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BRASSAI
CONVERSATIONS
WITH
PICASSO
$32.50
Brassai has
to avant-
also a prolific
whose
My
Letters to
Parents
was
named
medium" by Jed
New Republic.
Perl in the
many
charm and
humor,
the
many important
tionships.
whom
others,
artists
he developed
and professional
Not the
least
among
rela-
these
many
from 1943
artists
on
Picasso.
shared the
to 1946,
it
wasn't
a regular basis,
when
Brassai was
one of the
Picasso
';
a Picasso
tantrum because he
flashlight; a Picasso
as his
who
lost a
who remained
in
German Occupation,
WITHDRAWN
No
BRASSAT
CONVERSATIONS
^ WITH ^
PICASSO
BRASSAI
>-
CONVERSATIONS
WITH
>
PICASSO
Translated by Jane Marie
Todd from
and author of
My
Parents, published by the University of Chicago Press. Jane Marie Todd is a
translator whose works include Largesse by Jean Starobinski and Women's
Brassai (born Gyula Halasz) was a photographer, journalist,
Mona
Words by
The
The
Letters to
Press.
60637
London
and photographs
Images of
Preface
art
and sculpture
Henry
Miller,
1966
AL BR
12345
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
ISBN: 0-226-07148-0 (cloth)
ND553
.P5
A35
1999
l899~
Brassai,
by Brassai
Todd.
p.
cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-226-07148-0
I.
Picasso, Pablo,
ND553.P5A35
(alk.
paper)
1881-1973 Interviews.
I.
Title.
1999
709'.2 dc2I
98-50463
CIP
[b]
Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface, by
Postscript
Notes
List of
Index
331
367
Photographs
xv
379
383
ix
To Picasso
on
of recaptured
moments from
bouquet
When
ig66
edition]
dubbed him
met
Brassai, in 1930, he
a little later.)
canny
trait
once
which
critical
kindly.
One might
un-
and
humor which
almost refer to
it
as
was
at
mali-
cious benevolence.
And
teller.
One
felt that
he was
compelled
his eyes
known
whose
life
my own.
IX
Van Gogh's
a far greater
all
Letters to
Theo
is
The
paintings will die, are dying already, but the spirit which ani-
mates the
undying and
Letters is
will give
Not
self
is
may
it
be.
deny the greatness of his work, but that the man himand will remain far greater than anything or everything
that
his hands.
He
is
so
much more
is
He
in him.
is
outsized, a
human phenomenon.
mad world,
to
but he foresees.
midst one
He
Without
feel as well.
our
all
his varying
He made
with Picasso.
in thin air.
It
that, riffling
them
in
form
And what
his subject
stead,
left to
vanish
sion.
and observa-
temptation!
through
flattery,
A difficult
to
put
A temptation,
mean,
to distort
portrait.
No wonder
has been
all
What
and maligned
it
he
figures parade
as
seems to
me
that
have annotated
many
world of
art, to say
We
see
him
eyes,
is
he
is
he
is
an inordinate col-
one who finds treasures even in the trash can. ("Le Roi
Cocteau once called him.) We also discover, and
most happily, that when he puts pencil to paper, or brush to
canvas, Picasso himself never knows what will come of it.
And on pages 318 319 there is this admission by the master himself which I think every aspiring artist, every one who
thirsts for fame and success, should read not once but a
dozen times. "I no longer want to see new faces. Why should 1?
But I am always here to my friends
And their visits are that
lector,
des Chiffoniers,''
to
me
because
live in
seclusion, like a
prisoner.
& Company
as Picasso and
Com-
lation.
xi
Now a word
Brassai relates
he had decided on
it,
this particular
2.
As
day to take
but one shot of Picasso and no more. This was in the year
1932; Picasso was only fifty years old. One is tempted to say he
was in his prime, but then Picasso is always in his prime, it
seems.
To me
ing square
at us, Picasso.
massive than he
is,
Eye to eye.
He seems
double-breasted jacket.
is
man I have
He seems to be look-
it is
and
ever seen,
The
gaze
is
vest,
even more
and
large
He
itself.
He
Rock of
man who
no need
to talk of
"
that
is all.
So
hear
the camera
him
not
man
defiant, as he
may appear
him-
the
he
is,
the creator he
is still
he
is.
in our midst.
Banzai!
is.
"
"One World
my choice of
much,
which our benighted politicians dread so
the leader to guide it would be Picasso. I would vote for him
If
even
tomorrow we were
if
to
XII
at his
worst Picasso
mess of
as the leaders
artist at the
it
will
Long
and
this sad
live Picasso!
Henry Miller
xiii
Introduction
Brassai'and Picasso
The
1964 was
with Picasso
in
autumn
ness to him, something that had been attempted only for the
most recent period, in Helene Parmelin's Picasso Plain (l959; EnIt brought him back to life
for the decisive years between 193^' the date of their first meet-
at
XV
him with
his photographs.
have
a better idea
of
how important
Picasso's
work
now
photog-
as a
art,
Paris by Night,
the
their first meeting; he was also the first person to have the idea
published in the
first issue
Shortly before that, his photos illustrating Breton's article "Picasso in His
would
call
first
Kahnweiler on
when he
Picasso's Sculptures
(1948).
He
tells
of his
art, to
the memoirist.
It is as if
its
is
art
of photography.
Paris 1943'
He
begins
first
He
meeting with Picasso in 193^ and dehad occupied since 192O on rue La
how
founding, adding,
as a
moment, ten
years after
its
"What
especially
both-
xvi
Its
was accepted
Once
erotic
or poetic
could
and
his
is
"sculpture was lurking like a virtuality deep within his paintings themselves.
Cubism
its
As
we approach the end of the twentieth century, we are beginning to realize that Picasso was as great a sculptor as he was a
painter, was perhaps even more revolutionary in three dimensions; but in 1932, when Brassai began his photographs, his
sculptures were practically unknown. The history of his thirtyplus years of activity as a sculptor, beginning with such early
efforts as Picador's Head with Broken Nose, was
the time.
became
To
give
some
still
impenetrable
at
when
dimensional works out of his studios for the retrospective organized for his eighty-fifth birthday in 1966. Moreover, the
catalog,
on the
first
Although
Brassai'
no prejudice about
xvii
materials.
"
In
fact,
how-
'
ever,
even
castoffs,
by Brassai
"a
vs^ere
first
few avant-garde
circles.
well
"outline
gives
stract quality,
drawings in space,"
And so
the
book
is
under way. In
it,
of photos to appear in
tive in the
United
ern Art in
Picasso's studio
States was
Life.
(The
opening
first
at
the
Picasso retrospec-
Museum
of
Mod-
entitles us to a description of
also to a de-
and the
Cafe de Flore,
haunted
after
only Picasso's
a restaurant
enjoying
its
little
by
little,
not
new sculptures,
now it is 1943-
I^i
number
of
xviii
nons. Picasso
tells
tograph the
Then
into can-
Bull's
and Man
When
with Sheep.
and
pho-
bicycle seat
Brassai goes to
made of a
Head,
to the relation
When
publisher of the book on sculptures dismisses the idea of photographing The Bird, made from a modified scooter, because he sees
it
.
is
as
.
is,
to relief.
the
So
or
is
a sculpture!
ing? Everyone's
still
What
is
To
tell
object!
sculpture?
What
is
paint-
new ones.
Henri Mi-
When
is
showing
is
him where
"
don't have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points. ... As soon
as I start to
my
pen. To
know what
own
enough.")
casso's,
art,
He makes
(In 1923, he
had ex-
resistibly
published by
So goes Picasso's
nicates
art.
how he
life,
and
tion. His
is
him during
ir-
newly
Marshal Petain.
Brassai's
text,
the Nazi
Occupa-
and of a participant, an
From
this perspective,
it is
document of the
in contrasts
and
who
tells
bert Desnos,
life
hazy.
life.
during
It
this
first
order, illu-
Danger hangs
in the air.
who
It is
Pi-
Ro-
xix
well
activity.
And we
follow the
the same
moment,
this
its full
group formed in 1944' composed of Pierre Reverdy the fellow traveler of cubism and of the previous war actor Jean Marais, Jean Cocteau, and Fran^oise Gilot. They are accompanied
by a photo of Picasso staging a scene, mimicking the artiste peintre
ing in as the
artist's
model.
art, its
It is
Pierre
Daix
XX
last
life.
Early September
1^43
ning
this
prefer to walk.
It is
crowded and
beautiful day, and the
is
last year's
is
am
weeks ago,
as
cigarettes.
la
"Hdnde
/ioc/i/"
We
their revolvers
on us and spewed
lit
German
evening two
We
One
coast seems
up our
faces.
soldiers trained
ses,
but
dared not
someone had
stay in
set off a
bomb
1
my own home.
at
found out
shortly before
we went
when we bent
by, and,
we became suspect.
In Montparnasse,
looking for
glance furtively
a friendly face,
at
my
parents,
a rarity;
pushed
little
white
dur-
as a child,
it
and taxis have been left rusting in garages and, via rue SaintAndre -des- Arts, a street of cut-rate tailors, I arrive at rue des
Grands -Augustins. Eleven years have passed since I first met
Picasso.
It
was 193^-
The
my
was working on
first
War
annees folks
book:
II.
At the time,
in Montpar-
Paris by Night.
Among my
good
friend of Picasso's, As a young poet just starting out, he had enthusiastically participated in the cubist movement, with his pen
but also with his pocketbook. The heir to
was the only well-off fellow
among
the
a small fortune,
more or
less
he
penniless
and starving painters and poets. A placid man with the face of
a Roman patrician and a mind that was lucid and analytical
rather than intuitive or spontaneous, Raynal was fascinated by
Alphonse
Allais's black
laume Apollinaire's quick mind, Le Douanier Rousseau's artlessness. Gradually moving away from poetry, Raynal moved toward art criticism, following in the footsteps of Andre Salmon
and Apollinaire. For many long years, with their sharp and
sometimes mordant pen, these three musketeers of modern art
defended the "new mind." Salmon had a column in Llntransigeant, the "very Parisian evening daily run by Leon Bailby. The
"
as freelances, in rather
obscure or
Soirees de Pans.
to
Then came
stolen
Marie Laurencin.
That was when Maurice Raynal succeeded him. A few years later, he became associated with a
young Greek art critic, E. Teriade. That was the beginning of
"the two blind men," the humorous nickname they used for
their famous art column. With Fernand Leger, Le Corbusier,
and a few other artists, Raynal sometimes invited me to dinner
don
at their
many
ing
me
proposition for
proposed proposal
to
me.
"Something was about to happen ..." "Someone was go"It may just be that ..." It was an important misto ...
'
sion, he said; he
thing just
yet;
wanted
to tell
should remain
at
and
say any-
alert,
and
above
me
this cautious
on. For weeks, the mystery only grew deeper. Finally zero
veil
me
at
Picasso's studio.
When
had
just
first
turned
tablished.
It
Of course,
The major
retrospective of
Georges
Paris
Petit Gallery
season was
on
15
the
For the
life.
first
time,
of 236 of his canvases was brought toand in a single glance visitors could take in his blue,
cubist, and classical periods, the sum total of his exis-
a prestigious collection
gether,
rose,
tence.
Picasso, perhaps for the last time in his life,
come home
knew would be
afar,
he told Teriade,
chauffeur in
"like prodigal
On
in gilded shirts."
decisive,
had personally
who had
'arrived,"
he had
all
all
livery, suits
made by
little
chateau
in
a
manor, Picasso entertained Count Etienne de Beaumont, Missia Sert, Erik Satie, Manuel de Ealla, Arthur Rubinstein, Jean
Cocteau the celebrities of the day, the cream of Parisian culture. He went out a great deal, attended theater and ballet premieres, receptions and exclusive parties, always in the company
of his beautiful and elegant wife. He was at the height of his
"high society" period.
I
fore him.
Some apprehension
at
moments of that
examined his
face. Did it correspond to the one his works and legend had
formed in my mind? His presence wiped away that image and
my apprehension. I had before me a simple man, with no
affectation, no arrogance, no posturing. His naturalness and
the awkward
kindness put
me
at ease
first
meeting,
was expecting an
also
artist's studio,
looked
but
it
at
was
tirely
devoid of
all
this large
apartment into
a single studio
You
walked on
a dull
wooden
floor,
activi-
up
The window
most spacious,
the
best-lit
room probably
a forest
Tower could
came up to this apartment. Except
for a few friends, Picasso allowed no one in. The dust could
fall and settle wherever it liked, without fear of some cleaning
woman's feather duster. But how had the painter, after living
on the hills of Montmartre and Montparnasse, come to reside
on rue La Boetie?
The strange migration from the east to some western gold
mine of luxury commerce, high fashion, cafes, trendy hotels,
and theaters also brought art dealers in its wake. On rue
Laffitte and neighboring streets were Ambroise Vollard's
the distance, the slender silhouette of the Eiffel
be seen.
strange
Mme
lair,
Picasso never
L'Etoile.
the
first to
move
to rue
La Boetie,
ward boulevard de la Madeleine, established himself in the Faubourg Saint-fionore, Kahnweiler on rue d'Astorg, Durand5
Only Vollard,
tes in a
and fauves
setting
up
as
his
Pena-
another
Olga Kochlova,
he had
met her in Rome, where he had made the sets and costumes for Parade his Montrouge studio was flooded. He asked
just
new art dealer he had replaced KahnWorld War I to find lodgings for him and to
move
As
art business.
them was
The lower
upper floor
floor
live in,
the
his studio.
The
contrast between
dining
room
room,
lor,
decorated
beds.
No
all
clutter,
in white;
not
and
bedroom
wood
in the
home
of
around him, there were no piles, nothing scattered about, as was his wont. Olga jealously made sure that Picasso did not impose the powerful imprint of his personality
on a realm she considered hers alone.
I then learned what my mission was to be: to photograph
Picasso's sculpted works, which were still utterly unknown. My
liked to have
photos were to
fill
review: Minotaure.
come
The
first issue
of a new
into existence.
Its "artistic
director,
"
up with
young
on
vert
rival
all
The young
Swiss citi-
and
con-
to
suppliers,
it
him
ob-
to
some-
his rival
illustrated by Matisse,
Poesies,
and friend.
however, with
a great deal
little
poet
in the
of coaxing
immediately put
w2ls
Lautreamont' s
who committed
surrealists
5on^5 o/Ma/c/oror,
suggested
to
on
life.
