Picasso's women (and his influence on the artist)

on the job Women in their toilet, dated 1937, Picasso Using the collage technique, he portrays three women who are dedicated to his personal toilet.

On the surface, it might seem like a quiet domestic scene, but the reality is much more disturbing. Because Picasso represented the three women who, in those years, revolved around his life: his still wife Olga Khokhlova (they were separated, but never processed the divorce), his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, with whom he had had a daughter, and the photographer Dora Maar, whom he had met two years earlier and with whom he had an intense relationship.

What did Picasso intend with that painting? Dora appears in the center, with her legs crossed in the shape of an X, in a tense and tense attitude; on the left side, Olga is combing his hair, while on the right side of the painting, Marie-Thérèse holds a mirror in which Picasso's face is reflected.

The stormy relationship that Picasso had with women is well known. The issue has made rivers of ink flow, and those who blame it for a toxic and narcissistic use of their relationships are not without reason. The reality is, however, more complex, since each and every one of them inspired him in one way or another and were the pillars on which Picasso's work was based.

Picasso's women: a complex history

In the book she wrote about his relationship with the painter, Françoise Gilot claimed that she was the only one who had left him voluntarily and that she had not lost her mind after their separation. Reason is not lacking, although there are nuances. But it is true that Olga and Marie-Thérèse suffered a lot with his “replacement”, and that Marie-Thérèse committed suicide a few years after the painter's death. On the other hand, Dora Maar, who, again according to Gilot, was his most intelligent lover, lost her mind and ended up admitted to a sanatorium. Almost nothing.

Why did Picasso act like this with his women? What magnetism did he exert on them? To understand the complex relationship that the artist had with them, we must go back to his childhood in Malaga. Picasso grew up surrounded by female figures: his mother, his two maiden aunts, and his two sisters. We can draw a psychological picture from this: Picasso was used to being "served" by women and to being the center of attention for him.

Obviously, we can't get completely inside a person's mind. Only Picasso knew why he behaved like this. However, we can pick up clues in his biography that can help us reconstruct his psychological picture. It must also be taken into account that these relationships have also generated a good dose of rumors and legend, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish reality from fantasy.

The women who inspired him

Below, you will find a brief sketch of 7 of the women who were part of Picasso's life. Some of his relationships were extremely fleeting, like Odette, the girl who was his first Parisian lover, and Germaine, sister of the former, with whom it seems that Picasso also had relations. There are many more, but in this article we will only focus on Picasso's 7 most important women; which powerfully influenced his life and his work.

1. Fernande Olivier (1881-1966), the first great companion

Fernande was his first official companion and one of the people who helped him the most during his early days in Paris. In 1904, Picasso shared a studio in Montmartre with other artists, dubbed the Bateau Lavoir due to its appearance similar to one of the Seine washing boats. They say that it was an August afternoon, under torrential rain, that Fernande and Picasso met their eyes for the first time. She was about to enter the Bateau, drenched to the skin. From then on, she would become his muse. The two would share 8 years of life, until their final break in 1912.

However, this does not mean that Picasso did not mix Fernande with other women. The Picassian habit of “combining” relationships is well known., as if he didn't dare end a sentimental relationship until he found a replacement. When he began his love affair with Fernande, he was still seeing Madeleine, the mysterious model he posed for some of his early paintings.

In 1910, Fernande underwent surgery. That same summer they had spent a season in Horta de San Juan, where the artist studied the landscape for his paintings and, according to some biographers, he fell in love with the daughter of the owners of the inn. Years later, Fernande published a book in which she recounted her life with Picasso, and where the painter was badly hurt. She died poor and abandoned in 1966.

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2. Eve Gouel (1885-1915), a tragic end

Picasso met what would be his second official companion in 1911, the same year that he and his friend Apollinaire were accused of having participated in the robbery of the Monna Lisa and of being involved in the disappearance of some Iberian statuettes from the Louvre. He still hadn't separated from Fernande, but their relationship, submerged in an acute crisis, was already practically insurmountable.

It seems that with Eve Picasso he found a certain stability, both sentimental and emotional. An indicative fact is that, in 1913, he introduced the young woman to her family. He probably would have married her if the terrible disease had not appeared that, two years later, would kill Eve at age 30.

The decline and death of her companion plunged the painter into a state of deep despair, which, however, did not deprive him of throwing himself into the arms of other women, like Gabrielle Despinasse, a young woman from Montparnasse, with whom he even spent a secret vacation in Saint-Tropez, while Eve she was dying It is clear that Picasso always needed a woman by his side, and when one "left" (with death, in this case), he quickly replaced her with another.. The great genius felt incapable of living alone.

