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A Life of Picasso #3
A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years: 1917-1932
The long-awaited third volume of John Richardson’s definitive biography of Pablo Picasso combines the critical astuteness, exhaustive research, and stunning narrative that made the first two volumes an art-historical breakthrough as well as a pleasure to read.
The Triumphant Years takes up the artist’s life in 1917, when Picasso and Cocteau left wartime Paris for Rome to work with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on their revolutionary production of Parade . Visits to Naples, above all to the Farnese marbles in the Museo Nazionale, would leave Picasso with a lifelong obsession with classical sculpture as well as the self-referential commedia dell’arte. After returning to Paris and marrying one of Diaghilev’s ballerinas, Olga Khokhlova, he abandoned bohemia for the drawing rooms of Paris. Hence, his so-called Duchess period, which coincided with his switch to neoclassicism, and would ultimately be absorbed into a metamorphic form of cubism.
In the summer of 1923, Picasso and his American friends Gerald and Sara Murphy transformed the French Riviera from a winter into a summer resort, when they persuaded the proprietor of the Hôtel du Cap at Antibes to keep the place open for the summer. In doing so, they made the Riviera Europe’s major playground. Mediterraneanism was in Picasso’s bones. Born in Málaga, he would always identify with this inland sea.
In 1927 the artist’s life underwent a major change; he abandoned society for a life out of the spotlight with a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl, Marie-Thérèse Walter. His erotic obsession with Marie-Thérèse would result in an ever-growing antipathy for his neurasthenic, understandably jealous wife. Balletic clues have enabled Richardson to identify a number of baffling figure-paintings as portrayals of Olga and reinterpret the work of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Picasso’s passionate love for his mistress and his passionate hatred for his wife can be fully understood only in light of each other.
The last three chapters constitute an annus mirabilis—spring 1931 to spring 1932—during which the artist celebrated his fiftieth birthday. Challenged to scale new heights by the passage of time, Picasso lived up to his shamanic belief that painting should have a magic function. In the course of this year, he reinvented sculpture and to a great extent his own imagery in a bid to Picassify the classical tradition. The resultant retrospective in Paris and Zurich in the summer of 1932 confirmed Picasso as the leader of the modern movement.
The Triumphant Years takes up the artist’s life in 1917, when Picasso and Cocteau left wartime Paris for Rome to work with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on their revolutionary production of Parade . Visits to Naples, above all to the Farnese marbles in the Museo Nazionale, would leave Picasso with a lifelong obsession with classical sculpture as well as the self-referential commedia dell’arte. After returning to Paris and marrying one of Diaghilev’s ballerinas, Olga Khokhlova, he abandoned bohemia for the drawing rooms of Paris. Hence, his so-called Duchess period, which coincided with his switch to neoclassicism, and would ultimately be absorbed into a metamorphic form of cubism.
In the summer of 1923, Picasso and his American friends Gerald and Sara Murphy transformed the French Riviera from a winter into a summer resort, when they persuaded the proprietor of the Hôtel du Cap at Antibes to keep the place open for the summer. In doing so, they made the Riviera Europe’s major playground. Mediterraneanism was in Picasso’s bones. Born in Málaga, he would always identify with this inland sea.
In 1927 the artist’s life underwent a major change; he abandoned society for a life out of the spotlight with a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl, Marie-Thérèse Walter. His erotic obsession with Marie-Thérèse would result in an ever-growing antipathy for his neurasthenic, understandably jealous wife. Balletic clues have enabled Richardson to identify a number of baffling figure-paintings as portrayals of Olga and reinterpret the work of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Picasso’s passionate love for his mistress and his passionate hatred for his wife can be fully understood only in light of each other.