One
movement
new
lease
When
went
small office,
tall,
slender young
man
with a pink face, blue eyes, and golden blond hair: he looked
more
cal
a
like a
demon
It
about work,
was on dis-
map
of Paris,
all
little flags
And,
late at night,
things he had
done
he was
still
adding up
all
the "positive"
that day.
symbol dear
to Picasso.
whole
its
the Sleeping
It
The fabulous
appearance in his
Woman.
series of engravings,
one of his
art in 19^7'
it
inspired
and
tion for
it,
depicting himself as a
But
meaning
for Picasso
Guernica, this
surrealists.
ob-
powers moving
within himself, and he humanized them. His Minotaur personified the "monster"
also alive,
its
that drove
it
on
a frenzy
sardonic,
nostrils belching
smoke and
nude, sleeping
to lust after
dilated by a desire
in
surrealists, this
name evoked
cruel
and ambiguous
white
devoured Athenian boys and girls, myths that Freud had borrowed from legends and applied to the unconscious. Surrealists saw the Minotaur as the force that broke through the limits
of the irrational, that transgressed borders, broke laws, and
offended the gods. They identified it with their own aspirations: constant, universal violence, absolute revolt, a total lack
Minotaur for
it
its
"human,
all
too
human"
superhuman,
One
surreal.
afternoon when
composing the
ally felicitous
it
first
went
to see Picasso,
caught
him
to a
made from
On
top of
it,
he placed one
it
he arranged
silver
When
this
montage was
to be repro-
It
old
Derain,
Matisse, Miro,
Andre Masson,
Magritte,
it.
first
and Sal-
vador Dali also wrestled with the fabulous creature, each giving
his
turning
point.
The
no longer
in
style.
all
In
in the
Breton's yoke.^
10
Minotaure, they
had
to give
characterized their
inaccessible
to
proletarian pocketbooks, could be addressed only to the despised bourgeoisie, to a milieu of titled
of
the
taste,
first
and monied
arbiters
"capitalism"
were debated
at
"Go out
art,"
there was
no longer
a "radical
to
Minotaure,
His
slightly
clear, limpid,
high fore-
head and within the pink carnation of a long, curiously asymmetrical face. Ease, litheness, and an undefinable fragility
We
a hint
ema-
of resignation
lived
convalescent.
colored eyes, and artist's mane, which fell back off his forehead
and onto his neck in curls, he looked like an Oscar Wilde transformed hormonally into someone more energetic, more male.
11
gestures, gave
and
cinate
him
to reign,
but also to
Only
son.
later,
when our
humor.
relationship
man
recall
became
friendly, was
an afternoon spent
at his
home on
42,
lair, filled
cently
Each of these
little
melodramas, so comical, so
nasty,
some-
out
all
ducing
me
I still
see the
contentment
com-
to be intro-
humor. He was
truly in his
do not think
humor sparkling,
that real
would be within
his reach.
He
begins
at
pleasant, all-
gravity
and
fatality
its
humor, which,
life,
like char-
Breton
According
to the
modus
on
matter, and im-
them.
recall a text
no
texts, subject
They
lol
not meet with any opposition.^ But Paul Valery, Ramuz, LeonPaul Fargue, and other authors elicited some resistance.
12
One
silhouette of
adhering to his
lip.
already
knew him,
his
good-
a cigarette
since
butt
at
good
graces, he
variety,
It
everything that
full flower,
it
was the
more
had had only individual contacts with a number of surrealist poets and painters, most of whom were no
longer part of the group. Suddenly, I was thrust into their movement. I loved the fever of discovery beyond the beaten path of
art and science, the curiosity about prospecting new lodes, the
Until then,
mental
electricity with
which the
little
^3
Fontaine or
alists
the Cafe
at
got together
on
my
great regard,
remained
distant.
dozen extremely elongated figurines, sometimes nude, sometimes draped, crudely carved with a knife the previous year into
one, explaining to
and
its
fibers,
would remain
its
alive. I also
structure,
its
by
knots,
photographed
several
wire sculptures from 1930 to 193I: linear or geometrical constructions in three-dimensional space, triangles for the most
part.
They were
some sense
in
human body
five
oil,
from
wrought iron,
tall
felt
on
a shelf
next to bottles
In Olga's apartment, on
small bronze
could be
of linseed
still
were
mantel next
to Kneeling Woman, a
and
skeletal, a sort
of fan wearing
a fur hat
using,
formed
all
its
base. Picasso
had dec-
from strings like silfrom the branches of a fir tree. Next to a pot, the
tormented roots of a philodendron were peeking up; its stalk,
with all its leaves amputated, bore at its summit a ram's horn
and a red feather duster. But most of Picasso's sculptures were
in Boisgeloup, and he proposed to take us there in his car. As I
plane, a flag, and tiny marmosets dangling
ver balls
was leaving, he
recommended
bring
14
a large
number of photo-
"blue period" and with his cubist woodcuts. But sculpture was
riod of painting on a
ette
flat
color, almost
from some
monochrome,
fictive
a sculptural
period with
little
vibrations
the handiwork of a
Cubism
forms.
that offers
its
man
aegis of
naturally
drawn
an
acute
plasticit)).
It
was
to the plenitude of
plasticity,
later, postcubist
teen years.
He
it
We
were
among
new works.
The next day around noon, under
the
dark December
sky,
I,
brand new,
all its
as
a bit tired
summer back
all
and onto a small communal road. A signpost indi"Hamlet of Boisgeloup. A few moments later, I saw the
left
cated:
"
15
houses of
We had
It
arrived.
was an odd
castle:
attic.
We
also
ered with
and
ivy.
Picasso explained
it
still
it
imagine
was
that,
when he
appealed to
him than
these
vast
tures.
I
all
these forms.
It
new woman had entered Picasso's life: MarieTherese Walter. He had met her by chance on rue La Boetie
and had painted her for the first time just a year earlier, on l6
December 193^'
The Red Armchair. Her youth, gaiety, laughter,
and playful nature had seduced him. He liked her blonde hair,
was because
the
his paintings
flat
surface
began
straight,
between
angular
in his
life
hard-
At no other time
full
of sinuous
16
them here
in flesh
when
finished
barn. Picasso
night
lit
fell.
a large oil
When
He
was used to
it.
When
lamp,
set
on
To
finish off,
took
The
oil
around
in that light.
We
Picasso insisted
on taking us
to the
The Stag.
The
the pre-
struck
and
to initiate
him
17
and
From
fire.
Gonzalez also emerged the richer: having learned the audacity of new forms from his inspired student, he converted to
tion,
cubism.
We
took one
last
And
it
how much
knew
and equestriennes,
Harlequins, the acrobats, the masked clowns that this big top and
ring had inspired in him. The evening was like all the others:
the circus, the world of acrobats
trapeze
artists,
thought of
all
ning on the large hindquarters of Percherons. Nothing mindboggling. Picasso was thrilled, utterly happy to sink back into
the circus atmosphere, to breathe in the
stables,
warm odor
of the
He
good-heartedly
laughed
much
more than his son, who was not cheered by anything, and his
wife, who was distracted and taciturn.
During the intermission, we visited the stables. And Picasso told us about the circus. Whenever he had a little money,
he confided, he had dinner with his friends and brought them
here. Medrano was a short walk from his studio. Max Jacob,
Mac Orlan, Andre Salmon, and sometimes Kahnweiler or
Braque accompanied him. The theater bored them stiff. They
almost never went.
PICASSO
some-
saw
18
time.
first
He
It
was
especially liked the clowns. Sometimes we went backand stayed all evening to chat with them at the bar. And
did you know that it was at Medrano that clowns began to give
up their traditional costumes and to dress in burlesque outfits? A regular revolution. They could invent costumes, charac-
wild.
stage,
ters,
asked
him
PICASSO
got was more
Medrano clown.
like
But
and
renting a shop on rue Laffitte, near Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
His brother was an art publisher, which may explain his new
he was
a real
now
is
one of my paintings
on rue
at his place.
"Pere Soulier,
at
my
"
another
Medrano
was broke,
a usurer.
"
cir-
One
place.
group of
equilibrists: three
when
visited Picasso,
he pointed out
A few days
a stack
of canvases
and told me: "I'm going to show you someThere were our equilibrists from the other
night! I had caught Picasso red-handed in the act of inspiration. I was especially surprised because, that same evening at
Medrano or the next day when I returned I myself had photographed these same acrobats without suspecting Picasso
would be taken by them. The slow evolution of these athletic
bodies under the multicolored spotlights, their fragile and audacious architecture, which collapsed almost as soon as it was
facing the wall
thing. Look.
"
19
whole
first
series of
him
so deeply that
he painted
spare.
It
was the
first
time
was
and identifying
The
traits.
last
abstract.
occurred. Yet
it still
cap-
tured the very particular atmosphere of the circus, with the lu-
minous
the
took
me
aside:
told me,
as is the
set
monumental
on
figure of Yadwigha
We
window, behind
heavy curtain,
this painting,
He
painted her
woman
as
to her.
He
painted
20
Preceding page,
"And
every-
thing centers
on
the blaz-
pierces you,
subjugates
you, devours
you."
2,
v^ith a
few
peeking out.
"
"The
tall
away."
never [had]
twisted, ...
movement
tubes flattened,
by the convulsive
[his] fingers
feverishly impressed
had
on them."
shadows
"Someone turned on
the head-
lights
of the Hispano-Suiza
[and]
took one
last
photo: th
"I
shaped
like balls."
moon,
flute to her.
mysterious
human
figure
is
playing the
also a poet
when he chose
to
be:
les
Aux
airs gais
Yadwigha in
Having
de I'instrument.
a beautiful
dream.
From
right-minded charmer.
To
I
offered in
breasted jacket
a
cardigan.
like a petal.
But
The
noted
at
some have
said
and believed, these eyes are neither abnormally large nor abnormally dark. They appear enormous only because they have
the odd ability to open wide, revealing the white sclera sometimes even above the iris where light can reflect and sparkle.
It is the wide eyelids that render his gaze fixed, mad, hallucinatory. That is also why, with the pupils widely dilated, the iris,
31
normally
It is
ally
casso emerges as a
of 1932
monolith with
is still
my
favorite. In
it,
Pi-
the concentrated
blazing eyes, the stare that pierces you, subjugates you, devours
you.
me
carte blanche,
photographed
empty
cigarette boxes,
him; the
which he stacked on
hand the
tall
first
towers of
a daily basis
one on
top of another, never having the heart to throw them away; and
a
set
on
it
to protect
room.
also
and
The
also a
group of African
controversy caused by
statuettes.
or not? Pito
It is
purely coinciden-
ponded
to the time
when he
masks.
In any case,
like Matisse,
Even in 191O, he
as
3^
found
wood floor,
tubes flattened, twisted, strangled by the convulsive movement
Picasso's fingers had feverishly impressed on them. The canvas
Do you know
PICASSO
Mathias Griinewald's
Crucifixion,
to
Clearly,
knew
from the
left
become
star.
Sometimes the
seemed
it
that Picasso
was a
Few
traces of religious
kind of
humor for
time,
new
Crucifixion attribute.
it
was the
first
work of an old master had unleashed Piimpulses, and that he turned his attention to a
wrest its secret from it. Before he looked to
casso's creative
masterpiece to
at
Griinewald.
He
33
come something of a
Now
gres.
it is
With the
cassos.
him
he inaugurated
Crucifixion,
that
become
Pi-
kind of pictorial
one
gets
work. In each
The
That day in
plates in
humble,
on
left
by
in his
his apartment,
gin" plate
him unique, on
magnifying
case,
hard kernel
touched
at
it,
home
the right
sniffed
and
materials, however
are so
it,
fingered
it,
do not know whether he was familiar with Corot's etchglass plates coated with gelatin; in any case, he did not
for long the desire to attack that surface, smooth and
it. I
ings
on
resist
even
ment
little
as the ice
of
frozen lake.
When
finger so that
could see
its
it
between
his
me
the
transparency.
he
it
to
have
"
all
34
"
almost always
occasion of the
artist's
eightieth birthday,
artistic plane,
and many
new propositions and discoveries revived the apWhat set him apart from the category
whom we
had
him
little interest,
November
1961)
And
Breton praised Picasso because he was able to move beyond cubism through "violent, passionate impulses," as if that
severe discipline had been "buffeted about by high winds and
haunted." Breton was no doubt thinking of the "stupefying guitars," the 1913 collages with their bits
and
especially the
year, in
Woman
in
which he painted
Nightdress
in
of yellowing newspaper,
of the same
an Armchair
woman's rosy
flesh
and
breasts peek-
armchair with
a delicate
"Beauty
alist
will
be convulsive.
"
But
is it
championed by Breton:
possible to speak of surre-
ing composite
women, drawing
still lifes.
like Ingres,
and produc-
his
canvases
were lent to
it
35
ing instruments
closest to surreal-
predecessor in
as legitimate a
is
a solid
realism
at its
It is a
even admitted
He
it.
is
and sometimes
many
to
respects,
we claim him
as
ner with
views
man-
and our
"had to do with
world
(to the
ob-
ject')
more
real
"I
than the
That
a
is
completely
I
have cho-
Andre Warnod
in 1945-'^
sen to
cite
the declaration he
made
to
how I un-
It is a
36
it
has a glar-
no "prejudice" about materials, that he seeks "the perand ephemeral" from them. He writes: "I am so happy
that, though certain of Picasso's paintings have taken their
place in the world's museums, he also gives due recognition to
everything that must never become an object of admiration
tor has
ishable
made
to
than intellectual."
And
which the
lace of a
little
a butterfly are
one
canvas
on
caught in the
made of matches,
transformed into
a sculpture
it;
by the addition of
then of the
human
horn and a
from
figure built
"
a cobbler's last
'
in preparation:
Among
a large
showed
me
in
its
number
more
and
freshness, intelligence,
life,
un-
only
it
be
a piece
clear
had had
to
real dried
add paint
to
flies.
He
inimitable
of year
when children
It
pits.
It
most
"
37
new,
as
flies,
One
home:
off by a
his
the
met
a strange
couple
at Picasso's
little
blue-
ffis
The woman,
tiny,
and
very dark.
made her
"
"Brassai,
I
a trip
by
had heard
a great deal
nicknamed the
"surrealist
woman,
Max
Ernst. Eluard
Her mys-
trick.
the Magrittes
When
the surrealists
returned to
Paris,
Bunuel,
Eluard, and
he had spent
his childhood.
