Women in the Life and Artistic Depiction of Pablo Picasso

The name Pablo Picasso, notorious for being the groundbreaking artist whose abundant skill and striking innovations, along with his modern fascination with the female form cemented his position as one of the most important and exceptional artists of the 20th century. Picasso was considered radical at his work and continues to gather reverence for his technical mastery and visionary creativity. As a serial womanizer, women play a crucial but complex role in the extended oeuvre of the artist, communicating psychological insight, emotion, and the drama of human existence. Having had rather complicated relationships with many women in his life, and although being married twice but having multiple mistresses, Picasso had a specific view on women who fueled his art.

In order to fully indulge in the famous works by Pablo Picasso, one must understand the story begins with the well-known sentence “Pablo Picasso and his women”. The seven of his muses each can be seen to correlate with a different moment in his continuous evolving artistic practice, from 1906 through to the early 1970s, and their portraits create a captivating counterpoint to their individual stories. Some of which are sometimes joyful, other times defiant, often tragic in their sudden endings. This has led some to see the artist as a misogynist who eviscerated his women in the service of his art, presenting the exquisite tenderness and women pulled and gouged into rerouted shapes, cut into bits and reconfigured on the canvas. Regardless, each of Picasso’s lovers has played an unforgettable role in his life and work portraying the fascinating stories of the women behind the portraits in which trace the countless ways they shaped the richness of the artist’s career. Which raises the question; Who were the seven renowned muses whose stories are remarkably less well known? And how were they portrayed in the works of Pablo Picasso?

In 1904, in the diminishing years of the Blue Period, the artist changed his environment drastically - he moved to Paris and settled down in a poor quarter of the city among street actors and circus performers. Picasso met his first great love, Fernande Olivier and the two lived together in his studio a year later. Picasso and Olivier, both notably tempestuous, were often unfaithful to each other. Regardless, or possibly because of, Picasso's own promiscuity, Olivier’s infidelity fed the intrinsic jealous and possessive nature of the artist; leading to rumors that he occasionally locked his mistress in their studio when he left.