How Picasso obsessively portrayed the people he loved
Heike Mund ad
October 11, 2016
The exhibition "Picasso Portraits" at London's National Portrait Gallery shows how much Pablo Picasso enjoyed portraying his friends and family members - but even more so his numerous lovers.
Image: AP
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Picasso, the painter who obsessively portrayed the people he loved
The exhibition "Picasso Portraits" at London's National Portrait Gallery shows how much Pablo Picasso enjoyed portraying his friends and family members - but even more so his numerous lovers.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS London 2016/ RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Picasso de Paris) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
A world filled with models
His studios were crammed with sketches and outlines of countless portraits. The famous painter preferred to work with models who would be around for the entire day, like family members, wives and children. Sitting still for Picasso was part of the normal daily routine.
Image: AP
'Jacqueline in a Black Scarf'
Picasso met Jacqueline Roque in 1952 at the Madoura pottery workshop where his ceramics were baked. When Picasso married her in 1961, he was already 80 years old, and she was 34. She helped him in his work while protecting him against the outside world, remaining his companion, muse and model until his death in 1973. He created over 400 portraits of her.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS London 2016/C. Germain
All sides of Sylvette
One of his muses was 19-year-old Sylvette David from England, whom Picasso had met in 1954. Totally enraptured by the young blonde woman, he produced 50 drawings, paintings and sculptures of her within one month only. Her trademark ponytail became trendy in the 1950s.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2016
Artist friends
Picasso's friends also appear in his oeuvre, including painter Amadeo Modigliani (left, with Picasso, center, and art critic André Salmon, right). This picture was taken by Jean Cocteau in 1916 in front of their favorite coffee shop in Paris, Café de la Rotonde. Cocteau was also portrayed several times by Picasso.
Image: Ullstein/Roger-Viollet
Art dealer, abstract
Throughout his life, Pablo Picasso developed close friendships with his art dealers, especially Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. In 1907, the German-French art historian opened a small Gallery in Paris, signing exclusive contracts with artists who were to become famous later on - among them Picasso. In 1910, he painted this Cubist portrait of Kahnweiler.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS London 2016/2015 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York
Interior views
The interior world of his studio fully sufficed for an obsessed artist like Picasso. Simple vases, bowls or the bust of a woman served as models for sketches or a huge oil painting. As a painter and drawer, he remained faithful to his themes for a long time as they repeatedly popped up in different versions in his works.
Image: Robert Doisneau/Rapho
Hollywood icon
In spite of all his hard work, Picasso did find time for humor, producing cartoons just for fun. In this case, he embellished a pin-up picture out of a film magazine of Esther Williams with a portrait sketch of his artist friend Juame Sabartés. The Hollywood actress became famous for swimming scenes in her films. Among her admirers was also Picasso.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2016
'Woman in a hat'
Following numerous love affairs, the young painter met Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova in 1917, and married her. She voluntarily gave up her career at the world famous "Ballets Russes" - and facilitated his access to exclusive Paris circles. The Picasso exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery, held until February 5, 2017, devotes an entire room to portraits of her.
Image: Succession Picasso/DACS London 2016/ RMN-Grand Palais (Musée Picasso de Paris) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
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During his early years as an artist, Pablo Picasso (1881 -1973) frequently painted self-portraits. A look into the mirror sufficed. Obviously, the young Spanish painter didn't precisely suffer from a lack of self-confidence, even though he didn't receive much acclaim from the established art world at the time. But that changed quickly as he emerged as the most widely recognized artist of the 20th century - a genius of a particular kind.
He was a wonder child who learned a lot from his father who taught painting at an art school and who was familiar with all kinds of artistic techniques.
In 1889, Picasso created his first painting when he was only eight years old. He skipped a grade and started extra art studies while in school, to then study at the famous Art Academy of Barcelona. By then, he had already received awards for his art.
Life as an artist at Montmartre in Paris
But the young painter didn't stay there for long. He moved on to Paris, back then the center of the art world. He rented a studio in the Paris artists' district of Montmartre, where he met numerous painters, authors, actors, and quite soon his first and longtime gallerist, the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who was to promote and sell his artworks throughout his life.
Kahnweiler also served Picasso as a model for numerous portraits through all of his artistic periods marked by permanently changing styles. One of these portraits can be seen at the current exhibition in London's National Portrait Gallery, accompanied by 130 other works of the Spanish artist who obsessively turned all his family members and friends into models - including his children and his numerous wives and lovers.
Picasso, a macho and artistic tyrant
Picasso was renowned as a dominant macho and artistic tyrant. He took possession of everything that surrounded him, including humans, animals, servants, material, items of daily life, turning just about anything into art.
Picasso's granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, poses next to a painting of her grandmother, Marie-Therese Walter, entitled "Woman in the Yellow Armchair" at the National Portrait Gallery in LondonImage: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Oliver
This wasn't easy for everyone. Many women ended up with broken hearts. It is said that his first wife, dancer Olga Khokhlova went crazy because of him. His muse Dora Maar suffered greatly from depressions. The previous mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, had committed suicide in the garage of her villa in Antibes. And his second wife, Jaqueline Rocque, killed herself by gunshot in October 1986.
Strong counterpart: Françoise Gilot
Painter Françoise Gilot, who was 40 years younger than Picasso, was the only woman who managed to counter his genius with her own artistic talent. She was his lover and muse from 1943 to 1953 and was the mother of his children, Claude and Paloma.
She was the first woman to leave him. After a relationship of 10 years, she moved to Paris with their two children, where she emerged as a successful painter.
She stirred a sensation a few years ago by publishing a biography about her life with Picasso, describing it as: "A disaster, but a very beautiful one."
Some of the portraits Picasso painted of her are also shown in the exhibition.
The National Portrait Gallery exhibition, "Picasso Portraits," runs in London through February 5, 2017, before moving on to Barcelona's Museo Picasso.