It
a fierce
"Dali
and businesswoman
phenomenon"
all
38
is
in
and
looked
at Picasso's latest
Dali. Picasso
had seen
Dali's
work
an
at
the
It
at
Miro's instiga-
ferred
as he
said to flatter
him to
the Louvre.
He
expressed
an
artist
works and in
him
to
other friends.^
at Picasso's, Dali,
Chien andalou
and
half-open drawers of
and other
persons of Viscount Charles de Noailles, Edward James in England, and a few other fans. Dali's anatomical organs, his pitchforks supporting erotic, phallic forms, his embryos, bats,
"
39
and even Max Ernst were already better known for their pictorial qualities than for their strict "surrealism"; as for Yves Tanguy, though his desolate beaches on dead planets cast a ghostly
they did not dazzle with the "convulsive beauty" Eluard
spell,
and Breton dreamed of. Dali met and surpassed their expectations: he was the dreamed-of painter of dreams, of ecstasy, of
erotic frenzy; a
man
all sorts
night,
his paint-
ings for ten or twelve thousand francs apiece, but also within
the
man
brilliance, as only
weaned,
its
make
glow in
it
participated in
on Freud told me
life.
surrealists,
and
name
it
had
offer the
French with no
spelling,
no punctua-
text
of
Jlie Visible
method as "spontaneous knowledge, irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic
"
objectification of delusional associations and interpretations.
Woman. In
It
it,
were
it
fact that,
40
bolical self-assurance
it
as a
promise of surrealism's renewal, as an as-yet untapped, unexploited mine, capable of replacing automatic writing, whose
subterranean riches were becoming depleted. This was nevertheless a break with Breton's
foundation of orthodox surrealism. Dali replaced the surprises, the disordered spontaneity flowing
from the
collective,
artist.
He
the
taste
of the un-
preferred "systematization on
On the
ruins of an egalitar-
Visible
Woman, he
says,
The
reality
proof, and
making the
reality
own
"
name is obsessive: it interprets, dominates, shapes realThe paranoid delusion, with its exacerbated egocentrism,
of the
ity.
It
was only
much
later that
Breton, liberated
from the ascendancy Dali had exerted over him and the group,
would deny any originality to his paranoid criticism, a method,
he would say, inspired "by the lesson of Cosimo and da Vinci:
become absorbed in the contemplation of spittle and of an old
wall until a second world, no less directly revealable through
painting, comes into focus."'"
After that
first
encounter,
a step
liked his
brain worked.
It
way his
41
outboard motor,
as Picasso said.
sometimes liked
titles,
opened
its
his paint-
pages to
humor and
his obsessions,
were some-
peared in Minotaure
as the
this
Angelus."
imag-
dialectic.
which ap-
convincing
humble homes
as the
as
popular
"How
"monument" of
such
a flagrant,
He
me
told
it
him on
the
trail.
According
now
The Vir-
to Dali,
it
own
it
all
its
latent
he put
the objects
it
happened
fore.
canvases by Millet
on became
hit its
and
42
so
its
"tragic
it
as the act
of paternal ven-
father,
which even-
of paroxysm.
It
was through
him
that
I first
heard about
Gaudi, architect of the Sagrada Familia, the unfinished expiatory church in Barcelona. His admiration for the Catalan
creator of art nouveau was boundless.
As
to
me how
him
for
He
a child, Dali
also
had
Gaudi's handi-
delusional
had marked
architecture
life.''
pecially of
Dali always had before his eyes in Cadaques, must have in-
madmen and
sex
and ornamental confectionery." All turn-ofthe-century art, diametrically opposed to utilitarian and rational architecture, which Dali hated, was for him antiplastic art par
excellence, "the expression of the murkiest, the most discredited, the most inadmissible desires." In the essay one of his
best written for Minotaure, "The Terrifying and Comestible
Beauty of Art Nouveau, Dali identified so closely with art
nouveau that, in "psychoanalyzing" it, he in fact performed his
"exhibitionistic
"
own "self-decortication.
To illustrate this text, we
"
in Barcelona,
Man
1
Ray.
He
43
with water
lily
their bodies
emerg-
He
cloud-flame-butterfly-mirror."
cot
and
filled Dali
with wonder.
I
tentional Sculptures:
and
bus or metro
on
up
photographed robots for In the Paradise of Phantoms by Benjamin Peret, perhaps the purest, the most intransigent of surrealist poets. I like his mind, fertile with oddities
tomatism.
and
also
One
We
day,
he led
me
to
of "inventors" Marcel
stalls
Duchamp
was there one day, with his graphic disks called "ro-
toreliefs,"
among
knitters,
finds,
ness, deserve to
objects.
That
be numbered
series
among
appeared in
and worked
Ball,
at
and other
being figu-
44
12,
eyes: art
nouveau seemed so
and no one
."
taure.
Among the
and
of his 1923 poems very obscure, almost forgotten took on great significance in Breton's eyes the day he recNight."
One
ognized
it
his life,
He
later.
was touched to
it,
as
had
nocturnal
stroll
The woman
nymph, and the
details.
as a
down
most insignificant
with "long ashen hair" had a music hall act
lovers'
to the
were a
"
"
"
and
a third
Minotaure
at night,
and
later in
The
appeared in
text
illustrations.
them
for
described
"under
its
the Saint-Jacques
Tower
47
"
'
'
as
he
1939
No one
still
on
15
November of that
open
the
at
the
Museum
And
of
Modern Art
in
when he
still
publishing
numerous deluxe editions illustrated by him. Vollard had often come to see him in June to discuss his projects. In particular,
all
his writ-
And
come back
had
to work.
to
to Paris.
He
re-
light
A^z^/if
H5/1-
when he was caught off guard by the general mobilization. The imminence of war, his worries over the fate of his
works, persuaded him to rush back to Paris, an unrecognizable
ing in Antibes,
population.
ran into
him
at
emptied of three-quarters of
Saint-Germain-des-Pres.
man who
He
know what
to do.
wrapped up,
thousand books and objects on rue La Boetie and in
ordered
packed
did not
He
crates,
began
48
new
studio
to res-
as
it.
Museum,
fate
of his
them. "After
all,
it
is
endures or does
his crates
and paintings,
left Paris
for
to crush
Poland.
At
ries
that
moment,
Life
me
for a se-
its
ex-
take
49
Picasso was very busy: taking advantage of his stay in the capital,
he again tried
them
fact,
less,
he was prepared
to devote
photograph him in
wanted
to
in,
And
they rarely
left
They came
in taxis or sometimes
on
foot to the
dog from the "cafe period." After a conspicuous appearance at Lipp or Les Deux-Magots, they settled in
nied by
Elft, the
50
has, incidentally;
him and
M. Boubal,
lights his
observation post
at
Mme
it;
Sabartes,
who comments on
among
the day's
mother hen;
the tables
5^
prone
to outbursts
painting
also
it
to devote herself to
Thus, on that day in September 1939 it was the eighI think I began my series for Life at the
teenth or nineteenth,
The
that
slightly
dom
at
Le Flore, the
less
fief-
"avant-garde,
"
an-
archistic, or revolutionary
"Essence of Le Flore,"
theless
had
to analysis,
still
nonehis
long
movement, who were already filling many sheets of paper on the marble tables; Picasso and his
circle. As for myself, I had largely done my bit for Paris cafe
life in Montparnasse, and was therefore not a true "regular" at
Le Flore, but I had many friends and acquaintances there.
took
"existentialist"
at
the Brasserie
that
me
owner, watched
operate.
Then,
as usual, Picasso,
flanked
people.
He
had arranged
to
meet
several
engravings to a
then, at
name
Its
de Nevers, rue Guenegaud, and rue Christine, where Gertrude Stein once lived and Alice Toklas
still
does.
The
small
at
the
corner of rue des Grands -Augustins and the quay of the same
at
no. 7
with the two upper floors, which had become Picasso's studio.
and
in,
its
bridge,
its
He
could
It is
feel
he was inside
ship
Unknown Masterpiece
in that locale
the Revolution
it is
of his novel, in his quest for the absolute, moves farther and
from the representation of nature, creates and demasterpiece, and dies. Balzac's description of this
farther away
stroys his
rather striking
rented the studio. That was in 1937- And on the site of the
Unknown Masterpiece he had painted the "well-known masterpiece" Guernica.
In the place occupied by the
lier,
as large,
53
now
stood: Women
at Their
Toilette.
a great
had been reproduced v^ith extraormoment, he wanted to create a cartoon conceived directly for tapestry and had come up
with the idea of using a collage technique. He had collected a
large quantity of wallpaper from interior decorators, and had
then cut out the women's clothing, but also their hands, their
faces, and all the elements of the picture. I did his portrait in
deal; several of his canvases
The
creases
own body.^^
photos of him in the
recess of the
window
mous
also
its
a col-
PICASSO
It
belonged
It's
Almost
museum
who printed
all
piece.
my
received a
phone
54
call
on
Picasso's behalf.
like to see
you again. He
is
waiting for
him below.
I let
him
by the portrait of
him
He
is
delighted
some of my
other photos. That is why he has come. I show them to him.
Eager to become familiar with them, he demands more and
more from me. I come to the series taken of Paris's underbelly, dating from 193233- piirips, prostitutes, hoods, inverts, dives, dance halls, opium dens, brothels.
that later
appeared in
PICASSO
Life.
He would
like to see
cern of painting.
Why would
no longer be
the con-
moment
to
from the
now belongs
to the
realm of photography.
and do something
else?
open
a closet
"
first
question he asks
Have you
Since
started
it
is
always:
drawing again?
55
could send
my photos
to the
United
my
no
brain, but to
avail. I
who
stool, or
On
on
the floor.
Most
racked
his
on
it
a chair, a
one
at all.
When
it
that
From
other on a cardinal.
titles
He
door
to Bolshevik penetration in
Europe
From the second article, you could still read the following:
"cardinal VILL
PRESIDES OVER THE FESTIVAL OF JOAN
OF ARC IN DOMREMY."
.
is
now
What made
homage
a practical joke,
case,
my
photo, confiscated by
longer droll
at all,
56
and scrambled
films; a Paris of
airwaves,
German
At the
start
He
"
He
of the war,
Royan
villa,
"Les
The
fol-
no coal to heat his studio. Like everyone else, he had to accommodate himself to the sinister war existence: stand in line,
take the metro or bus rare and crowded to get from rue La
Boetie to rue des Grands -Augustins. He often had to make
both legs of the journey on foot. You could see him almost evcar,
where he
felt
quite at
at
home.
It
was there
met him sometimes. In 1942, weary of going back and forth every day from the Right Bank to the Left, from his apartment to
his studio, he decided to move to rue des Grands -Augustins
for good. He bought electric radiators, unusable because of
the restricted current, and had gas appliances installed, which
were just as ineffective for the same reason. Now hard at work,
he gradually deserted Saint-Germain-des-Pres. The "cafe period" had ended.
And
It
had
lasted eightjears.
bailiffs],
on
a piece
la
a gigantic
HERE,
doorbell.
many
long years he has been Picasso's factotum and also his trusted
57
servant.
He
crates,
back entrance,
vs^ith
and photos. With every mail delivery, the piles grow like
stalagmites. In the recess of the door leading to the studio, the
first painting you see is a Matisse: a large still life with oranges
and bananas dating from before World War I. A small Douanier Rousseau stands next to it: The Avenue in Montsouris Park, with
its tall poplars and tiny human figures dressed in black.
ters,
fills
this big
boat of a place,
am
given a
start: there,
here they have become dark and seem smaller. They have
been
cast in
bronze!
think of Breton,
And
when
much
who
metal
from
all
at
the very
their bases
moment
all
the
bronze statues of Paris, France, and Navarre, and stripping bistros of their pretty "zinc counters,
were
cast in
the others?
1939 for
see
of them large.
his
"
Some
New York
more than
fifty
bare
58
son
wanted
album of my
pher on me.
be you.
And
pubUsh an
my
your photos of
sculptures.
I'll
photos?
Sabartes looks for them, Marcel looks for them, Picasso
on
left
my own
eyes.
paper.
new
We
find
them
at last,
And
rummages through
the heaps of
avalanche.
Look
PICASSO
walnut.
them.
at
Or something
else
My
Death's
could be made of
it.
What do you
think?
We
also look at
first, I
PICASSO
At
my
is
perishable.
You need something solid. Bronze is for the ages." He's the
one who pushed me to cast them in metal. Finally, I gave in.
What do you think of them?
Some have lost something in the bargain. Espeyour monumental heads. Their big, curved, smooth
BRASSAI
cially
PICASSO
That's
at
long story.
to
And
it
was even riskier bringing them back here in bronze, under the
noses of the
German
patrols.
camouflaged.
59
to
be
We
survey the
new
sculptures.
am
astonished
at
how many
there are.
PICASSO
sculpture.
all this
I
Then
in the
suddenly,
last
it
me
again.
did
turned
my bathroom
more:
a display case
little
bronzes in
and,
as for
the ones
couldn't
cast, they're
Catalan.
The
you
plasters
And
Picasso points to
squarely
on
sculpted in February.
Man
with Sheep
which,
at
over two
me-
giant
is
clasping a
lamb in the vise of his powerful arms. His left hand has a firm
on the spine of the heavy animal, which is struggling; his
right hand is grasping three of its hooves as the fourth is getting away. Modeled very freely, with little balls of clay quickly
pressed together, like certain large Etruscan terra-cottas, Man
with Sheep looks like it came all in a rush.
Next to it, on a turntable, is a large head of a young girl
with an impassive face, square jaw, and powerful profile, a
mass of hair falling to her neck. A portrait of Dora Maar, no
grip
doubt.
On
is
an all-white
standing firmly on
PICASSO
its
adore
cats that
on
the couch
standing on end. They hunt birds, prowl, roam the streets like
woman.
60
little
the
The
head.
Then
there
PICASSO
fit.
found an old
Guess how
head? One
that bull's
together,
is
all
think. All
me
Head came to
Bull's
before
about bronze
compose
that
is
it's
made
jumbled up
my
gave
left
had
The
head.
chance to
it
sometimes
elements
that
The
But
it.
that's also a
danger:
if
attention.
Its
body
is
narrow
shaft
a piece
of corrugated
a cake
fluted ruff.
The
left
its
Sabartes
arm, shaped
We will
its neck
a
like a
it
it is
sphere in
my
handle,
vertically,
it
Woman
clasping
is
holds
with Orange.