The last three chapters constitute an annus mirabilis—spring 1931 to spring 1932—during which the artist celebrated his fiftieth birthday. Challenged to scale new heights by the passage of time, Picasso lived up to his shamanic belief that painting should have a magic function. In the course of this year, he reinvented sculpture and to a great extent his own imagery in a bid to Picassify the classical tradition. The resultant retrospective in Paris and Zurich in the summer of 1932 confirmed Picasso as the leader of the modern movement.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2007
35 people are currently reading
957 people want to read
About the author
John Richardson
38 books63 followersSir John Patrick Richardson, KBE, was a British art historian and Picasso biographer. The elder son of Sir Wodehouse Richardson, he was sent to board at two successive schools after his father's death in 1929. When he was thirteen he became a boarder at Stowe school, where he admired the architecture and landscape and was taught something about the work of Picasso and other innovative painters. After bring invalided out of the army in the Second World War, he worked in London as an industrial designer and became friends with the painters Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
In 1949 Richardson met the art historian and collector Douglas Cooper and the two began a relationship that would last ten years. In 1952, he moved with Cooper to Provence, where he met a number of artists, including Pablo Picasso. In 1960, Richardson left Cooper and moved to New York, where he worked in the art world until retiring in 1980 to concentrate full time on writing. The first volume of his biography of Picasso was published in 1991, with subsequent volumes published in 1996 and 2007. In 2012, Richardson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his services to art.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
In 1949 Richardson met the art historian and collector Douglas Cooper and the two began a relationship that would last ten years. In 1952, he moved with Cooper to Provence, where he met a number of artists, including Pablo Picasso. In 1960, Richardson left Cooper and moved to New York, where he worked in the art world until retiring in 1980 to concentrate full time on writing. The first volume of his biography of Picasso was published in 1991, with subsequent volumes published in 1996 and 2007. In 2012, Richardson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his services to art.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
August 12, 2025
By the time I cracked open Volume 3, I was deep into my Picasso binge and even deeper into my convalescence. Jaundice had turned my skin into something between saffron and nicotine-stained paper, and the world outside my window felt muted and slow. But Richardson’s third installment—covering 1917 to 1932—was anything but slow.
If Vol. 2 was the Cubist revolution, Vol. 3 was the imperial phase: Picasso, the world-famous name, and Picasso, the cultural fixture. It begins with his marriage to Olga Khokhlova, a union that brought him into upper-class society but also tethered him to a more orderly existence than his bohemian years.
I read these passages in bed, half-amused at the idea of Picasso navigating polite drawing rooms when I could barely navigate the space between my bed and the bathroom.
Richardson paints these years as a tension between stability and the itch to reinvent. We see the neoclassical portraits, the elegantly posed Olgas and harlequins, and the return to clarity after the fractured chaos of Cubism. And yet, there’s always a subversive streak bubbling under the surface — surrealist tendencies creeping in, experiments with sculpture, and collaborations with Cocteau and Diaghilev that kept him connected to avant-garde currents.
What struck me, lying there with my broth mug, was how unrelenting Picasso’s productivity was. Even in years when his personal life was fraying — affairs, arguments, professional rivalries — the output never slowed.
Richardson makes clear that the 1920s were as much about personal drama as artistic achievement, but he never lets gossip swamp the analysis. The chapter on Picasso’s involvement with the Surrealists is especially sharp: he wasn’t really “of” them, but he was always ready to borrow their energy when it suited him.
This is also the volume where we see the first shadows of the Minotaur imagery, the labyrinthine self-mythology that would dominate his later work. Richardson traces it with the precision of a scholar but the pacing of a novelist, which meant I read whole chapters without realising an hour had passed.
Closing Volume 3, I felt that mix of awe and fatigue you get after too much of a good thing. Picasso, by this point, was practically a nation-state unto himself, navigating marriages, mistresses, movements, and markets with the same restless instinct that had carried him through the Blue, Rose, and Cubist periods.
And there I was, still confined to my yellow cocoon, wondering if maybe some of that restless energy could seep off the page and speed my recovery.
If Vol. 2 was the Cubist revolution, Vol. 3 was the imperial phase: Picasso, the world-famous name, and Picasso, the cultural fixture. It begins with his marriage to Olga Khokhlova, a union that brought him into upper-class society but also tethered him to a more orderly existence than his bohemian years.
I read these passages in bed, half-amused at the idea of Picasso navigating polite drawing rooms when I could barely navigate the space between my bed and the bathroom.
Richardson paints these years as a tension between stability and the itch to reinvent. We see the neoclassical portraits, the elegantly posed Olgas and harlequins, and the return to clarity after the fractured chaos of Cubism. And yet, there’s always a subversive streak bubbling under the surface — surrealist tendencies creeping in, experiments with sculpture, and collaborations with Cocteau and Diaghilev that kept him connected to avant-garde currents.
What struck me, lying there with my broth mug, was how unrelenting Picasso’s productivity was. Even in years when his personal life was fraying — affairs, arguments, professional rivalries — the output never slowed.
