successful designer, had to fight hard twenty years later in order to obtain a share of his heritage.

Picasso met Jacqueline Roque in 1954 and married her in 1961. She was to become his last female companion and enabled him at last to forget about his restlessness and to find peace in his heart. During the 19 years he spent with Jacqueline, he often represented her in many ways in his paintings while they moved together from one place to another in Southern France, notably in Mougins, Cannes or Vauvenargues.

The only woman Picasso really adored was in fact his mother whose maiden name he adopted in preference to that of his father who was a painter and somewhere a rival though he limited himself to painting flowers and pidgeons. Still, his father gave up painting when he discovered that his son was much more gifted than he was.

One of his first known mistresses in Paris was his model Fernande Olivier, a dark-haired woman to whom he was quickly unfaithful, notwithstanding the fact that he found her to be too old though she brought some peace in his life. He then met Eva Gouel in Cadaques with whom he lived in Céret, Sorgues and Paris. In a letter sent in June 1912 to art dealer Daniel Kahnweiler, Picasso stressed he much loved Eva and that he would pay homage to such love in his works. He did not fail to purport his claim in adding the words «I Love Eva» in two of his paintings.

Picasso however never painted Eva in a realistic way and when she fell ill with cancer just after the outbreak of the First World War he rather seemed unmoved as he was having an affair with Gaby Lespinasse and kept working frantically at that time. In fact Picasso was more affected by the death of Don José Ruiz Blasco, his father, which occurred in Barcelona in May 1913. Eva died in December 1915 and Picasso did not mourn her much as he was involved in several love affairs until 1917. After meeting Olga that year he went on to lead a more steady life though not for long.

A WEALTHY MAN WHO HAD A DOUBLE LIFE

He married Olga in the Russian Orthodox church of Paris in July 1918 and had the French writers Cocteau, Apollinaire and Max Jacob as best men. Money was flowing and Picasso and his wife lived a lavish existence after a successful sale of his works at the Hotel Drouot salesrooms in 1921.

Picasso first seemed at ease leading a double existence with Olga and Marie-Thérèse especially as he really did what pleased him. He however was quite infuriated when Fernande Olivier announced that she was about to publish a book titled «Picasso and his friends» and tried, though unsuccessfully to prevent its release. In addition the many rows he had with Olga started to leave their scars at the end of 1934 and the stormy relationship with Olga had some negative effect over his production then.

Picasso left Olga when Marie-Thérèse became pregnant but divorcing his wife was a painful issue for him as he had remained a Spanish citizen. Divorce was not accepted at that time under Spanish laws and Picasso did not feel entirely free as he had wished to marry Marie-Thérèse. All the more his divorce forced him to pay a substantial pension to Olga and his shaky private life prevented him from working the way he wanted. What saved him was the birth of his daughter Maya which was like a miracle and made him resume his fruitful production.

During the occupation of France by German troops, Picasso adopted a strange neutral attitude and worked as if the war had not taken place. Somewhat unconcerned, he even went as far as buying some of his previous works, stolen from Jewish collectors by the Nazis in some Parisian galleries run by French collaborationist dealers. However, when Otto Abetz, Hitler's ambassador to Paris, visited his studio and on seeing a photo of «Guernica» asked Picasso : «Oh, was it you who did that ?», the master answered : «No, you did…». In addition, many collaborationist artists and critics lashed at him during the war years for being responsible for the crisis of modern art at that time. He nevertheless was among the rare friends who attended the burial of Max Jacob who had died in the detention camp of Drancy just before his transfer to Auschwitz with other Jewish inmates. Jacob was a Catholic convert but in Nazi eyes he was still a Jew. Picasso himself had been accused of having some Jewish blood running in his veins and, responding to such collaboriationist accusation, said : «I wish I had». After the war, he decided to join the Communist Party explaining his choice by the fact that his painting had always been revolutionary and thinking that he was finding a new fatherland but in becoming a Communist he had no intention to give up his creative freedom.