Do you
PICASSO
much
very
like
you
Since he asks
to
me
want
do
to
photograph
my
statues?
what
am
doing,
briefly explain
Germans
would
things.
61
So
my
situ-
for authoriza-
it.
do so,
am unemployed
I
my works
is
like.
62
Late September
ig43
This morning
A grip-
effect will
How
PICASSO
don't understand.
calculate
lighting.
BRASSAI
it.
Why
don't
like light
by reflecting
PICASSO
it
from
a single
source and
muddled shad-
off screens.
Why
photographed
well?
BRASSAI
Some
white background.
63
It's
They look
and can't breathe in the space. For a sculpture to achieve its full round shape, its lit parts have to be
brighter than the background and its dark parts darker. It's so
flattened
simple.
PICASSO
It's
on
a gray or
beige background, you use white for the light and black for the
shadows.
Is
that
BRASSAI
is
no longer of interest
as a goal.
in painting,
64
Although
it is
required
maximum
relief
Early October
ig4
Paris in
I
Death's Head.
autumn I940-
the
and
and
am embarrassed
enormous
doves,
and
by his compliments.
on
women. His
a great
book
especially
tiful, so fluid, so
them
Then he opens
stand,
chairs,
been so beau-
And how
65
at
it
And while
Picasso
is
chance or by design.
PICASSO
points.
As soon
can rarely
as I start to
them down
set
beard,
When
it's
I
my
my mind.
to
know
pen. To
has a beard,
it's
my
me more
ries
come
"If
a
it
has a beard,
woman." Or,
Saint Joseph;
A great saying,
if it
it's
in another
doesn't have a
through
it
they
to draw,
as
head. MTiat
than
my own
ideas.
all
the
men
appearing in
this se-
Yes, they're
all
bearded.
"
And we
talk
drawings
PICASSO
recopies
He
is
it
five times,
last
When
it
comes
it.
to drawing,
and
is
the best,
nothing
is
first
sketch.
upon
He
a neatly calligraphied
diploma.
66
my Academy
become a
Academy. The Royal Swedish Academy voted
PICASSO
It's
member of the
me in. What do you
His sharp laugh
him. Michaux
is
think of
from the
I've
it?
is still
in shock
diploma! Yes,
fails to
first
when we
leave
impression Picasso's
while he's
at
constraint.
directly.
seems to
It
He
me
that's
where
and
most
his
writings.
them," he
He
Paris
we have lunch in
suggests
non, next
meals.
me.
tells
We
notices, with
tell
would be almost
lists
bring us back to
I
charming
now
takes his
so provincial.
with
reality.
Michaux
do not
see
MICHAUX
don't either,
as a
draftsman, or
we don't
want the same thing, we're not aiming for the same thing any-
more. Picasso
is
longer trouble
us.
different paths.
but in
"
The question of
"succession
"
a different way.
Michaux
is
no
right.
67
should not
It is
always
is
wrong
to prejudge the
should have
twenty."
The tearoom
is
packed.
suggest
my bistro
in the Faubourg
most
exclusively to painting.
MICHAUX
of the
Artists
The
the
a reply.
The poem
BRASSAI
is
allude.
you
poor relation
It's
mute,
it
It's
an
from you,
gives
you should
it,
isn't
it
also elimi-
just
an ac-
dox
that
music
is
MICHAUX
That's true, so long as you don't play it. Obvihundred instruments render what you have imagined, what you have created, that's a response. But will anyone
play it? When and how? That's the whole question right there!
Do you know that a young composer who writes a symphony today has only one chance in ten of hearing his work once in his
lifetime? Only plastic art produces an immediate echo. It
doesn't depend on a voice, or a printer, or performers, it's
not dependent on anything. What you create with your hands
is captured right there, it has a clear and true existence. And
that's why I paint now.
ously,
when
68
Tuesday 12 October
We
ig43
all
him
and the book's publisher, and we will choose the statues to include in his album. The Bird is one of them. A child's scooter
rusted, twisted, and missing its wheels suggested the idea of a
bird to him one day, just as the seat and handlebars of a bicycle
suggested a bull's head.
The
little
A triangular piece,
beak.
served as
look
at
come
its
foot. Picasso
added
whom
who
appear in
my album!" When
It's
it.
more an
my
ear:
object than a
PICASSO
man
An
think he
to tell
some
So my bird
object!
is,
if
We
one's
a pedestal,
a tail.
ing to The
it
its
head and
that
sculpture." Picasso,
hour
its
is
me,
nerve!
is
just an object!
Picasso,
I
just
sculpture?
what
or
is
Who
does
not a
What
is
painting? Every-
He would
new ones.
is
him
to the
ever.
69
With
big
round nose,
visit?
To
He
at
it
an antique deal-
neighborhood.
BARON MOLLET
not
It's
at all
A unique opA
expensive!
come
at
time
the
known him for a long time, and this is not the first
him here. An old friend of Picasso's from
Montmartre
days,
them
first
calls
"Blaise,
man
by their
all
Van Dongen. He
"
"
"
this great
minds,
knew how
to the
propagandist of
to
endear himself
poets, painters,
and
writers:
Prevert.^^
Picasso shows
ings.
We
pears
on
him
his
when
a live
dove ap-
the step.
PREVERT
the devil
is
floor,
and he
and
displays his
phone, and we
one painting: the large
window of the studio looking out on the tiers of old Paris rooftops and chimneys. Above all, it is the rippling line of radiator
70
parts
PRE VERT
Look!
left
out
He would
And yet
the radiator
is
the
predominant element in
wants to be true to
life
before anything
wall.
inspired from things seen around him, like the Mother and Child
painted in May.
at first,
Picasso
plump
down," Picasso
fallen
22
We
ings
also
BRASSAI
Everything in
PREVERT
a "painter
of
So you
reality,
something
inspired by reality.
is
"
see,
that surprised
and begins
around him.
to leaf
felt,
called
through
up
a small
book placed on
it.
a tribute, the
author
is
hell.
71
It's
that,
man"
all
by
to
In
the
fact,
title
title:
The Great
Man Alone.
It's
by Rene Benjamin.
PICASSO
his portrait.
It's
And
on
minister
"Marshal,
sir,
"
me
to his
"Or perhaps
he's a minister
who
saying that,
around ministers,"
"Marshal,
me
you don't
Marshal
says the
sir," the
"
sadly.
have lunch
last
year with
M. A.
Him
"
knew!
"Who's that?"
"One
asks the
Marshal absent-mindedly.
of your ministers!
"Indeed
I've
"
forgotten him,
"
says the
Marshal
happily.
The maitre
d'
du Ma-
"
rechal.
"Drink
"And
anymore. They come and go.
Wine remains.
"
72
Chief of
State.
PICASSO
sage
It's
the
at
visit
lages.
his opinion.
"Khaki?
to everyone's feelings.
ried.
He
He
at
on
is
his feet.
him.
"It's
your
fault,"
The abbot
is
as well.
he
tells
startled.
grace!
"
the Marshal
PICASSO
don't
will
wear on his
I've
reread
it.
know
Then
by heart.
it
there's the
as a post,
read
it,
woman admirer of the poet, nicknamed "Esperance." It's high comedy! And what about the audience with
the six women artisans! Or when the Marshal gives his speech
Also attending
is
on
the
his
You
Lorient.
And
Or
verse!"
who
minister of health,
is
Marseillaise,
bombed
city
of
"I've
"What's
left
muffled voice.
"Nothing, Marshal,
time.
He
adds, however:
minister a second
"They think
it's
war."
"That's good."
"I told
them you
love them."
understand
I
"
it's
told Picasso
they
true.
"
"It
seems
to
me
kneeling
a little
saw
it
woman comb-
in your apartment
on rue
PICASSO
did.
the two
women,
cast in
bronze. In addition to
BRASSA'i
Couldn't
photograph them
74
at
Vollard' s?
PICASSO
all to
appear in the
book. But
doesn't want
BRASSAI
graphed, in
fact.
PREVERT
Attention a
la
peinture!
What
an
art
dealer!
BRASSAI
zanne for
Minotaure.
He
him to refuse. But Vollard was in very good spirits that day.
The welcome he gave us was almost warm. I had trouble believing this likable
man
a rare favor,
show anyone.
PICASSO Vollard was very secretive. He knew how to surround his paintings with mystery and thereby increase their
value. On rue Laffitte, he stashed almost all of them behind a
partition in the back of his shop and didn't let anyone poke
around.
also
took
submit
all
little Kneeling
Woman.
had
to
on
and
Among them
promise Vollard
He
to
was de-
him with
75
It
was
not
a flattering portrait,
face
however.
On his
enormous body,
his
is
peasant's eyes.
than usual in
if
wanted
to tell
you about:
at
name
of
ited
see several of
lim-
them
in the photo.
PICASSO
One
day,
When
them away
my
finest drawings.
for those
who
PREVERT
ful to
is
him.
It
don't
I
who
know him.
We
The man
should be grate-
is
not
hero.
to say or to
He
de-
darkness
at
night."
Germain
Le Flore.
to have coffee at
"
Left,
Above, "I
him
wanted
in his
new
to
photograph
which
studio,
"
in.
l8 "In the place occupied by the famous canvas [Guernica] two year;
earher, another panel
now
stood: Women
at Vieir Toilette/'
19
Could showing
hand holding a
a state secret?
20 "This morning
a
cavities,
Head.
Like
1
21
Left,
series,
.
Prevert:
devil
22
and
Speak of the
in he walks.
"
Above,
and
drooping
Even though
little
this hat
is
it
it
battered, twisted
fend.
It's
easy to be a
life.
For his part, he could, and still can, lose everything. Who
knows what turn the war will take? Paris may be destroyed.
He's got a bad record with the Nazis, and could be interned,
He
is
89
is
a great guy.
ig43
Tuesday ig October
When I go upstairs to
is
room
as if
little
silent.
is
in the studio,
keeping
Picasso's this
vigil
is
tense, he
What
accusingly.
knitting
is
is
going on?
start
PICASSO
disappeared!
left it right
lute-ly sure of
not where
it
it.
And now
belongs,
it's
not where
it's
it
it
everywhere.
demand
Everyone
who
is
it
flashlight has
am
ab-so-
belongs!
It is
lute-ly
tes,
My little
this chair.
on
here,
my
it
And
if it's
from me!
un-ac-cept-able
house!
ab-so-
be found!
silent.
No one
Only Sabar-
is
taking
know him
Now he's
it.
accusing everyone.
"
well.
For some
and would
like to
90
draw-
Indeed,
it
from
mind. The appeal of the material has always played an im-
When
says:
good
idea.
at all
to publish these
drawings? That's
out omission.
life-size.
art.
he has looked
And
advise
you
a
to
reproduce them
a very
series withas
they are,
think?"
Zervos wants to take the series with him. Picasso
He
still
wishes
hang onto
it.
has
91
Wednesday
The
table,
20
ig43
October
fully
PICASSO
hate
it
searched again
when people
pilfer
Maybe my
tunity,
my
my
and
letters
size into
completely
have been care-
surprise.
all
my
night for
things. Since
is
flashlight.
wanted
to
make
What about
BRASSAI
PICASSO
found
the flashlight?
it. It
was upstairs in
my bathroom.
thereafter, a
from
woman
PICASSO
Hyeres where
Yes,
I
it's
spent the
THE VISITOR
May
summer
I
ask
you
92
painted
it
in
in 1922.
to sign
it,
then? Owning
real Picasso
People
who
see
PICASSO
it
in our
my
is
a fake.
to sign
pictures.
me
it's
put
all!
my
always
my
old can-
marked
on
signature
the stretcher.
Braque and
We
itself,
date,
madam,
it's
is
hiding
No, ma'am!
If
were to sign
my 1943
cannot sign
woman wraps up
it,
it.
by you, M. Picasso,
it
now,
I'd
be com-
on a canvas
madam, I'm sorry.
signature
him
if
he purposely
Nepomucene Ruiz"?
was given
don't
Or
names of
Matisse, Poussin,
"Juan-
in the
93
5,
that led
all
to
Transylvania,"
Among
me
my
choice."
is
the
most graceful.
"And what other movement determines the S line? Its aesthetic efficacity has long been noted by artists; the great English painter
Hogarth, in his
Analysis of Beauty,
it
even extols
it
as
man
body, in those of
its
success, in the
of
drape,
Another
Georges Hugnet.
He
has
just discovered
buy
it.
"It's
dancers.
It's
being offered to
me
for
150,000
francs."
remember it well. I
painted it in Juan-les-Pins. It was a fete on the lies de Lerins,
on Sainte-Marguerite. Old people were there. They were dancing almost naked. Is that the one? Yes, you may buy it. You'll
PICASSO
be getting
good
deal.
BRASSAI
ment,
What
excited
me
them out on
And
the floor.
woman
was transposed
how much
the
largest fruit,
94
the
PICASSO
And
natural
PICASSO
That was
to
chop up the
fe-
Then he looks at a few nudes, metamorphosed into landscapes. The outline that circles the body and simultaneously
traces a relief of hills and valleys interests him intensely. You
go directly from the sinuous lines of the female body to an un-
tex-
work formed by
of stone.
One
from
afar,
or the granulations
is
that
And we
it
talk
fosters
about
PICASSO
making marble
It
seems strange to
statues.
It
It
another
We
a buffalo, still
in
95
You
PICASSO
change.
He
all
that!
Man
doesn't
those people
found the same corner for their kitchen. To build a city, don't
men choose the same sites? Under cities you always find other
cities; other churches under churches, and other houses under
houses. Races and religions may have changed, but the marketplace, the living quarters, pilgrimage sites, places of worship,
is
goes on.
life
BRASSAI
millennia.
It's like a
single glance,
up over
"
In a
flints.
It's
very moving.
do you
everyone to clean
my studios,
my things,
where
it
my
things.
because
wear gray
always forbade
it's
It's
my
always let
ally. I
of protection.
When
suits,
it
there's
live
always
on which
it
leaves
And
it's
prefer to
no
trace.
BRASSAI It takes a thousand years of dust to make a onemeter layer. The Roman Empire is buried two or three meters
underground. In Rome, Paris, and Aries, the empire is in our
cellars. Prehistoric layers are even thicker. We know something
96
man you're
about primitive
right
only because
of the "pro-
tection" of dust.
"
BRASSAI
best?
Picasso,
Greco-Roman
Saint-Remy, where
Greek
village
is
PICASSO
found!
It's
It's as if all
insane
grow money
BRASSAI
fields.
Maybe
to
With
they're breaking a
excavations,
mold
Pompeii,
it
was Vesuvius that did the casting. Houses, men, animals were
instantly caught in that boiling gangue.
There
is
something
moment
of death.
at
the
and Naples.
PICASSO
monstrous
cataclysm.
end
He
talked to
me
about
a casting
to all life by a
la
newspaper
it
still
97
kiosks,
marking
What
nightmare!
If
could do
that, I'd
choose Saint-Germain-d
Deux-
Boubal, the
98
marvelous,
piled
up
in
it,
along with
wood he
engraved, and other curious or rare objects, such as an agglomeration of twisted, misshapen drinking glasses, crumpled one
I stare at wide-eyed! Could this be
one of Picasso's "experiments"? Seeing that this strange object
has piqued my curiosity, with infinite care he takes it out for
me.
PICASSO
They come
remember the terrible
to
of
Mount
Pelee, in 1902,
cano obliterated
lives, it also
it.
But although
it
me
beauty.
its
And
to
Then
its
many human
destroyed
time.
It is
sculpture!
the
It is
first
work
also bold in
its
in
99
"
in spots.
PICASSO
is
form, whose
swell
the other
is
it.
damaged model,
it:
one conforms
to the
a kernel.
Then
there
is
the white
PICASSO
love bats!
Women
They
think bats can get caught in their hair, don't they? But bats are
the most beautiful of animals, extraordinarily delicate. Have
you observed their brilliant little eyes, gleaming with intelligence, and their skin, silky as velvet? And look at all these delicate little bones.
I've
PICASSO
have
many oth-
BRASSAI
higher animals
The
is
is
a great find!
The world
of the
100
What
to say "invention."
and amazes me
astonishes
'idea,
"
the art
is
it
could cre-
deforming, meta-
it
skull
construction
took
set,
PICASSO
BRASSAI
Goethe.
And
cranial vertebrae.
it
was the
first to
put him on
in a cemetery that
The question
He
that?
the
trail.
Then
make
cylin-
one for the spinal cord and brain; the other for all the organs to be protected. Three sets of members are attached to
ders,
this
column
so that
PICASSO
come up with
BRASSAI
bers,
it's
it
can transport
the third
It's
legs,
member?
it's
attached to
it. It's
mem-
articu-
lated at
its
that have
been ankylosed
at
tional peculiarity that the two ends are not knit together, but
simply linked by
We
talk at length
tonished that
is why
enormous ones.
mammals
is
as-
tebrae.
BRASSAI
It's as if
its
the
to
one more. As
invention was
make
own hands
101
nary degree
hence
the
stiff,
inflexible
no neck,
may make
man's hand,
From
a horse's
You
bat's wings.
tions, but
them
deforma-
this re-
should go not to
art
history!
I
am
left
"
six little
Since
do not find
up
board.
And I need
a single section
as a
backdrop,
few thumbtacks.
is
of
re-
ask
Marof
not
a single available
notched penknife.
immediately
fall
When
on
Picasso joins
me
a great deal
me
of
with his
PICASSO
BRASSAI
PICASSO
BRASSAI
PICASSO Good, keep them. I'll leave them here. But you
have to give them back to me. They're my thumbtacks.
102
Thursday 11 November
1^43
Yesterday,
boulevard Raspail.
MICHAUX
photograph of the
sculpture.
Your
can't look at
We
it
new dimension
on
the object
to his
You
itself.
Balzac,
but arranged to
a rotten
feel lousy.
him
that?
He
be disappointed. But
will
How
morncan
learn he slept
very badly
last
night,
"
no
visits
to
do with
a child.
it's
Thursday."
It
There's no school on
103
assume he
We
chaux
up,
drink
is
somber.
I tell
him
He
stories. It
is
To cheer him
eleven o'clock.
MICHAUX For the last few days, I've been in a bad way.
And I keep losing everything. First my address book, then my
permit. It's a stampede. I also lost my pen, and yesterday, my
ration book. When I start losing things, I get scared. It's always
the beginning of a dark period.
BRASSAI
MICHAUX
vantage.
away
Yes, and it's too bad. The objects are taking adThey have only one thing on their minds: get the hell
as quickly as possible.
We
and Michaux
leaves.
Through
the
window
to
left
when
Slyly
hiding on the
104
seat, it
has parted
Friday 12
November ig43
Henri Michaux
is
waiting for
On
Marie-Louise.
me
at
a raid
It is
The
closed.
The
down
the week.
Picasso himself
had
MICHAUX
So
for a
days of
month and
to pay a fine.
he'll starve to death. Isn't this
where Leon-
BRASSAI
with Picasso.
up, but his
It
was in April,
He dropped
think.
He
We would
MICHAUX
BRASSAI
have
felt
it
horrified.
humor
informed Cheriane, the poet's wife. She had to take the metro
and she said to herself: "If I see Picasso in front of Le Catalan,
it means Fargue is dead." And Picasso was waiting for her in
front of the restaurant entrance. But Fargue wasn't dead.
He
hovered between
life
alive again.
MICHAUX
paralyzed, can't
His morale
second
is
And
attack.
sive
him
in that state.
who
Michaux
is
didn't really
know what
tried to reassure
is
me.
on
little
When you
MICHAUX
all
is
him.
He
my
friends.
peasant reap-
his head,
you happy
It
to say to
little statue: a
to evoke
of a
lives in fear
particularly struck by a
battered, twisted
He
as
has everything
it
need
it
makes
day.
left, I
photograph
few sculptures.
"I've
this
est
"
him.
We
just
don't want to
look
at
sell it,
appears.
nounced. He looks
ing,
but
it's
He
found in
his studio.
The
on
date
at
it is
My
"It's a
man
insists: "It
from the
all, as
an-
quality paint
it
was
authentic.
false.
Cezannes.
Even
after the
tering: "As if
the one
"family Cezanne."
young man
don't
He was
made
who protected
He
"
us.
at his
was
paintings?
spent
of us
all.
Surrounded by
his paintings.
He
is
very
at
reproductions of
good time. We were just talking about photography. Tell me, where do all these holes come
from, some light, some dark, in places that have the same value
on the canvases?
PICASSO
You've come
at a
poorly stretched
paint.
being condemned to
do that.
mother arrive. With his
his
He
draws
like a
He
is
in-
films.
Indians storming the fort, a maharajah and his retinue hunting a tiger, pirates plundering a ship, a postilion being attacked in the cordilla.
Or
there
is
it
108
from
a distance,
thing
else,
He
he
is
has thrown
all
the
is
looking
may be
it.
at.
His vo-
the key to
his genius.
One
among
surrounded by clouds highlighted in gold and silver, floats the spirit of an ancestor: he is
encouraging the combatants from his own clan. What intrigues
knights. But above the battlefield,
Picasso
is
its
does
self
is
to
when someone
asks
him
as Picasso
a similar question.
And
boy
since the
way
it
is,"
PICASSO
sion!
That's phenomenal!
And what
a painter's gift!
He
he
avail,
"That's what
how he made
him-
it
He
at
these draw-
ings
gift
he was looking
managed
instanta-
for.
what
parents.
Camoin.
tisse, his
still
alive
at
the
home
of Etienne's
fact,
only jollier
one
intimately.
would
like
him
to
109
ject,
his
tell
"
"Cezanne.
A rather strange
BRASSAI
to fabricate a counterfeit
style so
May we assume
ture,
found,
it
better.
He
who did
this
can-
company?
CAM O IN
BRASSAI
al-
CAMOIN
Was
was
student
at
the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Gustave Moreau class, and I can tell
you we were brighter than students in that school usually are.
And, to get to quai Voltaire, every morning I had to take rue
Laffitte, where Vollard had his shop. In the window, a few of
Cezanne's canvases,
among
always loitered
And how
BRASSAI
CAMOIN As
do my three years
Provence.
did you
come
to
it,
Aix-en-Provence?
had
emo-
tion. Finally,
right away,"
notoriously well
to
known and
"I
was,
man
thought he was
110
point out his house to me. But no one knew him, though
questioned
me
went
minutes.
five
seemed
It
of inconveniencing
my
sat
down
like a
visit
dashed
At the presbytery!
his address?
home.
at
for
the idea
and compromising
I
off.
several hours,
repeated this
little
knocked
at his
door.
The
artist
when he saw
this
My heart
to go
in
my
was
back to his
throat,
at night,
impertinent soldier.
at
self,
my
face with
an
oil
went
lamp.
It
He
invited
me up-
lamp on the
is!
The
ground!
light
artificial
never paint
at
"
night,
I
welcome,
at that
time
me
brought
few of
my
"
in Paris.
///
M. Camoin,
BRASSAI
Cezanne's words,
Cezanne
as
He
didn't understand
at all,
very accurate.
now
think
is
an intimate conversation,
also
words
him, so
to
felt
during
a copious book,
my
he
his paintings,
rhetorical for
people who,
taste.
them.
zanne
CAMOIN
foolish
linaire
lost:
little left
of
it.
I left
more.
it
have very
No
copy of
for Avignon.
doubt
my very
first letter
sent to
don't
remember
it
expressed
my
poem
so
much
Cezanne than
that
ended
a stanza.
to associate
my
my
And
Among
liked that
mind.
was
Cezanne
praise
enough to lend a whole set of letters to Guillaume Apolone day. I never saw them again. They're completely
them was
after
Unfortunately,
Charles
Camoin
and the
recites
fruit.
it
Rubens:
A river of oblivion,
garden of
sloth,
Leonardo da Vinci:
Watteau:
Like butterflies in flashing colors, see
them amble:
Delacroix:
A lake
And
will
ill
.
this
For sure,
Lord,
it is
dignity,
And comes
to die
upon
It
was
as if
he saw
as the
it
He
replied immediately.
BRASSAI
CAMOIN
reasons!
"
and
he told
me
it
do
because
it
was
^^3
He
called priests
buggers.
Wednesday
An
November ig43
I'/
unusual event, no
visitors today.
am
reshooting certain
sculptures.
PICASSO
them?
(surprised)
The
BRASSAI
Yes.
PICASSO
You're
lighting
is
much
day.
from redoing
times
it
thing
be
gets to
like
me.
You can do
too often
better."
a real obsession.
tell
After
all,
The other
not able to
brought
at
day, with
talk to Picasso
a little
age seven.
gouache
rescued
Etienne, deciding
it
it
about
this
morning:
and glued
it
was
have
done
it
up and thrown
it
in the trash.
PICASSO
phenomenal.
a gift for
It's a
real jewel.
I've rarely
painting
The
is
at that age.
was struck by
it.
You
see
how
may
114
There are
no
is
But he
will
one day be
have to start
a real painter,
all
What
It
may
even
a great painter.
My very
first
It
well be that
them.
vision.
ings.
me.
very quickly
When
The
My
moved beyond
and
it
them frighten
was probably he
in that direction.
Thursday l8 November
ig43
down the stairs when I arrive. Who is this stranger? I have seen
him several times already at Picasso's. Dressed in a blue suit, a
sometimes waits for hours in the
vestibule. Sabartes and Marcel leave us. With the stranger, I
rosette in his buttonhole, he
my
me
He
tells
passionately. But
am much
keen on
him that, in
some sense the
less
I tell
his ideas
and grow. His sculptures are important. All his paintseem to be steeped in them. As for his plastic innovations,
they will no doubt influence the future history of sculpture.
Just as we are being swallowed up by the metro entrance,
take root
ings
the
man
I'm the one who provides Braque, Matisse, and many other
painters with their colors. Picasso as well. I've been doing
it
for
and am putting together a collection. In fact, I have my heart set on a certain still life by Picasso. I'm in love with it. I've been coveting it for a long time."
Then, the man in the blue suit pulls a large sheet of paper
from his pocket, unfolds it, and hands it to me. It is filled with
twenty years.
love painting
At
first
glance,
it
looks like a
116
poem,
it is
sometimes
a very
column. Each
it is
not
White, permanent
silver
Blue, cerulean
cobalt
Prussian
Yellow,
cadmium lemon
(light)
strontium
Madder
bitumen
lake,
and dark
Raw umber, natural and burnt
Ultramarine blue,
light
Red, Persian
Terra rosa, natural and burnt
Green, cadmium,
light
and dark
Green, emerald
Rimbaud's "Vowels." For once, all the anonypalette emerge from the shadows,
with "White, permanent" in the lead. Each one has distinIt
sounds
like
guished
itself in a battle
ism, Guernica
casso, as
and each
say: "1
And
Pi-
117
Wednesday
24 November 1^43
asks if
It's
this eve-
ning.
find
paint manufacturer.
PICASSO
BRASSAI
equipment to
PICASSO
faithful to
you
I
.
It's
my
...
to take
me.
probably come back Friday.
BRASSAI
I'll
PICASSO
SABARTES
Catherine.
He must
is
on
the
shelf.
BRASSAI
lish the
book.
PICASSO
Why
should
See here.
We
hurry?
have
all
the time
No one
is
rushing you.
BRASSAI
PICASSO
It's
is
to work,
it
118
will certainly
be cold
as hell.
He
useless pocket
pocket handkerchief.
He
worn
has always
Only
Plantes
still
wear
it
who
body
He would
else for
not put
his jacket.
as
on
that way.
from the
like every-
BARON MOLLET
Pablo,
PICASSO
Because. Should
I tell
holes in them.
And, one
and
You
PICASSO
see?
No more
my
pockets.
"Nothing up
my
sleeves,
to Picasso,
nothing in
my
pockets," as Gocteau
first
met.
No
doubt
full,
stuffed
as
wood or cork, root, or fragment of glass eroded by the sea can be for someone who already sees in them the latent image of a dove, a bull, an owl, or
a sheep's head.
PICASSO
to
my
secure
buttonhole.
all
my
He opens
things to
my
my watch is to attach it
my pockets, I
belt.
his jacket
lose
are holes in
1^9
whole
set
where he used
still
who cannot
live
Is it
not
without a female
mend
his pockets?
BRASSAI
One
day
was shopping,
when
pants pockets.
wedding
my
pockets.
my
and
the time,
at
With the gawkers, I watched the newlyweds come out. Suddenly, I felt something viscous running down my thigh. It was
awful. And then waiting for the yolk and white to drip all the
way down to your feet!
PICASSO You should tell that story to Dali. He's had the
monopoly on eggs ever since Christopher Columbus. Omelets,
fried eggs, scrambled eggs,
eggs, Dali has
put them
BRASSAI
all
tortillas,
New
And
PICASSO
States.
And
it
lic.
all
who
They
Dali,
excels at
un-
all
They looked
We
collision was
Pretty soon,
odor
The
made
women
And
They were
it
was their
own hands
appalled.
BARON MOLLET
PICASSO
guess
bought
it
francs!
at a flea
market.
And
We
the
at
home
After
Satin Slipper.
with the
put
it
on
last
the
Comedie-Fran^aise
it
finally
a difficult
undertaking! Even
managed
reading
it is
off, less
to pull
it
MICHAUX
like theater
rarely go.
gation,
it
me
puts
is
in the
run from in
despise
real life. It
be out in society.
don't
it. I
is
made
tiring.
for
crowd
women who
And when I have to attend a performance out of obliputs me in a bad mood and I slip away. The theater
in contact
of people
like to
Claudel
is
it
a great poet,
was
much
however.
too
have
sympathy for the man, who's too concerned about his own
fortune.
BRASSAi
MICHAUX
nier's,
He's
During
reading
at
Adrienne Mon-
a real
few words.
at
present?
121
He
is
criticized
and
rightly so
because he wrote
he also send
Who
a letter to the
else has
No one I know
dared do that?
Today, such
that, exasperated,
tographing the
PICASSO
Picasso's
apartment
last
of.
mean
don't want to be
SABARTES
am pho-
large statues.
to people,
but
Why
all
the
visitors.
and solemn as at a
funeral. They're waiting. They've been waiting for you for an
hour and a half. We have to do something.
They're out there,
as sad
PICASSO But why did you let them in? Why didn't you
tell them 1 was gone? They could have written me, left me a
note. No, they're all the same, all of them, they want to see me
"in person."
The
secret
meeting
lasts
this, tell
them
is still
look-
that."
And
like a stage
reluctant to
now asks only for a grace pecomb through his hair and take a
run
"
he
says,
the vestibule.
At about one
o'clock, the
We
are left
and apparently
reduced almost
to a carcass,
sad,
and
PICASSO
Have you noticed he can strike poses so extraordinary that it makes you think of anything but a dog? Look at
him from this angle. Doesn't he look more like a large skate
122
BRASSAI
Do you know
unlike Kazbek,
it is
someone offered
it
hound? Be-
to her. But,
PICASSO
BRASSAI
It's a
PICASSO So rare that, when I take him for a walk, everyone looks at him and asks what breed he is. One day in Royan,
at the start of the Occupation, a German officer accosted me.
I wondered what he wanted from me. But he simply wanted
to know what breed Kazbek was. I could breathe again. Marcel,
who
him with questions. So I told him: "Marcel, once and for all,
when someone asks you what breed my dog is, tell him it's a
Charente basset hound. That will give them such a shock that
they won't ask any more questions.
"
123
30 November ig43
Tuesday
signing a drawing he
is
is
him
for a million
he ought to buy
it.
Matisse exhibition
that the
still life
beautiful of
admit
it.
name
He
all
and
The
at
a half.
He
does not
it
is
the
Someone
is
Henri
declares
the most
has hardly
left
the group
when
person whose
down
his reasons
them
also
belong to him."
Man with Sheep. The "good shepherd" looks at me with his madman's eyes. He is heavy. Moving
him is out of the question. I can only turn him on his axis.
And how to find a suitable backdrop? How to light him? In
the middle of the room, he is completely in shadow.
Today,
of great presence
us.
elegant,
first
stupendously bald.
He
man
introduces
my
'
"
he's doing.
him
I
any.
am
And your
"
left
124
who
gives
me much
make
want
to
take
him
delicately
is
teresting angle.
him
several photos
last
take
is
I
rotate
lamb's hooves
the free
inevitably, unavoidably,
The
note
made
it fall. It
my
was
have
it
fate.
And
supposed
The
to
hold
slightest jolt
it
in
would
do not tolerate anything that incaufrom its base. I decapitate, amputate, mutilate. I abrade fingers, nose, ears, the legs of Hercules and the
arms of Venus, everything that separates from the body. Clutching itself tightly, offering no protuberance to time, wind, in-
whispers in
ear: "I
like a
sculpture to be.
"
is
is
curled-up inis
what
want
destined to be cast
is
tolerated.
I
announce
^^5
He
does not
yell,
does not
trils.
do not see flames coming from the Minotaur's nosCould this be a bad sign? Haven't I heard that his cold
fury,
when he turns
blow up.
livid
Not
He examines
fragment
is
missing.
I'll
touch
follows
me
without
He
He
is
it
me
calmly.
up one of these
"The notch
"
days.
him about
the "accident."
SABARTES
it.
When
wasn't mad,
leave
him an hour
now was
I?"
126
me:
"I
Saturday
Since
4 December ig43
He would
not trust
cannot do
hausted, he told me: "I don't even have the time to take out
do it without
don't have one minute this
tomorrow,
morning.
that's a
promise.
I'll
"
found
minute
to tell
me
committed
last
lives there,
Jacques Prevert
it
fail
with a mischie-
A murder was
wasn't Prevert
as well.
who committed
a bizarrely
hope
the crime."
him
good
dressed poet from Saint-Germain-des-
mood with
it?
find
in a very
tones.
SABARTES
one
He
is
the
did
it
last
in
They're part of
my
wanted
What do you
to have
it
say?
framed,
cess,
look
at it:
fluted ruff
daring
at
prises
me and
it.
My wish
La Boetie, he
first
did not
made
fall
II, as
he was dressed
at
the
me
ruff.
me
did not
know
hidalgo was
BRASSAI
traits
You must now have a whole collection of porThe one in Moscow, nicknamed The
painted by Picasso.
Glass of Beer,
SABARTES
Yes,
it
a table
from
period, 1901.
It's
seems to me.
128
SABARTES
time,
off. It
my
was
as
at that
it
was living in
glass
without
my
pince-nez, absorbed in
struck him.
did
it
SABARTES
Four in
my hobby
a third a
all.
few years
Spanish grandee.
if I still
how can
have
I've
you?
same
that
my
year,
shoulders.
do
my
full-length por-
many
He
sculptures to photograph.
almost finished
know? Does
He
he'll also
One
BRASSA'i
And
knows? Perhaps
accompany Sabartes
me
the portrait.
later.
trait as a
asks
me
Who
portraits.
he showed
my myo-
must have
be done.
my
thoughts,
didn't pose.
How many
BRASSAI
Then
my
from memory,
19OI, with
It's
at
Picasso himself
remember
all
his sculp-
promised
to take
SABARTES
me one
day.
some-
He
gave
Paris,
it
to
me
as a gift.
he told me:
celona, he offered
"I'll
it
give
it
to
you
to the cabaret
129
wanted
to take
in Barcelona."
it
in
But in Bar-
ing was sold, passed from hand to hand, until, one day, he was
able to buy
gave
it
back.
me. Yet
to
it
BRASSAI
it
It
came back
really
to rue
was my painting.
So you think
he'll
me?
with
SABARTES
Don't count on
it!
He
do so. That place brings back too many painful memoand he hates the idea of setting foot again in that place
where he was so unhappy. Every time he starts over, it's for
sire to
ries
new
would
even more phenomenal
One
is
he may
also
flee
still
many
things
left
on rue La
Boetie.
And what
BRASSAI
lan?
is
at least fifty
SABARTES
ask
him
if
dozen
plasters.
SABARTES
York, he began
mean, he sold
new
life.
New
No one
let
130
him
could be on
get the
would
SABARTES
dinner.
always want to be
^31
As
am waiting,
look
at his
parchment-colored
do the portrait of
Through my view-
his weak eyes behind lenses thick as milk bottles. This gaze,
which fixes on you from the "depths of sadness," would make
his face almost melancholic if his
ing up
at
smile.
No doubt
taken to curv
his sense of
humor,
He adopted
it
out of
fear of the cold, the wind, drafts: a sort of cap with flaps that
can be pulled down over the ears and fastened under the chin,
or pulled up over the head and attached with a snap; or they
can
two
And
think of Hermes, in
public relations,
when
little
Mercury, god of
mediating be-
tween Picasso and the world, ushering the crowd in and out.
also
photograph
is
many preparatory
and
at
portraits for
The
head, armchair,
slippers
piles
Man
132
in his
arms
th(
visible slippers
slightly,
when
Picasso
PICASSO
"document."
pers.
It'll
artist
won't be
It's
my
slip-
it
him
is
as
like
was
those
at
deeper understanding of
think of that science, and
man
I
via
man-the-creator.
thing
why
I
I
often
leave to
date every-
make.
One
we were talking with Sabartes about Pione of his works and writings, indicating not only the year, the month, and the day, but sometimes also the hour, Sabartes shrugged his shoulders. "What
day, while
sense
is
How could
But, given what Picasso has just revealed to me, his meticulous
dating
is
flective act.
cal
He
movement
He
a histori-
wants per-
sonally to place each of his acts within the great annals of his
phenomenal
life,
J33
it.
Tuesday J December
On
1^43
usual, she
is
carrying
fat scrolls
cold and the biting north wind, with her bluish fingers, swol-
still lifes
in vivid colors for the most part, betraying an obvious gift for
them
me
have
tion or
artists'
woman possessed.
For
had been burning with the desire to show Picasso her paint ings. A few months ago in May she had made his acquaintance
in a Paris restaurant. She comes here often now, and waits in the
9oise
He
fact that a
Too
his life.
he flaunts
flattered
it.
But
Max Jacob
claimed. Always eager and always weary, like the famous se-
ducer from
woman
Seville,
a goal in
them too
art.
them
to
He
considers
modest
veil
thrown
over the
very
But even
if
lithographs, engravings,
from the
start.
The
features of his
new
favorite
his secret
immediately
little, slightly
pouting
mouth, the straight nose, the beauty mark on the cheek, the
ample chestnut brown hair uncoiling around her face, the
wide-open, asymmetrical green eyes, the arched eyebrows, the
adolescent body with the narrow waist and, already, a woman's
curves, Picasso is in love with Fran^oise and allows himself to
be worshiped by her. He loves her as if she were the first
woman
he ever loved.
is
already causing.
When
first
time, he
tells
me, pointing
to
when
she's just
And
come from
"
^35
especially, don't
the hairstylist.
de-
This
is
not the
"nice haircuts."
it
first
He
time
wants hair,
woman
like cats, to
be wild and
in the world
free. If
136
Wednesday 8 December
ig43
today
when
bone,
at
no. 7 of that
very street.
The
studio
is
who
pestering
photos:
Tomb.
is
me
fingers are so
numb
cannot
waiting for
me
at
He
has been
An odd
My
bitter cold.
fellow,
Bataille!
my
is
A scholar in his
erudi-
sins,
and
of
a tragic vision
life.
At Le Flore, 1 see Jacques Prevert. Picasso told me everything," he tells me. "His Man with Sheep is now called Man with
'
Hoofless Sheep/'
He
also gives
murder committed
is
me
in his hotel
details
"
"collabora-
says Prevert.
"He
navigates
among
us
like a fish."
i37
scess.
"
ask
him
if
good
and warm.
MICHAUX
ing.
It
cating.
me
I'm in
a very nasty
And how
do not dare
him
invent
tell
It's
are
am
some misery
fire
go-
mood.
suffer terribly.
passion,
you?
perfectly fine.
for myself.
138
Friday
10 December ig43
Worked
It is as
my apartment
cold in
fifteen degrees
it is
froze
his bowl.
Even
With
dragon
his
street
cold-blooded batra-
my
and in the
as in the street,
tail,
enormous mouth, my
bought him
difficult,
very
still
quai de
at
much
moving
alive,
move along on
moved.
it
the water.
come! come,
stirred
my
pet!"
tried to gulp
paralleled act.
So that
cabin inside
My
it
And
my
he came.
And
had
playing dead
at
the
himself to water
he rushed to
my
pencil
An un-
it.
I
built a little
it.
and
the heat of
were
himself be de-
let
From
lifted
my
flies that
And Alfred
pet!"
down.
bird merchant.
lit.
from
their feet
ceived. Gradually, he
as
Megissserie
la
live in.
my own body
^39
type-
was bathed in
reflected
is
well
pleasant heat,
and intensified
as in a
Ther-
mos
bottle.
am
my
cabin.
PICASSO
(mockingly)
me
you up already?
It's
thought.
He
BRASSAI
rines from the
PICASSO
Picasso, could
you please
And from
lock
ettes. I
you?
go!
statuI
begin
chorus of laughter,
dom-
inated by a resonant, juicy laugh, with the spasmodic contractions of sobbing, a laugh recognizable in a
crowd of a
Raymond Queneau.
crowd
his
is
brown
his face
still
him
are
Raymond
wanted
He
wrung
ers
brim of
woman
few
me.
up the bugle
to surprise
takes
again. Yes, he
drawn,
cheeks swell.
from
painted, or sculpted.
it.
He
He
is
the
140
And,
again, he
followed by a
laughter.
new
burst of
VALENTINE HUGO
What
a surprise!
talents to us.
PICASSO
peter?
I've
When
trum-
And my
knows
it
well.
We worked
up the phone,
am
left
Skira
did
picked up
my
Ta-ta-ti, ta-ta-ti,
came running.
finished a cop-
at
lives close
calls,
at
He
she goes
Le Catalan. As
PICASSO
141
Freezing cold.
to
got
Montparnasse
to get
of the pharmacy,
MICHAUX
We
It's
horrible.
feel the
BRASSAI
that, in the
my
whole part of
my body
in
feel it?
So you
MICHAUX
is
pulsing of
can't
work?
No! Hardly
at all!
To work well,
have to be
Louise in
only
a single
when
talk
room we
sometimes go
nasse.
It's
warm
keep quiet.
taken for
whole,
my
it's
Gare Montpar-
madman
can write
a sort of incantation.
my
cafes.
142
have to
On
the
BRASSAI
MICHAUX
publishes very
He produces very
little.
little.
as he's talk-
human
Or, in any
and
presence.
case,
he
ticle.
MICHAUX
These
days, a
new
"great poet"
And
able.
is
is
a poet.
who
is
truly original.
poems whose novelty is indisput"Dinner of Heads" very much, and also the one
like
can't think of
its title.
it.
H3
Tuesday 14 December
horribly cold.
It is
We
SABARTES
dering
ig43
cannot manage to
Do you
PICASSO
bronzes could
BRASSAI
room
really
easily
We were won-
new photos.
It's
You
this weather.
rian.
up.
you'd come in
if
warm
it. I
advise against
it.
it's
Sibe-
small
warm.
photographs in
is
The
this
The birds? Do
PICASSO
don't under-
stand.
I'd
frighten
The
offer
warmth. But
is
I
tempting.
that?
The
stove
is
radiating a pleasant
nook, not
crammed
full.
cranny to
Ask Picasso
up
move
set
to
BRASSAI
I've
thought about
144
it,
and
It's
more convenient
cold.
When you're
all,
it
SABARTES
And on
boulevard de Clichy!
hand.
I'll
We
put on over-
those nights.
PICASSO
And
got
my
sciatica, in fact.
So
can
tell
you
one thing, the cold stimulates you, keeps your mind awake. It
You work to get warm and you get warm by
working. But a pleasant heat puts you to sleep. Go, work then.
keeps you moving.
Good
luck.
H5
Last Friday,
claimed:
"My
had such
a portrait."
And Sabartes told me: "I don't like my face. I hate to look in
a mirror. And I despise seeing myself in a photograph. I'm really
not photogenic. And yet, I'm happy with myself in your photo."
And he shows it proudly to the people present.
"Look, Brassai photographed me on the 'throne.'"
And Picasso adds: "All you need now is the scepter and
crown.
"
SABARTES
It
nally, a portrait
was a big
where
hit.
it
up
again.
see a likeness!
"
of good news: we received coal and, since yesterday, the big studio
is
heated.
You won't
shiver anymore!
Today,
casso
made
five
or
six
On
one of them
long
sawdust by Picasso;
little
skill
and patience of a
is
simply rolled-
up cardboard.
This sculpture book
raises a
problem for me on
146
material
level. I
rights
am
and,
dozens to Picasso.
very precarious.
confide
me
my
And my
situation to Sabartes.
material situation
and
He
offers to "ar-
He joins him
in the next
They
conversation.
room.
That
what they do
is
to keep oth-
my
SABARTES
I
pleaded your
the photos.
Then
Well, no,
a request for
when the
artworks in question
he'll
all
you
to
make
about
it
it. I
up
to
advise
I tell
Sabartes
my
later, Picasso
him
me
my
photos to Picasso,
me
to
do
so.
and
A little
in the studio.
me
these prints of
my
sculptures.
with him.'^^
H7
You should
settle the
matter
24 December ig43
Friday
Yesterday,
worked
at Picasso's
apartment
main
staircase
livery
men
opened and, for two hours, Marcel and the debrought up clean canvases, dozens and dozens of
art
few weeks,
hundred-
or thousandfold.
nude
Among them
is
me and
a fairly realist
takes out
standing
her
little
On
itself:
one
her
many
times.
used
ask
him whether
Picasso
model.
SABARTES
saw
with Sheep. I
lamb
at
A model!
his
He
said
he
memories?
is
phenomenal.
When
148
And
BRASSAI
work from
life
any longer.
sometimes he
still
has to
need
yet,
to
make meticu-
SABARTES
need
to.
He
can reinvent
all
and
knows them
distract
memory. He doesn't
plants,
he
become
his
own
some
in
sense.
He
always
BRASSAI
that he possessed
referring to
every sort of
He
Louis
carried
Lam-
"second nature."
wanted
my
spoke of
kind of
still
didn't dare
who
tamper with
it.
Rereading
tion for
He
to elucidate everything,
was afraid of
gift.
found confirma-
wrote:
Among the
H9
SABARTES
casso too
is
stant, every
form of reality
is
it
it
him.
available to
forever.
When
he's seen
when he
puts pen-
ask Sabartes
SABARTES
how Man
its
had etched
after
SABARTES
saw
offering
all
these
him
the beard
is
day,
thought he
gifts.
Among
receiving
it.
to be.
was struck by
it
came
The one on
BRASSAI
You
with Sheep
these gifts
is
lamb. The
man with
hundred perhaps.
surprisingly fresh.
appropriately,
150
Friday
April
Yesterday,
into
1944
in Montparnasse,
a beautiful
ran
sheepskin
coat.
"The outward
"I got
I
it
was on
with
signs of weakh!"
my watercolors.
my way
to
draw
at
became
hesitant
as
and asked me
a great
number
of
questions:
"Don't they ask anything when you go in? Don't they watch
Do you
free,
"
"
And
full. It
On
the starkly
lit
plat-
on
a tall stool,
me
Michaux felt somewhat reassured. Once he had regained some control of himself, he whispered in my ear: "1 could never draw here. The crowd inhibits
back to the
wall,
women
^5^
doesn't
PICASSO
What
a surprise!
The other
is
who
alarming."
As
matter of
caught up in drawing,
fact,
And
mean goodbye
forever.
PICASSO
Do you know
PICASSO
He
yet,
at
an in-
dawn. She
He had
when
the door-
bell rang.
still
in Fresnes?
PICASSO
We
continue to
talk
long time.
delupans danced.
He
very incarnation, in
He
led a harried
was
fact,
life,
still
with his
gift
tried his
its
of poetic clairvoyance.
152
lips
found an incarna-
Elsa,
it
was becom-
from seeing
tos,
Fujita,
this as his
who
vere
a
He
as
it
finally achieved
home
cords,
crammed
home
galore, even
of re-
full
welcome
to
visi-
is
eyes, so childlike, so
checkered red
shirt,
at his side as
see Pierre
selas eyes
usual.
tie.
Jean Marais
Amid
Reverdy again.
close
relatives
mood
I
refuge
among
tell
friends,
former
him
and
had
live
officer in the
suit,
am
white
Samoyed dog
there, his
male voice,
like his
of Picasso's
He
questions me.
is
lized as a
ingenuous.
delighted to
his black
Chas-
my
to flee
apartment, take
Romanian army,
chose to
even
of
it.
when
I
it
quote
was
more
this line,
discreet.
He
asks
me
if
ing
in,
at
the
time we are
liv-
human
"
ones.
Could we be on
^53
is
talking about
it,
tells
PICASSO
heard of
a girl
against a wall
flat as a
bas-relief
on
me
nica
blood,
blood
like to see
flow, stream
the
An
art
publisher arrives.
down
morning,
ings.
German
"I
my
mail this
nerve to write:
you
lot!
letter
mark my words! he
hope, M. Picasso,
that,
my
paint-
has the
my
thanks to
book,
will sell
rather,
The
art
publisher explains he
is
preparing
like to
book on Le
reproduce
all
the Rous-
The
blame!
art
Why
publisher
are
my own works!
tells
you such
didn't already
"
Why
did you
fact, a
The
peared.
from
last
cries out:
And, taking us
it is still
leafs
it,
peeking out
through
it,
and
a fake!"
as his witnesses,
he continues to look
who
Picasso also
story
X who's
tells
painter
for
fall
right.
Someone remarks:
"It's
the
Another
he was complaining
fact,
wouldn't take
ing The
'
The
art
and
Picasso by Picasso
PICASSO
ally,
first
that he has
asks
me
if
much
if
tant to take
all
once, and he
tell
new
my
my
my own
response
him, "Yes,
Re-
face.
I've
is
negative, he
about fifteen
me: "Show
sculptures.
it's
me
all
is
am
reluc-
from my briefcase
of them,
all
of them.
Through them,
"
eyes.
i55
dis-
judge
it.
the prints
tells
bought
time on
appointed. But
to
My
Well done!
haven't spent
He
see
at
It's
me
He
can only
cast a
quick glance
at
bedroom, his
"Noah's ark," where he saves everything that moves him at the
moment a letter, a book, a magazine, photos from the
flood. He will look at them or read them in peace at night in
upstairs to put
in his
it
bed.
At about half past noon, I am left alone with him. Suddoor opens, Ines enters, holding springtime in her
arms: an armful of lavender and white lilies.
denly, the
PICASSO
her eyes?
The
Isn't Ines
graceful
young woman
is
day.
decorating the
room
with
for
me. With her matte complexion, her long black hair, her
always-beaming smile, and her flowered dresses, she could be
taken for a Polynesian vahine.
PICASSO
It's a
town on
a hill
be-
BRASSAI
Yes,
memory
PICASSO
Someone showed me
door. They are religiously pre-
left
on
of your
stay.
is
sister,
Ines as chamber-
maid and her sister as cook. She was beautiful. She was kind.
So we took her and brought her back to Paris.
We are just about to leave when the paint manufacturer arrives. He proposes a "trade" with Picasso: his property in exchange for the
To
its
still life
long time.
When
He
is all
156
is
al-
24
"Sabartes:
need now
is
me on
the scepter
the throne.'
and crown.
"
And
25
Picasso:
I
It
won't be a document.'.
'
You moved my
slippers.
26
"Picasso:
Isn't Ines
beautiful?
Have you
seen the
color of her
eyes?"
of
1
its
birth.
can no
longer look
at
it
without
seeing the
woman."
28
"Picasso:.
But ...
need
model!
He
artiste peintre.
29
30
it
A liquid
over. ...
Boffom, "Picasso:
What
attracts attention
It's
pants
31
Right,
"The
light
is
marvelous today.
It
the chimneys, the sections of wall Picasso always has in front of him.
"
Tuesday
go out
27 April ig44
early.
on
bombs from
British airplanes,
fell at
dropped
Mont-
shards of glass.
finally arrive
am
Still Life
was damaged by
PICASSO
Could
You've come
at a
November
1918,
when
on
all
seen the shadow of death pass over his face that day, he stopped
Jean Marais arrives with his dog. He is carrying an enormous broomstick under his arm. He is staging Racine's Andro-
maque
to
the
at
He
forefront.
He
barbaric play," he
savagery.
He
power
tells us.
And
he wants
He
to
to excite
hearts.
bring out
all
wants to appear
almost nude, dressed only in a leopard skin. In his slightly raucous voice, he
tells
my
"Very
need
it
much
so,
replies. "I
would
for tomorrow."
likes, arrive.
And
also the
is
broken. There's
a story
behind
tail
of the
this cat
and
into a cat.
legs, the
else
The woman's
knows about
the secret of
its
this
birth.
cat.
cat's
Then he added
at
and
No one
share
without seeing
the
woman.
broke the
the "cat
It is
woman"
long
tail? It
broken on the
base.
And
cat.
Who
lies
it
some mali-
tell
"
Now
stood up so proudly!
cat's
"woman
or the
cious joy: "So I'm not the only one to demolish your sculptures."
PICASSO
mob
at
my
But
place.
your
it's
And
fault!
The other
with Sheep,
by the
this cat
my
which
were to take
Since
peared.
It's
my
your
fault,
last visit
An enormous
place,
from
a distance
be taken for
casso
is
my
your
told
statues,
new
to
tail
nude volup-
so well painted
distance
she
could
- r
Aubry. Pi-
obsession.
by
it
fault!
become an
"
it
She belonged
afraid he'll
it,
he breaks everything! To
Courbet.
SABARTES
is
at
who broke
tail,
He wanted
it's
al-
really
He
dealers to be
this one,
he
on
fell
the lookout.
in love with
it.
that
works.
"
'67
Now he
this life
is all
of the party,
hold of him,
gets
He
when
it is
as
still.
For
imperious
as the desire to
paint a pic-
wall
the
things.
He
wants to
commune
with
reality, all
of
reality, at its
truest,
dow of an
quaint
art dealer
little
who
sells
may
It
is
like that!
combined with
the
One
on which
168
Picasso
had sketched
few figures,
him
heard him
Bahhus (he
likes
and owns
done the characters, now you're going to paint the interior for me. You have a knack for creating an intimate ambiance, I don't." It was not just a whim. Did not Rubens, a man
of forms above all, often entrust the landscape in his compositions to La Patelliere, the first great landscape painter?
"But we've forgotten the model!" says Picasso. "I need a
model! What is an artiste peintre without a model?"
several of his paintings):
"I've
el's
Then
mod-
take a
months, even
is
quickly overcome by
a canvas,
and
have
rummaging
rooting out another, manipustretchers,
all
is
an important
It is
be-
moment
in
first
time.
It
169
them usually around an easel with one or even several paintings already on itjuxtaposing small formats and large to highlight their affinities or differences. Picasso adores these improvised arrangements where chance plays a role, the final
He
litter,
which
preeminent role as leitmotiv, and
dark shadows
cast
by the flame.
saturated,
all
canvases.
Picasso can, if the desire strikes him, escape his studio via a fanlight
on
Paris.
Near the
skylight,
hanging
very high
the wall,
see a
very studio.
I
want to do
timer gives
is
me
There
is
it
also.
no point
He
wants to
obstacles:
take
and Fenosa;
my
I
I
is
Pierre Re-
Sabartes.
Marcel to
Jaime
call
will take,
and
which
is
cluttered with
can
place.
starts to
make
its
click.
buzzing noise.
I
I'JO
is
jumps up,
it
over,
released. Everyone
laughing and he
is
is
And the
shut-
triumphant:
"I
floods everything.
ter.
same
photo?
It is as
my good
river, as
impossible
as
stepping
get
so
itself
has
And
the camera.
moved
except Kazbek,
This
casso's.
is
He
latest style.
He joins
not the
who
first
has
time
become
us.
click
No one
has
ghost dog.
at
Pi-
Typewriter,
strange place, cared for by his faithful Madeleine, with her big
cat
and
slate
board of "duties,
"
a place
this
melancholic
women
known each
lost none of
managed
Rome
in the
171
Parade with
him and
encounter of his
life.
doubt stimulated
The
painter's audacity
and
principal
the
no
humor,
lucidity
his quicksilver
"depths of his
And
at
Le Catalan.
to face
with Paul Eluard, since the two poets have set aside the old and
sometimes violent quarrels that divided them during the surrealist period. I look at Gocteau: still young and slender not a
strand of silver hair in his crew cut
an ounce of extra
flesh.
all muscle
narrow and
making Juliette,
or the Key to
wrists,
displayed by
seem skimpy,
so short they
Dreams
and
He
talks
flutter
about
Eternal Return,
is
the
first
It
"they could
become
the
via regia
of poetry.
new
"
Gocteau
is
full
of
Beast.
When
am
left
my
attention.
PICASSO
Isn't
it
skinned
mummy.
marvelous?
found
it
in the cour
am amused
this
miserable rabbit,
it,
it
17^
by incorporating
it
into a
Guitar.
Why
adventure?
PICASSO
And
me
he shows
whole
wooden
boxes.