Richardson makes clear that the 1920s were as much about personal drama as artistic achievement, but he never lets gossip swamp the analysis. The chapter on Picasso’s involvement with the Surrealists is especially sharp: he wasn’t really “of” them, but he was always ready to borrow their energy when it suited him.
This is also the volume where we see the first shadows of the Minotaur imagery, the labyrinthine self-mythology that would dominate his later work. Richardson traces it with the precision of a scholar but the pacing of a novelist, which meant I read whole chapters without realising an hour had passed.
Closing Volume 3, I felt that mix of awe and fatigue you get after too much of a good thing. Picasso, by this point, was practically a nation-state unto himself, navigating marriages, mistresses, movements, and markets with the same restless instinct that had carried him through the Blue, Rose, and Cubist periods.
And there I was, still confined to my yellow cocoon, wondering if maybe some of that restless energy could seep off the page and speed my recovery.
June 6, 2013
One does not read this book, one lives with it, and does so in the manner of having to live with an intelligent, proud, once-actively-engaged but now passé artist-uncle. The text is huge in understanding, so illuminating as to be blinding, but in the end wearying in its digressions providing the necessary scaffolding to understand the monumental artistry of Picasso. It will take weeks to slough off the effects of this comprehensive, comprehending uncle; whatever I shall think will be have to be run through the funnel of Picasso's vision more often than I'd like. I will see even sleeping cats as Picassos.
Imagine sitting through an entire semester of Calculus IV — complete with the expectation that you have an insiders view of Wave Theory — in one week. It is that intense. Richardson does, especially in the concluding third of the book, manage to enter the complex mind of Pablo Picasso. Riding with Richardson, one gets the sense that the artist is not so difficult to perceive, but as far beyond the grasp as Quantum Mechanics.
No student of painting should overlook this book, but no student should read it. This is a book that should only be read by people who already have spent time grappling with what occurs at the end of the brush. It would be too influential, too corrupting, for an unformed student. Reading it, one may find and even encounter the Minotaur, but there is not string leading one back out into daylight. Go instead to Patrick O'Brian's reminiscence. He has the string. Once you've learned the passages, then attempt this.
As for why not five stars? Because there are so many references to paintings that are not included (cost) that I found it necessary to read with Google always searching the Internet. If you have am I-pad, keep it charged. Except for this, Richardson's is an astonishing addition to any painter's library.
Imagine sitting through an entire semester of Calculus IV — complete with the expectation that you have an insiders view of Wave Theory — in one week. It is that intense. Richardson does, especially in the concluding third of the book, manage to enter the complex mind of Pablo Picasso. Riding with Richardson, one gets the sense that the artist is not so difficult to perceive, but as far beyond the grasp as Quantum Mechanics.
No student of painting should overlook this book, but no student should read it. This is a book that should only be read by people who already have spent time grappling with what occurs at the end of the brush. It would be too influential, too corrupting, for an unformed student. Reading it, one may find and even encounter the Minotaur, but there is not string leading one back out into daylight. Go instead to Patrick O'Brian's reminiscence. He has the string. Once you've learned the passages, then attempt this.
As for why not five stars? Because there are so many references to paintings that are not included (cost) that I found it necessary to read with Google always searching the Internet. If you have am I-pad, keep it charged. Except for this, Richardson's is an astonishing addition to any painter's library.
January 14, 2019
Not nearly as interesting, either from the artistic point of view, nor from the gossipy (though that is the strength here) as the first two volumes. Richardson was 83 when the book came out, and we still await vol 4.
October 26, 2009
This is rich, grand biography. It's the 3d volume of Richardson's monumental biography of the iconic artist. As well as being satisfyingly detailed about Picasso himself, Richardson, in relating the course of the life, has to necessarily explain those around Picasso and the events linking them. So it all becomes a big, glorious telling. But Richardson isn't all surface narrative. This is critical biography by an incisive art expert and analyst. More, as a friend of Picasso's his understanding worms deeply under the artist's skin and into his psyche. These are the years--1917 to 1932--of Olga the wife and Marie-Therese the young mistress. Richardson's thorough discussion of the individual works is especially interesting in its gloss on how these two women affected his art. That alone is worth the read. Richardson understands how Picasso made what he did, and why. Recently I read something about Richardson being concerned he might not finish his biography. I think he's now in his 80s. The next volume, I understand, is to be the last. It must be going to be a real whopper because when this 3d volume leaves Picasso he has 41 years left to live. We know that many artistic triumphs are ahead, especially the influence of the Spanish Civil War, the impact of which was apparently considerable. We know that much romantic turmoil is ahead. We know that Richardson will tell it well.
December 22, 2017
“Picasso believed that only supreme graphic mastery could enable an artist to break every conceivable rule and, if he wanted to, draw as ‘badly’ - that is to say as instinctively - as he liked.” When Picasso does any pointillism, it is in fact to create fake surfaces such as wood or marble. “As Kenneth Clark wrote, ‘the nude remains our chief link with the classic disciplines’.” Picasso draws nudes posing on a beach with tiny heads and huge feet, images from his childhood dreams – this leads to his extraordinary plays of proportion and surreal juxtapositions. This volume goes into both Picasso’s Volumetric Classicism and Surrealism Periods. Of the later, John says: “Picasso’s penchant for dismemberment and reattachment” “he loved displacing things” “to put eyes between the legs, or sex organs on the face. To contradict.” “I want to paint like a blind man, who does a buttock by feel.”
This is Volume Three, the Diaghilev/Olga years, where many pages are about Diaghilev’s troubles or Olga, who gives Picasso a son – or their many vacations somewhere in the sun.
This is Volume Three, the Diaghilev/Olga years, where many pages are about Diaghilev’s troubles or Olga, who gives Picasso a son – or their many vacations somewhere in the sun.
May 29, 2008
This is the last of the three volumes by Richardson; they kept me busy for awhile. I think that the first volume is the best of the three. The third volume gets to be just too much information about all the people in Picasso's life--a lot of people who were either hanger-ons or society bores--or both.
June 19, 2023
Even though it is the least interesting of the 3 volumes, it is still part of a monumental achievement that I am very pleased to have worked through these last 23 years.
This is the volume where Picasso becomes undisputedly the modernist master. All of the faults we associate with him are present here -- including the womanizing, the competitive careerism, the effort to keep himself above the fray. Richardson seems much more interested in the gossip around Picasso's life. Or perhaps the gossip comes simply because the artist lived in a more superficial way, was more absorbed by the frivolities of the people around him. Also possible, that those people were not quite as interesting as they once were. Some died, Picasso broke with others, and, like him, the others aged.
But, no, Picasso kept doing some major work.
Richardson is good on Picasso's efforts to keep himself outside political squabbles and battles, but there is a good indication at the end, in the Epilogue, that this distance is going to disappear under the pressure of the Spanish Civil War and the necessity of "Guernica." Of course, then it will be his involvement with the Communist Party. I'm looking forward to Volume 4, even though it is short and was finished by other writers after Richardson's death.
But here, as always, Richardson is very helpful with the paintings. Here, he opened my eyes to the whole series of Marie-Therese paintings, ones I had known but have now new meaning. That is tied in with a way of reading Picasso that I had never realized before. I admit that I have seen him as primarily a technical master, always stretching toward new ways of envisioning the world and the women, or even more so the history of art itself. What Richardson makes clear is Picasso's constant search for a shamanic understanding of his own imagination, the effort to move through the images that obsessed him (yes, almost always sexual) to a mythic view of the world. This seems so obvious after reading this volume that I am embarrassed to have missed this in all the years of museum going.
Richardson was a friend, even a confidant, but he has kept himself from writing a hagiography. We see something of Picasso's cruelties toward the women he surrounded himself with, even as we see him becoming much more desperate in his effort to turn them into muses. I'll admit that in the Richardson biography, so far, I haven't seen the artist become quite the monster he is often called, even the one that he called himself (the Minotaur), but I can see it coming.
This is the volume where Picasso becomes undisputedly the modernist master. All of the faults we associate with him are present here -- including the womanizing, the competitive careerism, the effort to keep himself above the fray. Richardson seems much more interested in the gossip around Picasso's life. Or perhaps the gossip comes simply because the artist lived in a more superficial way, was more absorbed by the frivolities of the people around him. Also possible, that those people were not quite as interesting as they once were. Some died, Picasso broke with others, and, like him, the others aged.
But, no, Picasso kept doing some major work.
