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Hidden Portraits: Six Women Who Shaped Picasso's Life
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Private Lives of the Impressionists comes the first account of the women who loved Picasso—and who shaped his work far more than previously acknowledged.
Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. These six extraordinary women shared Pablo Picasso’s life and were instrumental in his career, yet they have long been dismissed as simply passive models or muses.
In Hidden Portraits, acclaimed author Sue Roe reveals that their lives were—without exception—remarkable. They each pursued their own ambitions in dance, writing, painting, and more. All six overcame significant challenges, including Picasso’s subterfuges and betrayals as well as the wider social turbulence of their time. In bringing them to vivid life, Roe traces the extent to which each influenced Picasso’s work, from his sketches to masterpieces like Guernica. Spanning seventy years, from bohemian early-twentieth-century Montmartre to the glittering Riviera in the 1920s, and from Paris under Nazi occupation to Picasso’s death, and beyond, Hidden Portraits reclaims a set of brilliant women and in the process rewrites a vital chapter in the history of modern art.
Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. These six extraordinary women shared Pablo Picasso’s life and were instrumental in his career, yet they have long been dismissed as simply passive models or muses.
In Hidden Portraits, acclaimed author Sue Roe reveals that their lives were—without exception—remarkable. They each pursued their own ambitions in dance, writing, painting, and more. All six overcame significant challenges, including Picasso’s subterfuges and betrayals as well as the wider social turbulence of their time. In bringing them to vivid life, Roe traces the extent to which each influenced Picasso’s work, from his sketches to masterpieces like Guernica. Spanning seventy years, from bohemian early-twentieth-century Montmartre to the glittering Riviera in the 1920s, and from Paris under Nazi occupation to Picasso’s death, and beyond, Hidden Portraits reclaims a set of brilliant women and in the process rewrites a vital chapter in the history of modern art.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published November 18, 2025
13 people are currently reading
4471 people want to read
About the author
Sue Roe
16 books64 followersSue Roe is an acclaimed biographer and poet with a strong interest in the visual arts. Her first biography, Gwen John : A Life (Chatto & Windus, 2001), reveals that the painter best known for her quiet, restrained portraits of women was surprisingly ardent and exuberant. The Private Lives of the Impressionists (Chatto & Windus, 2006) shows how daring the early Impressionsts seemed by the standards of their own times. In Montmartre (Penguin, 2014) illuminates Picasso’s early years in Paris, when suddenly all the arts (painting, writing, film, dance) seemed to be happening in parallel.
Sue Roe’s early scholarship was on Virginia Woolf, the subject of her PhD, and she has published a number of articles on Woolf. Her critical book, Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf’s Writing Practice (Harvester/Wheatsheaf, 1990) explores Woolf’s processes of composition. She is co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and editor of the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Jacob’s Room. Her teaching is inspired by her scholarship and her editorial experience. She has taught BA, MA and PhD students at various universities, and before that worked as a Commissioning Editor for two academic publishing houses.
These days she divides her time between research for her books, which includes exploring the galleries of Paris as well as copious reading, and writing. She likes to work with a good view of the colourful garden her partner Steve has created while she drafts – and re-drafts – her work.
Sue Roe’s early scholarship was on Virginia Woolf, the subject of her PhD, and she has published a number of articles on Woolf. Her critical book, Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf’s Writing Practice (Harvester/Wheatsheaf, 1990) explores Woolf’s processes of composition. She is co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and editor of the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Jacob’s Room. Her teaching is inspired by her scholarship and her editorial experience. She has taught BA, MA and PhD students at various universities, and before that worked as a Commissioning Editor for two academic publishing houses.
These days she divides her time between research for her books, which includes exploring the galleries of Paris as well as copious reading, and writing. She likes to work with a good view of the colourful garden her partner Steve has created while she drafts – and re-drafts – her work.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Want to read
November 21, 2025Not yet published • Expected 18 Nov 25
August 7, 2025
So many questions....😶🌫️
September 9, 2025
(I got my copy from the library in September 2025 - so published??)
A tough one to review. I acknowledge the research and effort gone into the book, and was I was interested to find out more about the women 'behind' Picasso.
I understand there are only so many resources to draw on, and some partners are better depicted than others (eg Francoise moreso than Olga).
I would have liked to have seen a little more comment or insight from Roe as to the women - she glosses over their choices/life, almost afraid to commit a thought. Although she does defend his last wife, saying she was too maligned. (True, Picasso could have written a will). I came away not really feeling like I knew more about these women, as Roe focuses most of her writing on their time with Picasso. 'Life after' Peters out - they existed separately to him.
Why did he 'choose' them? How did he 'use' them? 2 of them took their lives. He was SO interested in himself and his past, ooof.
Roe does mention 'the times' but I would have liked a bit more focus on this too, to give context as to what 'choices' the women had (or didn't).
As one other reviewer said 'so many questions....'
A tough one to review. I acknowledge the research and effort gone into the book, and was I was interested to find out more about the women 'behind' Picasso.
I understand there are only so many resources to draw on, and some partners are better depicted than others (eg Francoise moreso than Olga).
I would have liked to have seen a little more comment or insight from Roe as to the women - she glosses over their choices/life, almost afraid to commit a thought. Although she does defend his last wife, saying she was too maligned. (True, Picasso could have written a will). I came away not really feeling like I knew more about these women, as Roe focuses most of her writing on their time with Picasso. 'Life after' Peters out - they existed separately to him.
Why did he 'choose' them? How did he 'use' them? 2 of them took their lives. He was SO interested in himself and his past, ooof.
Roe does mention 'the times' but I would have liked a bit more focus on this too, to give context as to what 'choices' the women had (or didn't).
As one other reviewer said 'so many questions....'
December 3, 2025
Hidden Portraits tell of the lives of six women and their relationship with Picasso. It also delves into a little of the restrictions and hardship of women during this time. Moves and homes of Picasso and each woman during and after their relationships ended but touched little on the time of war. I received this book from Goodreads for a fair and honest review.
August 16, 2025
Well researched. Detailed but not tedious. Arranged chronologically. It's difficult to address the women in Picasso's life without Picasso intruding on the narrative. Sue Roe did a masterful job keeping him in the narrative but under control.
November 30, 2025
Thank you to goodreads, the publisher & author for this ARC! I was very interested in getting to know these women and I certainly did. I also appreciated the art analysis of the particular paintings the women were featured in
April 21, 2025
Picasso looms large. A lot of what happened; not a lot of why.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews