Art-o-Gram: Picasso – The Artist, Life and Love – Scene 3

Picasso's life and his loves – especially regarding Picasso's relationship with women – is an endless topic on which serious art historians and agitated feminists, outraged petit bourgeois and imaginative cookbook authors, confused social scientists and envious tabloid journalists have expressed themselves exhaustively from virtually every conceivable point of view.

The artist's lifestyle and relationships with women have already been thoroughly dissected, and it's probably not that important who shared which bed with whom, why, and when. Nevertheless, a comprehensive view of Picasso cannot entirely avoid taking a look at his lifestyle and his love life—both are pieces of the puzzle of "Picasso the person," and both influenced his art.

Therefore, what follows is a sketch in 7 scenes about the private side of the artist – an intensely lived life.

Scene 3: The search for a companion leaves its mark on many of Picasso's paintings

1905 – 1912/13: Fernande Olivier and the “Head of a Woman”

According to most accounts, Fernande Olivier

In any case, Picasso produced over 60 portraits of Fernande Olivier during these eight to nine years. Picasso is said to have based one of the fundamentally important women in his famous 1907 "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Pablo Picasso unveiled his work “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” in 1907, whose theme, inspired by a brothel, was as unconventional as his style, which had seemed strange to his time, revolutionized art history and represents an important milestone in the history of modern art .

His study “Female Head,” that same year for this epochal masterpiece, already testified to the mask-like portraiture that Picasso was reinventing. With bold strokes and strong color accents, he modeled the female face in this direct preliminary study for the crouching figure in the painting “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon .” Inspired by African sculptures, Picasso here breaks with all previous conventions of art and, in a single, monumental leap, sketches the first manifestation of a new visual language.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is an explicit brothel scene five prostitutes in a confined space. The work originally included two male figures among the prostitutes, but these were ultimately omitted. As a result, the viewer is confronted with sexually charged acts surrounding the phallic still life of the foreground.

Picasso worked on the painting in two phases, and the resulting stylistic contrasts contribute to the work's power. Picasso was the only Western artist of his time to Iberian art styles into his work. This influence is evident in the painting's two central figures, whose simplified features, large eyes, and large ears bear a direct resemblance to Iberian heads.

African art styles influenced the creation of the two figures on the right; these nudes are absolutely unprecedented in Western art. The inconsistent viewpoints and broken geometric forms used in these figures herald the arrival of Cubism .

Picasso's controversial and powerful painting broke with all traditional 19th-century notions of ideal beauty and ushered in the new artistic movement of Cubism. The destruction of the European ideal of beauty through unsettling distortions coincided with a period of personal tension with his partner Fernande Olivier, which led to a temporary separation in mid-September 1907.

Incidentally, during the period in which Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was painted, Picasso was intensively engaged with nudes. Prostitutes played a significant role in 19th-century art, as they were considered subversive and disruptive to the social and sexual status quo.

Picasso's awareness of this theme must be kept in mind when examining this work. His turbulent relationship with Fernande Olivier, and the aforementioned tensions within it, certainly influenced the piece as well.

Furthermore, among the portraits by Fernande Olivier are the cubist “Portrait of Fernande” from 1909 and the famous sculpture “Head of a Woman (Fernande)” from 1909/10.

The conflicting accounts of the relationship already hint at the tragic end of this love story. Fernande Olivier was born Amélie Lang, the product of an illegitimate relationship between her mother and a married man; she was raised by an aunt instead of her mother, who tried to arrange a marriage for her.

Fernande/Amélie preferred to run away and subsequently had little luck with men; she had a child at 17, probably conceived through rape; her aunt's family allegedly forced her to marry the rapist instead of supporting her.

The text also mentions a relationship with a sculptor, through whom she escaped her familiar, lower-middle-class circumstances and entered the heart of the Parisian artistic scene. Amélie Lang began working as a model for the artists and adopted the stage name "Fernande Olivier" around 1900.

Fernande met Picasso in 1904 at his studio, the Bateau-Lavoir. She is said to have fallen in love with him while they were smoking opium together; he spoke of being captivated by her beauty. While Picasso's paintings from the early days of their relationship still appear as if he had consumed relatively little opium, Fernande becomes increasingly ethereal in his depictions up to 1909.

This was of course Picasso's turn to cubist representation "Head of a Woman" towards the end of 1909 .

In the autumn of 1909, they had just moved into a new apartment, and Fernande's yearning for respectability (i.e., marriage) was said to have clearly gotten on Picasso's nerves. Picasso reportedly continued to treat Fernande kindly, but with a certain distance – until she felt too neglected and began an affair with a (usually described as insignificant) Montmartre painter in order to make Picasso jealous.