Richardson is good on Picasso's efforts to keep himself outside political squabbles and battles, but there is a good indication at the end, in the Epilogue, that this distance is going to disappear under the pressure of the Spanish Civil War and the necessity of "Guernica." Of course, then it will be his involvement with the Communist Party. I'm looking forward to Volume 4, even though it is short and was finished by other writers after Richardson's death.
But here, as always, Richardson is very helpful with the paintings. Here, he opened my eyes to the whole series of Marie-Therese paintings, ones I had known but have now new meaning. That is tied in with a way of reading Picasso that I had never realized before. I admit that I have seen him as primarily a technical master, always stretching toward new ways of envisioning the world and the women, or even more so the history of art itself. What Richardson makes clear is Picasso's constant search for a shamanic understanding of his own imagination, the effort to move through the images that obsessed him (yes, almost always sexual) to a mythic view of the world. This seems so obvious after reading this volume that I am embarrassed to have missed this in all the years of museum going.
Richardson was a friend, even a confidant, but he has kept himself from writing a hagiography. We see something of Picasso's cruelties toward the women he surrounded himself with, even as we see him becoming much more desperate in his effort to turn them into muses. I'll admit that in the Richardson biography, so far, I haven't seen the artist become quite the monster he is often called, even the one that he called himself (the Minotaur), but I can see it coming.
December 31, 2019
Of the three, this volume was the least gripping and revelatory for me. Not just because it chronicles his deep dive into the monied, bourgeois lifestyle that came during these years, but because this seems to accentuate a subtle catty, score-settling tone in a lot of Richardson's anecdotes. This has been evident in the previous volumes, for sure, but maybe because of the distance that Richardson had on those early years kept the stories lively and inciteful. Here, he knew or had very intimate 2nd hand confidences with the players and he descends into what feels like gossip and even petty slander at times. That being said, I admit that there is certainly a chance he's correct, and that this content isn't in its way a perfect reflection of the tedious tone of Picasso's chauffeured, nouveau riche life. Full of bloat and sleazy promiscuity and hundreds of pages of ballet. The work, at times, felt like it was getting edged out by the melodrama and parlor intrigue. But, these are small criticisms of what is an unshakably monumental read. And the advent of Picasso as sculptor was just about as breathtaking as Richardson's safe-cracking of Cubism. It is tragic if the last volume is as brief and unfinished as I have heard rumored and that this might be essentially be the end of this telling.
October 15, 2020
Kurzer Auszug a.d. viel längeren Rezension m. Links u. Hintergründen i. m. Blog:
Fazit:
John Richardson erzählt recht leger, oft sarkastisch, meinungsfreudig und immer kurzweilig – nie wird er blasiert, langatmig, professoral. Richardson setzt kulturgeschichtliches Wissen sowie Fremdsprachenkenntnisse voraus. Weil Richardson ab den 1950er Jahren ein Freund der Picassos war, aber auch dank seinem Rechercheteam kann er viele neue Interna zutagefördern, auch neue Fotos. Richardson interpretiert intensiv und kommt dabei oft auf Sexuelles und Picassos Gefährtinnen. Der Rückumschlag von Band I sagt ebenso werblich wie zutreffend: "…magnificiently combines meticulous scholarship with irresistable narrative appeal".
Richardson bewundert viele Schöpfungen und wohl auch den Geschäftssinn Picassos, jedoch nicht den Menschen. Der Biograf stellt auch viele Wegbegleiter ausführlich vor – immer wieder auch mit deftigem Klatsch. Es gibt viele Abbildungen, zumeist jedoch nur recht klein und in Schwarzweiß, in guter Qualität (je nach Ausgabe).
Fazit:
John Richardson erzählt recht leger, oft sarkastisch, meinungsfreudig und immer kurzweilig – nie wird er blasiert, langatmig, professoral. Richardson setzt kulturgeschichtliches Wissen sowie Fremdsprachenkenntnisse voraus. Weil Richardson ab den 1950er Jahren ein Freund der Picassos war, aber auch dank seinem Rechercheteam kann er viele neue Interna zutagefördern, auch neue Fotos. Richardson interpretiert intensiv und kommt dabei oft auf Sexuelles und Picassos Gefährtinnen. Der Rückumschlag von Band I sagt ebenso werblich wie zutreffend: "…magnificiently combines meticulous scholarship with irresistable narrative appeal".