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3. Olga Khokhlova (1891-1955), the first wife

Picasso had met Jean Cocteau in Paris and they had become friends. It was Cocteau who, in 1917, asked the artist to design the sets for the ballet. For the. Enthusiastic about the project, which takes him out of the gloomy existence into which he has plunged after Eve's death, Picasso travels to Rome to meet the company that will represent the show. Among the dancers is Olga Khokhlova, a twenty-six-year-old girl who dazzles the painter.

Much has been said about what the passionate and often eccentric Picasso saw in this bourgeois lady who was by no means the most intelligent or the most cultured of her conquests. To tell the truth, and as stated by Olivier Widmaier Picasso, the artist's grandson, in his book Picasso, family portraitsOlga was a conventional woman, who aspired to a quiet life as a wife and mother surrounded by comforts. Be that as it may, Picasso falls in love with the Russian ballerina and follows the company throughout Europe. In July 1918, both finally get married.

Paulo was born in February 1921, the couple's first and only child. Picasso leads a peaceful and quiet life with his wife and son, and seems to have rediscovered that peace that Eve's death had cut short. But will it be forever?

4. Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909-1977), the very young mistress

In 1927, Picasso meets a 17-year-old blonde girl with limpid blue eyes and a voluptuous body that makes her seem older than she is. Her name is Marie-Thérèse Walter. In a statement that she gave to Lydia Gasman in 1972, Marie-Thérèse stated that Picasso approached her as she was leaving the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Apparently, the painter told her that she had an "interesting" face and that he would like to paint it. Soon, the 45-year-old from Malaga goes crazy for her minor and makes her her lover. He is still married to Olga.

Picasso's double life, which he secretly sees with Marie-Thérèse, is carried on more or less in secret until 1935, the year in which she gives birth to her daughter María de la Concepción (Maya). From then on, a divorce process begins that will never end, partly due to Olga's iron reluctance, who she will officially remain Picasso's wife until his death in 1955.

Abandoning one woman for another, and even overlapping them for a while, seems to be a constant in the artist's sentimental life. Shortly after the birth of his daughter, Picasso met at the cafe Les Deux Margots from Paris to the photographer Dora Maar.

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5. Dora Maar (1907-1997), go crazy for love

Picasso's new love is an attractive, cultured woman, with fine intelligence and a sense of humor, as well as independent and determined. Really named Henriette Theodora Markovitch, she soon changes her name to Dora Maar. Victoria Combalía, a specialist in her life and her work, had a telephone conversation with her when Maar was almost ninety years old.. From these conversations she drew the conclusion that she was a very observant, intelligent and reserved person.

When Combalía spoke with Maar, she was already immersed in her withdrawal from her world; she practically alone read and prayed. After the abandonment of Picasso, Dora she sank and she seemed to lose her reason, to the point of entering a sanatorium. Sad ending for a woman who had stood out for her independence, resolution and energy. Dora Maar was with Picasso when he made his great work: the guernica. The photographer documented the entire creation process and even helped the painter in the process. Maar and Picasso got along perfectly, both intellectually and sentimentally, since both were educated, intelligent, and sympathizers of the left. They understood each other.

As was also customary, Picasso "mixed" Maar and Marie-Thérèse for a time. But while the former knew of the existence of the latter (and of Maya), Marie-Thérèse knew nothing of Dora. Until the two coincided in the study of Guernica... And meanwhile, in 1943, Picasso meets Françoise Gilot.

6. Françoise Gilot (1921), the only one who abandoned him

Picasso meets a very young Françoise in the restaurant le catalan. At the time of writing this article, she is the only one of Picasso's wives still alive.

Françoise proved to be a strong and self-confident woman, since she was the only one who dared to abandon the artist. Like Fernande Olivier and Geneviève Laporte, one of the lovers that Picasso "matched" with her, Françoise wrote a book about her relationship, the famous Life with Picasso, which angered the painter. Picasso went so far as to file a lawsuit, but Françoise won the lawsuit.

In Life with Picasso, the author portrays the artist as a man with a bad character, who told her that she meant nothing to him. With these words Picasso might have wanted to show her superiority and her control over her, but Françoise was adamant. In her book, she states that she abandoned him because she knew that Picasso could not remain faithful for long, and that, therefore, she expected the same end for him as for the others. How right. Françoise decided to follow her own life and get away from a stormy relationship that did not benefit her at all.

With Picasso she had Claude, born in 1947, and Paloma, who came into the world in 1949 and who received her name from the work that Picasso was doing at that time: the insignia of the dove of peace.

7. Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986), the last companion

A 26-year-old Jacqueline came across a 72-year-old Picasso in the ceramics workshop where she worked. They immediately began to see each other and, as Olga Khokhlova had died in 1955 and he was now free, they both married in 1961. Jacqueline will be the muse of Picasso's last paintings and will be by his side until the painter's death in 1973..

The similarity between the end of Roque and that of his predecessor Marie-Thérèse is disturbing. In 1986, Jacqueline shot herself in Mougins, which swells the legend of the macabre and sad end that all the women who paraded through the life of the genius had.