When one partner in a relationship already feels too restricted by the other, turning to a third party often seems like a logical solution to the restrictive partner. In reality, however, this partner frequently signals the end of the relationship

If the other person still has feelings, they will be deeply and hurtfully affected by this behavior, and the relationship is threatened with a "horrific end" in the near future; if not, they will be relieved to let their former love move on to a new life…

In Picasso's case, it was probably the latter; he is said to have written to Georges Braque: “Fernande left me yesterday. What am I going to do with the dog?”

However, he certainly did not bring this relationship to such a swift and brutal end as is often claimed. This is evident from the dates alone: ​​a full two years passed between the first reports of tension between him and Fernande and his first meetings with Eva Gouel .

1911/12 – 1915: Eva Gouel and the “Woman in a Shirt in an Armchair”

In the winter of 1911, Picasso began Eva Gouel ; from 1912 to 1915, Eva Gouel was his partner. She appears several times in hints in Picasso's paintings ; this is certain, for example, in the paintings "Ma Jolie" from the winter of 1911/12 (Eva was called "Ma Jolie" by Picasso), in "Guitare 'J'aime Eva'" and "Violon 'Jolie Eva'" , both from 1912, and in the painting "Femme en chemise assise dans un fauteuil" from 1913.

This “Woman in Shirt in Armchair” is one of the numerous paintings by Picasso that can be seen the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York “Le Rêve” , which you can read in Art-o-Gramm: Picasso’s “Dream” or the incredible story of “Le Rêve”.

Eva Gouel contracted tuberculosis in early 1915. In the midst of the war, Picasso moved heaven and earth to arrange treatment for her. Although she was able to undergo surgery in mid-February 1915, the frail woman could not overcome the disease and died in December 1915.

Picasso is said to have loved Eva Gouel very much; he was reportedly devastated by her death, and friends described him as depressed.

1915 – 1916: Gabrielle Depeyre – Secret Interlude, Secret Dedications

After Eva Gouel, Picasso sought solace in a woman: Gabrielle (Gaby) Depeyre , an affair so well kept secret by both sides that it was only revealed in 1987 through a biography.

Therefore, there are no portraits of Gaby Depeyre, at least no "proper" oil paintings, but only drawings, watercolors, and studies. On these, either within the image itself or hidden as text on the passe-partout, Picasso had left compromising love messages.

The artist, who was emotionally devastated at the time, is said to have fallen seriously in love with Gaby Depeyre; a note was even found on the passe-partout of a collage on which Picasso wrote: “J'ai demandé ta main au Bon Dieu. Paris 22 Fevrier 1916” (“I asked God for your hand. Paris, February 22, 1916”).

In vain; in the midst of her affair with Picasso, she adopted the surname of her longtime friend Herbert Lepinasse (as a sign for Picasso?) and married him in early 1917, just as planned. The secret messages on Picasso's artistic gifts to his Gaby were largely obscured by her when she offered some of her portraits on the art market in the 1950s.

John Richardson already on the right track Christie's US branch

He wanted to contact her personally but failed, and spoke to Picasso about the portraits, "who was pleased to see them but showed annoyance at being reminded of the episode he had decided to forget." (as paraphrased by John Richardson in: Picasso's Secret Love, in: Douglas Cooper and the Masters of Cubism, Basel, 1987, pp. 183-196).

Only after the Lespinasse couple died in the early 1970s did Gabrielle Lespinasse's niece sell some items, including artworks (with secret dedications) and love letters from Picasso. These came into the possession of Douglas Cooper, an art collector and Picasso expert , who kept the only evidence of the affair strictly secret.

presented it to the "discerning public" "House & Garden" in September 1987

1916 – 1917: Irène Lagut – Nothing remains but a letter

Picasso's marriage proposal to Gabrielle Depeyre/Lespinasse in February 1916 had failed, whereupon he turned to the artist Irène Lagut and began an affair with her. Irène Lagut, whose real name was Marie-Reine Onésime Lagut, is said to have even moved into Picasso's villa in Montrouge in August 1916, and the affair is believed to have lasted until the beginning of 1917. Picasso is also said to have proposed to Lagut, which she also rejected.

This affair was probably not entirely uncomplicated; Lagut was actually involved with the Russian Serge Ferat (pseudonym of Count Sergueï Nikolaïevitch Yastrebzov), who in turn was heavily involved with Hélène d'Oettingen, who was actually his father's mistress… Irène is said to have briefly returned to Serge at the beginning of 1917 and was then involved with the womanizer and writer Raymond Radiguet, who presented the scandalous novel “Le Diable Au Corps” (“The Devil in the Flesh”) in 1923 and died in an incredibly macabre way in the same year from typhus, the devil in his own body.