Richardson bewundert viele Schöpfungen und wohl auch den Geschäftssinn Picassos, jedoch nicht den Menschen. Der Biograf stellt auch viele Wegbegleiter ausführlich vor – immer wieder auch mit deftigem Klatsch. Es gibt viele Abbildungen, zumeist jedoch nur recht klein und in Schwarzweiß, in guter Qualität (je nach Ausgabe).
February 11, 2025
The first two parts are easily the best and most detailed biographies on any artist I've ever read, and the third is no different. However, the only slight criticism which prevents it being a five star review is that it doesn't flow as well as the previous volumes, and at 500 pages there is an awful lot of exposition on minor players or those involved that borders on Tolkien-esque and a touch unnecessary at times.
That said, you'll not find a more comprehensive series on Picasso and it is essential reading for anyone interested in these periods of his life and work.
That said, you'll not find a more comprehensive series on Picasso and it is essential reading for anyone interested in these periods of his life and work.
May 20, 2020
A great achievement. Of course this is an indispensable book and I highly recommend it. I have already praised the first two volumes and this third one does not disappoint. A final volume is said to have been finished before Richardson's death, but as far as I can tell it has not yet been published in spite of an announcement that it would come out last year.
Maybe later this year in time for Christmas.
Maybe later this year in time for Christmas.
December 21, 2023
I have interested in Picasso since my 2o's. While Richardson biography is quite detailed, reporting Picasso's exhibitions, patrons and income, I felt he came up thin on insight. Some the colored plates are wonderful. It is a good example how important ego is to artistic success.
November 15, 2024
The IV volume set is a comprehensive biography of Picasso,capturing his influences , photographs of his art , story behind each ,as also how Picasso moved progressively from one style to another. Great for those who want to understand the man ,his art and his impact .
August 17, 2022
4,25 stars - English Ebook
Review follows later.
Review follows later.
December 26, 2024
I would’ve preferred if this thing was printed on better paper but C’est la vie
July 19, 2009
From the end of World War I and Picasso’s continued exploration of cubism, his engagement with Diaghilev and other pioneers of modernism in dance and theatre, his marriage of the modern with the classical, and his revolutionary work as a sculptor, volume three of Richardson’s comprehenisve biography of Picasso is as rewarding as each of the first two volumes. There is also Picasso’s marriage to Olga Khokhlova, his legal battles with dealers who lost control of their stock of Picasso’s work because of the war and later with a pair of perhaps conmen who secured possession of Picasso’s early work from his mother and uncle, and his relationship with Marie Therese Walter, the 17 and half year old model, muse, mistress whose relationship with the artist dominates the second half of the period covered in this volume.
Picasso lives a kind of dual life in this period, established artist and wealthy man about Paris and the Riviera, and avant garde artist, resistent to all groups and controls and answerable only to his own artistic sensibility. In one he attends balls with Olga and is chauffeured around in an extravagent car. In the other he designs radical ballet sets and costumes, confounds his dealers who want more harlequins, resists the dogmatic pull of schools of surrealism, and finds himself still contesting with Matisse, his one true rival, and longing for the former partnership with Braque. Clive Bell, the Fitzgeralds, Hemingways, Breton, Chanel, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Stravinsky, and many others make their appearances. As do many of those from the first two volumes, though Apollinaire and Diaghilev do not survive the volume. As it ends, the Spanish Civil War, which will politicize Picasso, looms. Richardon is once again brilliant, particularly in his understanding of Picasso’s work, and entertaining with his wry way with the personal and professional gossip (poor Cocteau!). While he is no apologist for Picasso, the man, he has less of a grip on him than he does Picasso, the artist. He is never fully convincing in his portrayals of Picasso’s character and motives in his personal relationships, the paradox of generosity and cruelty that manifests itself, for example. What, beyond a desire to marry, animated his long relationship with Olga? He does reinforce the official debunking of the myth that Picasso started his relationship with Marie Therese when she was 15 with a certain crusty dismissiveness but otherwise he seems willing to let the record stand that Picasso was brilliant and charming but also selfish, cruel, superstitious, and petty. But it’s not Picasso’s humanity or lack of it that compels our attention, it’s his creative genuis, his artwork. And that Richardson has a very firm grip on.
