Picasso Pablo - A Life of Picasso Volume II: 1907-1917: The Painter of Modern Life

Volume II

The Painter of Modern Life 1907-1917

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Copyright John Richardson Fine Arts Ltd 1996

All works by Pablo Picasso 1996 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork
All works by Henri Matisse 1996 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork
All works by Robert Delaunay Estate of Robert Delaunay
All works by Giorgio de Chirico 1996 Foundation Giorgio de Chirico/Licensed by VAGA, NewYork
Painting by Carlo Carr 1996 Carlo Carr/Licensed by VAGA, NewYork
All works by Jacques-Emile Blanche, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Charles Camoin, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Andr Derain, Juan Gris, Serge Frat, Othon Friesz, Albert Gleizes, Joseph Hmard, Auguste Herbin, Mose Kisling, Irne Lagut, Mikhail Larionov, Marie Laurencin, Fernand Lger, Georges Lepape, Louis Marcoussis, Marevna, Jean Metzinger, Joan Mir, Jules Pascin, Gino Sevirini, Kees Van Dongen and Andr Warnod 1996 Artists Rights Society (ARS) NewYork/ADAGP, Paris

John Richardson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

First published in Great Britain in 1996 by Jonathan Cape
First published in paperback in 1997 by Pimlico

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ISBN 9781845951566

For Kosei Hara

John Richardson draws on the same combination of lively writing, critical astuteness, exhaustive research, and personal experience which made a bestseller of the first volume and vividly recreates the artists life and work during the crucial decade of 1907-17 a period during which Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented cubism and to that extent engendered modernism. Richardson has had unique access to untapped sources and unpublished material. By harnessing biography to art history, he has managed to crack the code of cubism more successfully than any of his predecessors. And by bringing a fresh light to bear on the artists often too sensationalised private life, he has succeeded in coming up with a totally new view of this paradoxical man and his paradoxical work. Never before have Picassos prodigious technique, his incisive vision and not least his sardonic humour been analysed with such clarity.

John Richardson has written books on Manet and Braque, and has been a contributor to the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. The first volume of his Life of Picasso won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1991. In 1993 he was made a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. In 1994-95 he served as the Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University. He lives between Connecticut and New York City.

Also by John Richardson

Manet

Georges Braque

Braque

A Life of Picasso, Volume I: 1881-1906

A Life of Picasso, Volume III: 1917-1932

The Sorcerers Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper

Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters: Beaton, Capote, Dal, Picasso, Freud, Warhol, and More

MY GREATEST DEBT is to Picasso himself and his wife, Jacqueline, who encouraged me to embark on this project. After the artists death Jacqueline gave me the run of the studios and, when necessary, provided me with a bed. I am likewise indebted to the artists son Claude, and his wife, Sydney, for their wholehearted support. Claudes intervention has solved a number of otherwise intractable problems; his sister, Paloma, has also been wonderfully encouraging. Their mother, Franoise Gilot, has been very generous with inside information. Many thanks, too, to Maia Picasso-Widmaier, Bernard Picasso and his mother, Christine, Marina Picasso, Javier Vilat, Jaime and Mara Angeles Vilat and Jacqueline Picassos daughter Catherine Hutin-Blay. My deepest thanks also go to Dora Maar for patiently answering all the questions with which I bombarded her. For their great help in providing materials and photographs from the Braque archives I am most grateful to Denise and Claude Laurens; and for providing material from the Matisse archive I thank Claude Duthuit.

The director, Grard Rgnier, and staff of the Muse Picasso have been exceedingly cooperative. Hlne Seckel has been very generous with her time and scholarship, and Anne Baldassari has made Picassos own photographs available, for which many thanks; also to Brigitte Lal, Jeanne-Yvette Sudour, Sylvie Fresnault and Ivan de Monbrison. The director, Maria Teresa Ocaa, and staff of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona have likewise given me every possible assistance. I would also like to express my gratitude to the director, Eugenio Chicano, and Rafael Inglada of the Fundacin Pablo Ruiz Picasso in Mlaga and to Joaquim Ferrs i Boix and the Centre Picasso dHorta. At the Picasso Administration Sandra Poupaud valiantly complied with all our requests.

Warmest thanks to Franoise Cachin, Director, Muses de France, and to Michel Richard, Chief of the Agence Photographique de la Runion des Muses Nationaux, and, in particular, to Caroline de Lambertye, who has made hundreds of photographs available to us; also to Colette Giraudon, formerly of the Muse de lOrangerie, for many kindnesses. Franois Chapon of the Bibliothque Doucet and the staff of the Bibliothque Nationale have likewise been of enormous help. In London, the librarians at the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the London Library have been very accommodating.

This book owes a great deal to the support of my friends at the Museum of Modern Art, above all William Rubin, Director Emeritus, whose Picasso and Portraiture exhibit came as a godsend just before this book went to press. Agnes Gund, President, Glenn D. Lowry, Director, Kirk Varnedoe, Kynaston McShine and Carolyn Lanchner of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Clive Philpot, the former librarian, have also been unfailingly helpful. All of us connected with this book would like to bless Judith Cousins, MoMAs invaluable research curator, for sharing her resources with us. She has been an indefatigable source of information. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art William Luers, President, and Philippe de Montebello, Director, have given me every assistance. Special thanks to William S. Lieberman for many kindnesses, also to Sabine Rewald and Gary Tinterow. At the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Alfred Mueller and the staff have been most helpful and I am grateful to them.