Table of contents:
- First muse
- Powerful Friend - Gertrude Stein
- Ma Jolie (My beauty)
- Become and Slavic charm
- She's been waiting for him all her life
- Unsubmissive to love
- The last muse
Video: 7 beloved women of Pablo Picasso: How the great artist-womanizer portrayed his muses
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
"If he had not become an artist, he would have become Don Juan" - once said a friend of Pablo Picasso, the French playwright Jacques Cocteau. And it's hard to disagree with him. You can write a lot about the views of the artist (creative, smoothly flowing into sharply political), family and friends (which had a significant impact on his success), but this review will focus on the role of women in the work of Pablo Picasso.
In many ways, the stages of the artist's work (blue, pink, cubic, etc.) were accompanied by the woman who during his life was next to him. To be more precise, it was the woman who led him to this or that stage of the creative path with the entire set of her styles and directions. As Picasso himself admitted: "Life is prolonged by work and women."
First muse
The first companion of his work was Fernanda Olivier (he was 23 years old, she was 18), a long-term friend and ancestor of the "pink" period. It was with this woman that the artist painted pictures, which soon began to be bought. She was also a model for one of the most significant works of Picasso - "The Maidens of Avignon", 1907, which is recognized as the starting point of contemporary art. The artist characterized Fernanda as a self-confident and self-sufficient woman. Picasso realized a whole series of paintings and sculptural works called "Fernanda's Head", some of which are now in dozens of world museums.
Powerful Friend - Gertrude Stein
Once the writer Gertrude Stein visited Picasso when he was finishing work on the painting "My Beauty" (1911) and declared with all certainty: "It cannot be Fernande Olivier." Indeed, the canvas depicted a woman who took a new place in the artist's heart - Marcel Humbert. Gertrude, of course, is not one of the beloved of our painter. However, her influence on the creative flowering of Picasso cannot be ignored. By the way, depicting the famous portrait of the same name by G. Stein, Pablo Picasso rewrote the picture countless times. In the summer of 1906 he traveled to Andorra and Gosol. After that, returning to Paris, he completed the portrait already under the influence of African culture. As a result, Picasso created a three-dimensional composition, consisting of many parts, which foreshadowed a new direction in the artist's work - cubism.
Ma Jolie (My beauty)
The above-mentioned painting "My Beauty" became a kind of declaration of love for Marcel Humbert. The model, who bore the name Eva Guell in the bohemian Parisian environment, was Pablo Picasso's beloved during the period of synthetic cubism, from 1912 to 1915. As he wrote to his art dealer Kahnweiler: "I love her very much and will write her name on my paintings." Indeed, depicting Cubist still lifes, Picasso inserted words - dedication to his beloved. This time was too full of happiness: in 1915, Marseille died of tuberculosis.
Become and Slavic charm
Jean Cocteau once invited Picasso to take part in the design of the ballet Parade. There he also met a Russian ballerina from the corps de ballet - Olga Khokhlova, a diligent and hardworking dancer. She was distinguished by Slavic charm, grace and grace. Olga Khokhlova brought revolutionary ideas into the artist's life, he studied the February Revolution with interest and even wanted to learn Russian. Acquaintance with O. Khokhlova marked the artist's return to the classical genre. In total, the painter took part in the design of 6 ballet installations. Subsequently, Olga Khokhlova became Picasso's first wife, and in 1921 their son Paul was born. However, Olga's desire to remake her husband in accordance with her bourgeois tastes was a fatal mistake. At the age of 46, the artist fled from Olga to 17-year-old Maria-Teresa Walter.
READ ALSO: Life after Picasso: Why the Russian wife of a famous artist spent the last 20 years alone and oblivious
She's been waiting for him all her life
Love for Maria-Teresa Walter left a noticeable imprint on the work of Pablo. This period can be described as the pinnacle of his work. Having fallen in love with Picasso, this girl forgave him for his freedom-loving and complex character. Her interests were completely different from art - swimming, gymnastics, cycling, mountaineering. Their relationship was based on her complaisant, lively and cheerful character. In 1935, Maria Teresa and Pablo had a daughter, Maya, whom Picasso later drew with pleasure. The girl hoped that Picasso would marry her, but her hopes were not justified. Despite the termination of relations with this muse, Picasso provided her financially and even bought her a house.
The Model Who Never Smiled
Dora Maar is a 29-year-old artist and photographer, thanks to whose influence the artist began to use a new style - combining photography and painting. This was a completely different type of woman: smart, thin, nervous and a little unbalanced. Douro Maar Picasso painted for 9 years (1935-1945). And it was with Dora that the artist created a unique masterpiece - a painting by Guernik. Her merit was that she, as a photographer, captured all the stages of work on "Guernica", leaving the chronology of the creation of the masterpiece. Picasso often created images of the sad Maar, in his work she will forever remain a "crying woman".