I’ve since read in recent articles associated with Richardson’s curating of the late period Picasso show at a Chelsea gallery that the next volume is to be the last one, a startling bit of news given how much is left to Picasso’s life and career. Near the end of volume three Picasso turns 50 which leaves four decades to squeeze into that final volume. Don’t know how Richardson will manage but he certainly has the knowledge, the perspective, and the clarity of prose to pull some sort of coherent synthesis, but still I’m betting that we’re really looking at two, not one, more volumes to come in this essential work of biography.
Picasso lives a kind of dual life in this period, established artist and wealthy man about Paris and the Riviera, and avant garde artist, resistent to all groups and controls and answerable only to his own artistic sensibility. In one he attends balls with Olga and is chauffeured around in an extravagent car. In the other he designs radical ballet sets and costumes, confounds his dealers who want more harlequins, resists the dogmatic pull of schools of surrealism, and finds himself still contesting with Matisse, his one true rival, and longing for the former partnership with Braque. Clive Bell, the Fitzgeralds, Hemingways, Breton, Chanel, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Stravinsky, and many others make their appearances. As do many of those from the first two volumes, though Apollinaire and Diaghilev do not survive the volume. As it ends, the Spanish Civil War, which will politicize Picasso, looms. Richardon is once again brilliant, particularly in his understanding of Picasso’s work, and entertaining with his wry way with the personal and professional gossip (poor Cocteau!). While he is no apologist for Picasso, the man, he has less of a grip on him than he does Picasso, the artist. He is never fully convincing in his portrayals of Picasso’s character and motives in his personal relationships, the paradox of generosity and cruelty that manifests itself, for example. What, beyond a desire to marry, animated his long relationship with Olga? He does reinforce the official debunking of the myth that Picasso started his relationship with Marie Therese when she was 15 with a certain crusty dismissiveness but otherwise he seems willing to let the record stand that Picasso was brilliant and charming but also selfish, cruel, superstitious, and petty. But it’s not Picasso’s humanity or lack of it that compels our attention, it’s his creative genuis, his artwork. And that Richardson has a very firm grip on.
I’ve since read in recent articles associated with Richardson’s curating of the late period Picasso show at a Chelsea gallery that the next volume is to be the last one, a startling bit of news given how much is left to Picasso’s life and career. Near the end of volume three Picasso turns 50 which leaves four decades to squeeze into that final volume. Don’t know how Richardson will manage but he certainly has the knowledge, the perspective, and the clarity of prose to pull some sort of coherent synthesis, but still I’m betting that we’re really looking at two, not one, more volumes to come in this essential work of biography.
December 19, 2018
Rich indeed, Mr. Richardson, incredibly rich.
"I would like to live like a pauper with lots of money." Picasso, p. 385
"I would like to live like a pauper with lots of money." Picasso, p. 385
February 21, 2008
This book is so well researched that Richardson could have made it boring and too heavy, but luckily he is an excellent writer/art historian who perfectly weaves hilarious stories in with expert analysis and new approaches to (in)famous works by Picasso. The stories and letters feature Picasso dueling with the surrealists and Appollinaire's "supporters" and dealing with his beau monde wife Olga gallavanting along with famous others like Stravinsky and Coco Chanel. The paintings and sculptures are well explored, as they made me flip back and forth between the text and the pictures so much.
My favorite bit was just how much all the artists of the period were intertwined: the Murphys became the Divers in F. Scott's This Side of Paradise but the Divers ended up being a closer parallel to the author and his drunko wife. I can't wait to read the first two volumes to get more of Picasso's bohemian roots. I loved him before but this definitely helped.
You don't have to be an "art" person to appreciate this read, but you might want to enjoy the 1920s as this book is 500 pages long.
My favorite bit was just how much all the artists of the period were intertwined: the Murphys became the Divers in F. Scott's This Side of Paradise but the Divers ended up being a closer parallel to the author and his drunko wife. I can't wait to read the first two volumes to get more of Picasso's bohemian roots. I loved him before but this definitely helped.
You don't have to be an "art" person to appreciate this read, but you might want to enjoy the 1920s as this book is 500 pages long.
