The Private World of Pablo Picasso

by David Douglas Duncan, Jerry Mason (editor)

A fascinating look at Picasso's life & work with text & numerous black & white images by Duncan.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Until high school I spent summers at Dad's mother's place across the lake in southwest Michigan. A cottage without running water, uninsulated and heated only by a fireplace, its most advanced convenience was a radio, tuned always to WFMT, 'Chicago's fine arts station', during weekends when Dad would come up to join Mother, Grandmother Lajla, me and my dog, Jimmy.

Good weather was no problem. Then the house was just a place to sleep and eat. I'd get up before the adults and often be out of the house before they'd eaten breakfast, me and Jimmy that is. First stop was usually the beach, a hundred handmade stairs down the hill, a run through a valley and a dash down a dune. That would do for the first days of summer. Later on, the beach and swimming having gotten a bit old, we'd spend more time in the woods exploring. In those days, for a kid, there were lots of woods, many discoveries.

Bad weather consisted of rain and cold. Rain wasn't bad in itself. Indeed, in the slough of a humid August rain was a blessing and a pleasure. But if it was rainy and cold, if no adult was planning a drive to town, then there wasn't much to do except play solitaire, do a puzzle, draw or read.

I ended up doing a lot of reading in Michigan, much of it of books like this one, books owned by my grandmother or left there by one of her visiting friends. 'Pablo Picasso' didn't mean much to me when I was an elementary schooler, but the book was mostly pictures, many of them in vacation-type spots sort of similar to where we all were, waiting for the rain to let up.

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nice book but I wish it had caught Picasso earlier in his life - he was a complex man and this doesn't come across due to his calming in old age.