By then, Irène was already in a relationship with the composer Georges Auric, and in 1922 or 1923 she was reportedly seen with Picasso again. Even then, this “series of encounters” was a welcome topic for gossip; the famous French writer Guillaume Apollinaire even made an entire roman à clef out of it, in which Irène, Serge Ferat, Hélène d'Oettingen, Apollinaire, and Picasso appear under different names.

Alexandre and Odile Loewy's modern art collection Sotheby's in Paris on March 24, 2010 , the only remaining trace of Picasso's affair with Irène was included: a letter dated November 30, 1916, which Picasso had written to Irène in Montrouge, containing the following:

“I don’t think you know this, my dear Irène, but you caused me pain recently, a great deal of pain. I don’t know how I can fulfill my duties when I constantly think of you. I am happy about your letter and look forward to seeing you tomorrow. I love you and I embrace you, Picasso.”.

For Loewy, who is said to have bought the letter from Irène Lagut in the 1940s, it was probably a good deal: the letter brought in almost €385,000.

Either way, the interpretation is…

Anyone who develops the ambition to measure the quality of Picasso's relationships by the traces these relationships left in his art will find plenty of material for speculation in the period of Picasso's life just described. The more paintings were named after a woman, the more that woman succeeded in captivating Picasso, who was usually more preoccupied with his art, is a frequent conclusion.

Anyone who soberly adheres to the reliably transmitted facts might come to the conclusion that Picasso first had a long relationship with a woman who had been badly treated in her childhood and youth, and who confronted this fate with extraordinary strength, developing a good sense of self-confidence and a willfulness that eventually became too strenuous for an artist who was, so to speak, naturally self-absorbed.

Therefore, a gentle blonde became his successor, so gentle that she died in Picasso's arms… And the beautiful and self-assured Gabrielle Depeyre only appears in secret messages in his paintings because she had long since decided to marry Herbert Lespinasse and was merely toying with Picasso, and Irène Lagut was doing the same even more so…

However, the first relationship could just as easily have begun in a truly wonderful way, with Fernande, aware of herself and her abilities, as an ideal partner for conversations about life and art.

Perhaps Fernande, who was the same age and whose early life was far less sheltered than Picasso's, simply had too many experiences ahead of him; perhaps Picasso, in the best years of their relationship in the middle of his thirties, was not yet ready for a "relationship for eternity"; perhaps Fernande, traumatized by her past and understandably yearning for security, had been too much of a burden on him, perhaps he had even overestimated the artist's capacity for empathy in general…

Much has been written about Marcelle Humbert, à la Eva Gouel, and her delicate and gentle nature, but the readily available accounts never mention any formal training or profession. However, a Spiegel article (from 1956) does reveal that Marcelle Humbert did not live on love , but worked as a model.

Which isn't to say that she didn't do this alongside a very demanding education or studies; after all, before Picasso she was involved with the highly educated painter Louis Marcoussis. Perhaps Marcelle/Eva was a very intelligent woman, which is precisely why Picasso loved her… Perhaps Picasso's Parisian environment was so xenophobic that he was thoroughly unsettled and sought both support and legitimacy in his relationships with Gabrielle Depeyre and Irène Lagut…

Perhaps elements from both of the variants just outlined were at play, or perhaps at the crucial core of these relationships everything was actually quite different…

Fittingly, Picasso “great guessing game of the sexes” : “If men knew what women were thinking, they would be a thousand times bolder.” (found on natune.net/zitate/autor/Pablo%20Picasso ).

This sentence is often interpreted, not infrequently by male authors with a distorted self-image, to mean that men would be far more likely to make inelegant advances toward women if they only knew what women were thinking. However, it can also be seen differently, suggesting that Picasso wanted to express his insecurity around women and his insight into the fact that women generally display a great deal of mental composure when dealing with men.

Any woman who not only loves but also appreciates her husband will add that the genders in this sentence could just as easily be reversed – which is fitting, given that this quote is partly attributed , Paloma Picasso

You can read more about Picasso's other women in the following sections of this article; you can learn more about Picasso's life, which wasn't solely focused on women, in the articles "Art-o-Gram: Picasso – A Long Life for Art", "Art-o-Gram: Picasso – Born an Artist" , "Art-o-Gram: Picasso – An Artist and Three Wars" , "Art-o-Gram: Picasso – Famous Art and Its Secret" , "Art-o-Gram: Picasso – A Guarantee for Top Rankings", and "Art-o-Gram: Picasso Today".