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February 5, 2009John Richardson was introduced to Picasso in the 1950s, and that firsthand knowledge of the man and his work buttresses the third volume of this monumental study. Richardson exhibits not only a stunning grasp of the artist's profession, including the iconography, languages, and influences, but also an understanding of how Picasso's private life informed his art. The result is a rare balance of first-rate art criticism and a primer on the energy and chaos that define the modern. Michael Dirda compares the author's vision to the more academic work of E. H. Gombrich and Kenneth Clark, concluding that, in a good way, "Richardson's tell-all biography reads something like a high-brow gossip column." Stay tuned for the fourth, and final, volume.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
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October 12, 2010Style after style, after style, after style- original b-boy.
When it comes to style masters of the time- and as someone who always votes for the innovator rather than the person seeking the limelight- I'm more of a Matisse fan, but that's more about his thinking than his art(always had Picasso in awe and chasing). On the other hand, Picasso's Guitar has always been among my all-time favorite sculptures. And the thought of each women he had in his life changing his art is certainly one that resonates w/ me.
This will be the book I read when I'm not reading the book I'm reading.
When it comes to style masters of the time- and as someone who always votes for the innovator rather than the person seeking the limelight- I'm more of a Matisse fan, but that's more about his thinking than his art(always had Picasso in awe and chasing). On the other hand, Picasso's Guitar has always been among my all-time favorite sculptures. And the thought of each women he had in his life changing his art is certainly one that resonates w/ me.
This will be the book I read when I'm not reading the book I'm reading.
April 27, 2014
This is a wonderful book. It traces Picasso's life and work through WWI, the death of Guillaume Apollinaire, and through his first marriage. The writing is remarkable - again, Richardson knew Picasso and mixed his conversations with the artist with research documents. He interleaves Picasso's life with his art and provides illustrations. This volume has a center section the reproduces Picasso's major works of the period in color photographs. This is a huge improvement to the earlier volumes illustrations which were only in BW.
February 5, 2009
This is the third book in the seminal biography of Pablo Picasso, written by John Richardson.
I think most people feel that the most exciting book is the first: The early years 1881-1906. The Cubist period is the second book. This book covers Picasso as an international star, theater painter, and friend of a lot of famous people.
I am really curious about the next book, which I think will cover a more interesting period. WW2 + I hope the Dora Maar paintings.
I think most people feel that the most exciting book is the first: The early years 1881-1906. The Cubist period is the second book. This book covers Picasso as an international star, theater painter, and friend of a lot of famous people.
I am really curious about the next book, which I think will cover a more interesting period. WW2 + I hope the Dora Maar paintings.
July 11, 2009
This is Volume 3. Volume 1 was fabulous, Vol. 2 was really interesting, volume 3 is a bit of a slog, but I am determined(and vol. 4 is ocming out next year). Full of great gossip and links between his life(especially his amazing sex life- you woudl think he was in Congress) and the art. OK Elaine?
on-pause
May 5, 2011I've just begun to read, in advance of a visit to VMFA's Picasso exhibit.
Among other things, it totally explains the plot of Baz Luhrman's "Moulin Rouge", by fleshing out the relations between artistic troupes and European aristocracy. (Picasso was commissioned to design costumes and backgrounds for several ballets)
Among other things, it totally explains the plot of Baz Luhrman's "Moulin Rouge", by fleshing out the relations between artistic troupes and European aristocracy. (Picasso was commissioned to design costumes and backgrounds for several ballets)
September 8, 2016
Volume 2 has been the most entertaining so far, as he was interacting with more interesting people during the period covered than he was in 1 or 3. It's a little embarrassing to write, but it is interesting to see how his character flaws, which once came off as mostly laughable, turn him into a borderline evil person as he gains more opportunities and (sort of) takes on family responsibilities.
January 8, 2008
A great read of a truly amazing life with much insight into the work. It may be a cliche to say so, but it really does capture the flavor of the milieu and many other fascinating people are encountered. Very sorry to see this book come to an end.
February 2, 2013
Written by a (the?) Picasso expert. Picasso and his works are analysed in a way that enables the reader to understand the genius and motivation of both. I recommend all of RIchardson's PIcasso books to those who want to truly appreciate how and why PIcasso changed art.
February 28, 2008
Is that not the greatest photo on the cover? How many more volumes of this? At least one more...
June 23, 2010
John Richardson's books on Picasso are unmatched!
November 19, 2008
Good bio by an admiring author that does not convey the impression that the painter had much depth or interest as a personality. May be the biographer's fault or the painter's.
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