Juan Gris, Portrait of Pablo Picasso, 1912.
“Calling himself Juan Gris (pronounced Whahn greece), José Victoriano González moved from Madrid to Paris in 1906 and took up residence in the same building as fellow Spaniard Pablo Picasso. The painting is characteristic of Gris’s unique variant of Cubism, with a palette of cool blues, browns and grays and carefully delineated planes whose edges seem almost luminous.” AIC
Picasso and Jean Marais posing as painter and model, 1944. Photo by George Brassai
Pablo Picasso, son Claude and Jean Cocteau at a bullfight, Vallauris, France, 1955. Photo by Brian Brake
Picasso and Dora Maar
Poet Paul Eluard introduced Picasso to Dora Maar in the winter of 1935-36. Maar, though only 29, was a successful professional photographer. Picasso, aged 54, was still entangled with his first wife Olga and his mistress of seven years Marie-Therese Walter. With Maar Picasso “had found a union that transcended the physical and emotional, engaging him intellectually. Here was an opinionated, passionate and cerebral woman who moved comfortably within the same literary and artistic cliques as Picasso.”
Around March Maar brought her camera to Picasso’s country house near Gisors where she took photographs of Picasso and the artist “shot his own portraits of the woman who had begun to captivate him. These intimate portraits inspired numerous drawings and paintings that pay homage to Maar.”
After ten years Picasso’s eye began to wander. Dora’s health suffered, leading to a breakdown in the spring of 1945; the couple separated in the summer. Picasso gave Dora a house in Menerbes as a parting gift. via
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), recommendations for Walt Kuhn for the Armory Show, 1912.
“Kuhn asked Picasso to recommend European artists for the 1913 Armory Show, the first international exhibition of Modern art in the United States. This list is Picasso’s recommendations, including Marcel Duchamp whose Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) caused an uproar at the exhibition, Fernand Léger, Robert Dulaunay, and Juan Gris.” via
Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter met by chance on the street while she was shopping at Galeries Lafayette in Paris in 1927. Walter was 17 and he was 45 when they began their eight year secret relationship. From 1930, Walter lived in a house across the street from Picasso. Marie was the unseen shadow of the family and became his model and muse for both paintings and sculptures.
“Marie-Thérèse was totally unlike the other women in that she was happy to remain hidden in the background, she remained unknown to all but a few of Picasso’s closest friends. She had no social aspirations.” via
In 1935 when Marie became pregnant, Picasso’s wife found out that her husband had a longtime mistress who was expecting a child and she immediately left him. Shortly after their daughter, Maya, was born Picasso met his next muse, Dora Maar. Marie-Thérèse hanged herself four years after Picasso’s death.
Pablo Picasso - The sculptor and his model, 1933, Fogg Art Museum