LIVING BY HIS SIDE WAS LIKE INFERNO

Olga was becoming mad, Marie-Thérèse was suffering from his infidelities, Dora was getting increasingly jealous while Picasso continued to chase girls. After meeting Françoise Gilot in 1943, he represented her as the flower-woman but at the end of the war he was back with Marie-Thérèse for a brief spell and was about to end his affair with Dora with whom he was cynical and violent.

Living most of the time in Southern France, Picasso started to produce ceramic works in Vallauris but soon behaved strangely with Françoise who, because of her pregnancy, looked no longer attractive. She however provoked his anger when she decided to leave him thus anticipating a split he would have later decided.

Picasso asked Jacqueline to come back and she accepted to see him again in July 1954 but at the same moment he met Jacqueline Roque with whom he fell in love. Françoise then left him for good in September while Picasso and his new mistress settled in Cannes.

Picasso, who was then considered as a living god, bought the Château de Vauvenargues in 1958 and married Jacqueline in Vallauris in 1961, six years after Olga's death and seven years after Françoise had left him.

Jacqueline got on well with Claude and Paloma who had been allowed by special decree to bear the name of their father but their mother waged a war against him which culminated with a book titled «Life with Picasso». As a result he no longer wanted to see Claude and Paloma while Jacqueline jealously barred visitors from entering their new home at Notre-Dame-de-Vie.

Claude and Paloma then sued him in an attempt to be recognised as his children but lost their cases in court before a new law enabled the modification of the law regarding adulterine children.

Jacqueline got in touch with Paulo and both decided that the burial would take place in Vauvenargues while a battle over the sharing of 15 000 paintings, 100,000 prints, 300 sculptures and hundreds of ceramics, book illustrations and moulds was already under way.

The main problem was to avoid a dispersion of the works which would have caused a slump in prices as the market could not swallow them altogether. Another problem was to determine whether Picasso had left a will. Eventually he had not.

Two days after his death Paulo and Jacqueline announced that Picasso had decided to bequeath his entire collection of works of art to the French State excepted his own works.

Jacqueline Roque-Picasso however tried to outstrip other heirs in calling on the French Culture Ministry to her help regarding donations as Picasso's personal collection included some 400 paintings, notably by Corot, le Douanier Rousseau or Van Dongen.

Many members of the Picasso family were prevented by Jacqueline from attending his burial. Claude, who became a photographer in New York, and Paloma waited in vain to be invited to the funeral as well Picasso's grand children and Paulo's children from his first marriage,Pablito, who was working as a postman, and Marina, who was an employee in a home for retired people.

Picasso never cared about his grand children Pablito, Marina, Bernard, Paulo's son from his second marriage, Olivier, Richard, Diana, Maya's children or Jasmia, Claude's daughter.

Picasso was rich but apart treating sometime his close friends in a lavish way he rather remained a miser throughout his life taking the habit of being invited by his dealers or wealthy patrons. When he started to earn money he used to stack banknotes in his wallet which he would take with him wherever he went.
He however always was sad to part with his works as if he was giving away something of himself. When he became rich it was also not uncommon for him to buy back some of his early works.

His heirs spent months sifting through the huge amount of works he had left them choosing what would go to the State or to themselves and drawing lots to avoid disputes.

Paloma and Jacqueline were at odds several times during the sharing out. A few years later, Picasso's daughter married Rafael Lopez, an Argentine businessman, and started to work for Tiffany's in New York. She then became quite successful and remained closely attached to Claude, her brother.

The negotiations over the Picasso succession lasted many years. Out of the 400 works of his collection, 39 paintings and 14 drawings were donated to the Louvre Museum, including two works by the Le Nain brothers, one by Chardin, two by Braque, seven by Matisse, four by Corot and four others by the Douanier Rousseau but the heirs challenged the value (US $ 6,5 million) set by the museum.