READ ALSO: 5 great erotomaniac artists and their beloved women they killed
Unsubmissive to love
In 1943, Pablo meets a woman who changed his fate. Her name was Françoise Gilot. She lived with Picasso for a decade, giving birth to two children. With Françoise, family life was happy and joyful. Françoise Gilot's story is unique: after 10 years with Picasso, she left him and lived a long and interesting life. After parting with Pablo, Françoise published the book "My life with Picasso", released a new facsimile edition of three albums "Three albums from travels: Venice, India and Senegal." Over time, she developed her own style and became famous.
The last muse
The last lady of the heart of the great artist is Jacqueline Roque, whom P. Picasso met at the age of 79 (she was 34 at that time). His young wife became a source of inexhaustible energy for creating masterpieces during this period. The master embodied this muse in his paintings the maximum number of times, more than 400 portraits. By the way, there is still controversy regarding the total number of paintings written by Picasso (they call the numbers 20 thousand, 50 thousand, and even hundreds of thousands). Jacqueline Roque idolized Picasso more than all the past admirers, was distinguished by special devotion and sincerity, referring to him as "my lord". This woman created for Picasso the most favorable and fruitful conditions for the implementation of creative ideas. Jacqueline, a woman with an Egyptian profile, according to the artist himself, reminded him of an Algerian woman (she also became the prototype of a series of paintings "Algerian women").
7 women's destinies - 7 periods of creativity of the great abstractionist … Fernanda Olivier - with this woman, the artist began to sell his paintings, with her he also created a series of works "Avignon Maidens". WITH Marcel Humbert (Eve) the artist began a happy and creative period of synthetic cubism. Olga Khokhlova gave Picasso revolutionary ideas in creativity, an acquaintance with Russia and a return to the classical genre. WITH Françoise Gilot Picasso is learning to enjoy life in a new way, she brought colors and new motives to the work of the master. Maria Theresa-Walter marked the pinnacle of the artist's work. He makes the sculpture "Head of a Woman", which became a symbol of this period, and one of its versions was later installed on the artist's grave. Dora Maar foreshadowed the pre-war growth in creativity, a series of paintings "weeping women." Portraits of Dora Maar are among the most expensive works of Picasso. And with Jacqueline Rock most of the paintings were painted, as well as a series of paintings "Algerian women".
And in continuation of the story about the great abstractionist curious facts about Pablo Picasso - the artist whose paintings are most often stolen.
Recommended:
How many beloved women Stalin had, and who mourned him after his death as a wife
Joseph Stalin, like no one else, made sure that his biography was canonical. Most of the facts were hidden from outside encroachments. Otherwise, Soviet citizens would have understood that their leader is not just an ordinary, addicted man, but also an unbearable husband, and not a very pedagogical father. Revealing the personality of Stalin through the prism of personal relations, one can give an explanation for some events in the country. After all, a lot happened this way, and not otherwise, at the personal direction of Comrade Stalin
Why the artist Nesterov changed the face of his beloved model on his frescoes and other interesting facts
Revival through personal tragedy, favorite muse Lela Prakhova, criticism of the best masters of Russia and the best religious works of the artist - all this is about him, about Mikhail Nesterov. He was a painter whose works overcame both great transformations in Russian society of the 20th century and personal tragedies. And only by overcoming all these obstacles, Nesterov became a famous artist, one of the best in his era
Voltaire and his "divine" Emilia: 15 years of "earthly paradise" with his beloved and muse
Contemporaries considered the French writer and philosopher Voltaire a genius. Aristocrats and kings listened to his thoughts, and his literary works were a great success. Intelligence and talent are certainly important, but Voltaire would not have made a brilliant career if the Marquis du Châtelet had not appeared in his path. This woman became a muse, a lover, a lightning rod for the writer. It was she who held back the impulses of an excessively ardent Voltaire, directing his energy in the right direction
Why Repin's son took his own life, and his grandson was shot for his dream of becoming an artist
There is such a concept: “in children is our continuation” and, of course, every parent wants it, this continuation, to be worthy and far-reaching. About how the fate of the heirs of the master of Russian painting Ilya Repin developed, namely the only son of Yuri, who became an artist, and one of the grandchildren, who had only dreamed of becoming one all his short life, further in the review
5 great erotomaniac artists and their beloved women they killed
They were no less scandalous than talented, and in the life of each of them there were two great passions - for painting and for women. True, if these artists remained faithful to their paintings throughout their lives, then they changed women like gloves, not really caring about their own moral character and moral principles. And this way of life made their chosen ones unhappy