The big issue however concerned the donation to the State which made Paris lawyer Roland Dumas, who later became foreign minister under the presidency of François Mitterrand, a rich man.

AN INCREDIBLE FORTUNE

Meanwhile, Claude and Paloma were recognized as Picasso's natural children following a court decision in 1974. Then came Maya's turn while Paris auctioneer Maurice Rheims was endowed with the mission of making an inventory of the works the great master had left after his death. In 1977, these paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics were estimated at over $ 2,09 billion.

Taking advantage of vast copyrights, the Picasso family earned huge amounts of money through the creation of Picasso cafés in the U.S, Argentine or Singapore while the turnover of the Picasso Administration group totalled some $ 2,5 million in 1997 thanks to inheritance rights (3%) allocated in France and in certain countries, but not in the U.S or in England, to all the heirs of those painters for a 70-year period following their deaths.

Claude has tried to obtain the right of authenticating Picasso's works but has met Maya's opposition so far. In 1996, she notably withdrew a drawing from an auction sale in Paris arguing that it was a fake.

Meanwhile, Olivier produces records and T.V broadcasts while his brother Richard runs a gallery in New York. Bernard, Paulo's son, is now working as a publisher and Marina is still involved in humanitarian deeds. Paloma divorced Rafael Lopez, with whom she had a dispute over their business, and is now remarried.

Picasso's heritage has torn his family apart 26 years after his death. Jacqueline, who did not manage to erase the past of the great master, committed suicide, following Marie-Thérèse Walter's example, shooting herself in the bed in which Picasso used to make love to her. Her daughter Catherine managed to pay her death duties thanks to the dispersion of 47 paintings, two sculptures, 19 ceramics and 24 sketchbooks.

His friend Jaime Sabartes once wrote that he was impredictable like a bull, even in a conversation when he would listen to someone and then suddenly let his mind wander. «It was so difficult to draw his attention as if one was trying to catch the eye of a bull. Time and patience would never coincide in his trepidating life... as he would often choose another direction, his mind jumping from one idea to another», he noted. However Picasso used to keep all the things he had amassed in life whatever these were, papers, stones, shells, old ties but he had no such obsession with women whom he would get rid of quite easily or treat like slaves. The problem is that he acted with women in the same manner as when he was producing works. A painting was like an episode. Once finished, he forgot it and was on the move to start another one.

Picasso nurtured a special cult to love- he had his first sexual affair at 13 or so- but in the sense of possession and with an appetite for constant conquest but also finding in the arms of women a way to defend himself against solitude though Max Jacob once said he might have preferred the glory of being a Don Juan rather than becoming a successful painter.

Creation was running in his veins but his indefatigable passion was terribly destructive for those who lived with him though he proved to be a charming companion with his friends, Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein or Apollinaire and notably some painters from Barcelona such as Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusinol, Canals, Miguel Utrillo, Romeu or Nonell who considered him as a legendary figure. In fact, he had a rare inclination for using people taking from them what he needed and was only haunted by the memories of his dead friends. Around 1908 he became more obsessed with his work and cut down reunions with friends. He even wished to live in seclusion and was carrying a gun to scare those who would dare to be buoyant in his company. One of his main concerns was also not to fall ill for fear of losing his creative powers.

He never copied great masters but studied and dissected their works to determine new concepts and only picked their themes knowing that going his own way, changing his vision at will, he would soon be in conflict with those who wanted to defend strict artistic traditions. Picasso once stressed that it was necessary to copy old masters but copying one's own works was a real bore. He picked what pleased him in the works of great masters but if he invented Cubism it was above all through his collaboration and rivalry with Braque who proved somewhat to be slightly more an innovator than he was in this instance.

Picasso loved bullfights as early as during his childhood and felt much attracted to the minotaur, that mythic bull. That is probably why he often was a bully and liked to behave like a matador with people, his wives, mistresses and members of his family as well throwing them into a kind of arena where they engaged in fierce fightings before and after his death.