PICASSO
came home.
pulled
It's
little nails
made
it is:
serving as hinges.
humble
of ideas we cherish:
comes
last to
"I
behave
like
when
so inge-
A real
erty,
niously, so simply!
and
them out of a
crammed
full
BRASSAI
them together
drawer
filled
to
make
skyscrapers.
stack
clips,
vaccine
and
scarcity of tobacco,
it's
my
With
only
PICASSO
cigarette box.
piles
on the
fact, a
fireplace
on rue La
good
at
are assembled to
make
thing.
Picasso disappears
little
J73
struction stands,
to
one another by
to
photograph
it.
little
plasteline balls.
But Picasso
tells
me
would
it is
attached
like very
much
all,
it
and my camera
next time.^^
is
28 April ig44
Paris,
morning with
bed and invites me up. A sign of friendship: only family members and his
closest friends are allowed in his bedroom.
is still
in
is
filled
opened and
On
No one
erary
life,
lished.
that
He
this
and
on the
morn-
remembered
well-informed about
is
lit-
down
he
falls
asleep.
woman
bed
to Picasso.
For once,
day.
Do
that
damn broomstick
time.
It's
my
to you, don't
worked on
in the corner.
I
spirals into
it,
it
almost
Do you
It is
all
night.
me
such
Do you want
geometric
^75
style
hard
to see it?
of Pyrrhus?
circles in the
burned long
of some reinvented
archaic art.
am
From
the
first stroke,
life to
he guesses, in-
vents,
posal.
PICASSO
At
first, I
wanted
to paint
it.
But onstage,
stick.
when
thought of
my
And Jean
this stick
you. He's
come
for
up
.
to
."
Marais
little electric
on
came up
have no
in a hurry.
It
imagined.
to see
fie'll
here in an hour."
176
be
May 1944
Wednesday 3
This time
hope we
You've come
SABARTES
lutely
will
inundated
this
at a very bad time. Picasso is absomorning. He'll never have the time to go
pears.
peintre
in front of the
buxom nude. He
it
will
amuse you,
No one
when
"I
on
quick
it.
briefcase, start-
developed
it all
the
document!
my
artiste
think."
PICASSO
ing in the lens
see?
mimicking the
delighted with
same,
is
is
the spot.
Why?
Because
as a dog's.
knows
am joking.
Because he does
and
mind of the
177
"^^
present
him
Look. What
PICASSO
else?
attracts attention
before anything
It's
plumb
blade; like a
line!
pointments
look
ing,
bum.
like a
have a
this
And I
still
We
can't
have to
number of ap-
a beautiful
go to the studio
fix
this
The
mornPhoto-
stay.
you
if
is
marvelous today.
It sets
front of
him when he
trum of washed-out
paints: a discreet
and
grays, reds,
backdrop in
spec-
win-
dow, the sun's rays penetrate the room; make the dust on the
old beams
tes;
fly;
splinter
on
bumpy
little
metal
dog
stretches
skeletal hindquarters.
I
do
with visitors.
From
all this
downstairs
hear the
murmur
It is
noon. The
filled
is
of their con-
mo-
to
show
in the
get
pened
sits
178
Since the
brought
new year
box of my
He
recent drawings.
fact,
have
PICASSO I like them even better than your early drawings. I have no reason to flatter you or pull your leg. You
ought to do an exhibition. What sense is there in hiding these
things? You must show them, sell them.
I tell him that, having opted for photography, I did not
want to spread myself too thin, that for twenty years I have not
touched a pencil and that, if he had not insisted, I might never
PICASSO
You
have a
hear me,
fully. It
gift
it's
Frankly,
(almost angry)
like that
photography
submission.
as to a
convent.
PICASSO
No
You
was
It
It's
you
part!
One
One
objects.
retreats to
it
to say, to express,
"
is
an
When
One must
The "second
satisfy
signature.
doubt. So
cation.
it.
on your
no longer touch
exploit
BRASSAI
make
illusion!
beginning,
did not
sell at a
ings,
my
tell
Picasso
sold.
My
draw-
our time.
^79
BRASSAI
Few
enough
put across
to
Les
An
artist
cially to
needs success.
produce
his
And
not only to
live
off
a rich
it,
but espe-
painter has to
not everyone
art
is
sensitive to painting.
art, and
Most judge the world of
success
tion.
The blue
shielded me.
"The
BRASSAI
is
Nietzsche.
my
PICASSO
Quite
success that
Picasso displays
my
right. It
could do what
liked,
anything
liked.
drawings.
on
the
sold. Leave
it
to
me.
I'll
We
casso introduces
me
to a stranger
PICASSO
one
"I
Do you
was thinking
of.
180
"I like
them."
Picasso, pointing to
me,
tells
artist.
You
When
be in good hands.
It's
left,
Picasso
tells
Do you know
thought. You'll
the
We
and he
gives
number
is
me more
that
you
advice:
sell a
world."
181
Thursday
4 May 1946
is
in the
company
them
is
an enormous stack of
boxes, tied with string and stuffed with drawings and gouaches.
On
one of them
a date.
museum
as if
collection.
He must
many of these
boxes.
many
are locked in crates or cupboards. How could anyone know
how many there are? Some have been sorted and contain only
his own works, others are a mix of prospectuses, old engravSABARTES
have about
sixty
of them. But
The
three
men
new volume of
all
Cahiers d'Art, a
monumental publication
entire oeuvre,
lifetime.
It
will still
list,
every
inquiry.
I
am
182
without
he who
in
its
respective category,
It is
direct-
announcing in an authoritarian
l6
March 1936,"
To my
giving every
work by Picasso an
technical terms.
share
my
official status.
com-
is
The example of Marcel demonstrates how Pimost revolutionary impulses naturally become classical.
SABARTES
casso's
him,
elicits
it
might be,
him
mains incomprehensible
to
still
re-
chauffeur proves that Picasso, always addressing an as-yet nonexistent public, creates that public
criteria
and
also
imposes on
it's
If
it
the
Marcel
is
Watching
some
fairly
all
am
surprised to see
SABARTES
that
What
If Picasso
drawing surface of
his artworks.
smooth, without
wrinkle.
On
He
wants
it
kill
you.
as the
impeccable,
183
No
threw out
publisher
who
The other
day,
he
one hand and in the middle, not with two hands along the
edges.
184
Friday
5 May 1944
are wrought
The
first
sculptures
see
or
Boisgeloup.
They were
PICASSO
severely
the castle was occupied, first by the French army, then by the
Wehrmacht. The Germans committed no acts of destruction.
It was the French soldiers in the "phony war" who amused
themselves by hoisting
them
as best
my
statues
redid
could.
ing himself
to their play
And why
see
He
takes a
him
molds
much
at
as
monumental
an orange,
leaf.
The
Boisgeloup.
little
sand pie
as the
round bottom of
lid,
duce something
box
crumpled, creased,
rocky mountain.
The
185
lids,
as eyes,
nose, and mouth, give birth to primitive faces similar to neolithic idols
most beautiful
ated
in
is
human
a single sculpture.
its
One
of the
of real leaves
mythology.
I
am
materials
sculpt.
But curiously,
hand
as
and as object in many casts and impressions, as if Pihad shifted to his hands the attention he once granted to
his face. With his left hand, he had made a whole series of charcoal sketches, gouaches, and pastel drawings "from nature"
about twenty years earlier. Here, he pressed them into fresh
plaster and made casts, a closed fist at the end of a strong wrist,
as if he wanted to seize all its concentrated power. I also see a
cast of his right hand, executed, I think, by someone else. It
stands alone and autonomous, a monument of supreme potency, equilibrium: fleshy palm. Mount Venus sensually jutting
out, willful thumb, fingers pressed tight against one another,
preventing any light from passing between them. And what clarsubject
casso
ity,
large
about fifty sculptures, which we took from the crates and unwrapped with Picasso. He tells me: "You see, you've still got
plenty on your plate!
The publisher, a bit frightened by the size the book would
"
186
be
if
it
included
all
set
them aside,
him and
And
ab-so-
your book."
187
its
Tuesday 12 June
As
am
never
set foot
casso,
but
1^44
see a
"I'll
am
man
Ortiz de Zarate!
want to
of rage, which
a fit
now manage to
The Spanish painter wanted to do Picasso's portrait:
"You'll come to my place when you like, and I'll pose for you,"
Picasso
you."
And
"I
want
to have
my
portrait
done by
"You can
leave your canvas and paints here, you'll continue tomorrow."
The rough portrait was hung on the wall, that is where I no-
voted a
first
ticed
it
and Sabartes told him: "He's very busy, but wait." And he
waited an hour, two hours, all morning. "Come back tomorrow, there won't be so
many people
here.
"
And
the painter
came back the next day, and the next, all week, several weeks.
At the end of his rope, this easily irritated man has exploded
this morning. He was shouting, yelling. Gesturing wildly, he
pounded on
my
pride,
my
ego! If Picasso
come
to
my
place, he
farce has
gone
brushes.
"
am
de-
34 "Casting
duce something
as
monumental
35 "The impression of
crushed, can take
on
as the
"
"
36 Opposite, "Fleshy
palm, Mount Venus
sensually jutting out,
willful
thumb, fingers
one another.
37
"
fresh plaster."
38
Below,
"[He] made
end of a strong
he wanted
seize all its concen-
the
wrist, as if
to
trated power."
beautiful
is
human
face created
leaves in
its
of mythology."
a cast
of real
lighted!" he tells
tainly the
me.
enormously.
most beautiful of
cer-
It is
all
recently."
SABARTES
Lucky
manufacturer)
stiff!
You
have in-
credible luck! Do you know that your famous "castle" has just
been destroyed by a bomb? And just a few days after the signing! Obviously, you couldn't care less, it's not your business
anymore. You have the still life after all!
I
He
know what
is
to believe.
The
story
may be
joke or announces
including, to
my
great pleasure,
my
old friend
six
oth-
Raymond
is
We
lies,
it
is
much ground,
93
but
Friday
Mme
l6 June 1944
M.
an El Greco
to sell.
me
No
doubt he would
be happy to buy
PICASSO
it.
And
that El Greco.
if I
don't buy
it
would
myself,
was
could find
buyer.
it
it
may be worth
Then you
Mme
here to
it
M.
my
called
falling,
hope
thing would
going to prison.
studio. Let
me
is
to the
The
be to bring
money
in
best
me know.
yesterday.
The
El Greco will be
morning. She found a fellow to pull the handfrom I'Etoile to les Grands-Augustins can take
The
trip
would
like to receive
it.
She
at
my
telephone
call
be-
is
arrive
and
asks
me
to
bedroom. I catch sight of him in the doorway of the bathroom, shaving. Naked, broad-backed, bent over
come
upstairs to his
thinner.
hands.
tell
him about
the El Greco.
He
throws up his
another day.
him
that
Mme
M.
's
days,
hours, until
option
is
Monday morning.
all?
An
it.
And
it
Mme
M.
"Picasso agrees.
The
El Greco can
leave."
He
me
vites
smooth
women,
that he
as a baby's skin.
proudly in-
He
Now he just
his face:
me,
unhealthy."
"it's
BRASSAI
Days of Man?
He
Do you know
the
often
morn-
and wipes
"
he
tells
The
as the
BRASSAI
He's
know more.
"
"
read.
W5
From
while he
all
Picasso's
sympathy and,
getting dressed,
is
he breaks
down and
He
begs the
make him
Picasso
tween
it
would
is
He
Now
latter
and puts
great
on.
it
hesitates be-
He
it is
tie.
He
has a
white and red, black and red, blue and white. All his
he has
life
been very attached to his ties, even at the Bateau-Lavoir. Fernande says he piled the ones he could not bear to part with in
an old hat box. I notice that the bow ties he preferred in his
"high society period have almost all disappeared. Has anyone
noticed, in fact, that these motifs polka dots, squares, and
checks often appear in his paintings, that the combination of
colors in his tie, his shirt, his jacket, are sometimes reminis"
he puts on
he
will
be
at
home.^^
with
filled
A new "motif
"
has
made
its
a gift.
On
ripen, turning
is
ready filled
these
al-
plants.
When
engaged in
on
PICASSO
false!
All represent
but
all
life "as
find
the
seen by
196
are
images we
it.
about "objective
reality."
me, and
morning, while
I'll
give
it
to
But what
human
You
suspect.
objective reality?
is
It's
types,
It is
and
locks
must be
carefully
away in
it
a closet
all.
Marcel informs
me
The
Greco"
is
waiting in front
and wiping
heels,
is
down
fellow
his forehead.
Mme
M.
is
covered with
hard on his
Now
My
first
affair: a
is
disastrous.
It is a
face
is
large religious
The
cross.
impression
falls.
A great
cross too
man-
No one
moves, no one dares say a word. Piand approaches the canvas. And from
the stentorian voice of Mme M. M
suddenly
on
that silence
and
sky
his glasses
rises.
such
Its
masterpiece.
the
He thought he
Germans
is
it
could
sell
it
to a
prepared to
eight million, a
let
it
away."
W7
he
is
happy
to
listen
for,
to people's
Museum
himself."
PICASSO
Prado Museum!
named by
am
ports,
And
had
was
Everyone wanted to
tell
me
And
istrees."
director;
still
start.
my "admin-
votion.
of
all its
Then
Picasso turns to
Mme
M.
"If
will
Greco of all the El Grecos he made to order for certain convents or certain churches. If the good sisters of Saint Theresa
or the orphans of Saint Ursula asked him for a few more tears,
he happily added them, so many pesetas per tear. One has to
live. But this El Greco of the good sisters does not interest me
at all! No, the curators of German museums are not such idiots, believe me! If it had been a good EI Greco, they would
have bought
it,
that
is
He
asks
He
still life
looks,
my
The
paintings.
PICASSO
Definitely,
prefer
198
Matisse!
subject
Greco
judge them
is
my
Sabartes, at
side, tells
exasperates me.
Informed by
of an El Greco for
me:
"I
How can
The
patches of paint.
as
El
as this Matisse!
he think
beautiful?
it
Ma-
him."
telephone
sale,
call
from
examining
after
it,
he also backs
out.
as it is
refastened, as
the
main
ing
little
goes
on
it?
"
Picasso asks.
"Wrap
it is
it
all its
up!"
blankets,
its
ropes
staircase to
its cart,
and mock-
No one
He
been rediscovered,
And
century.
them back
to Spain.
Grecos.
remember which
Pyrenees on foot on
don't
a stretcher to get
last
me
who
later
became my good
"
Someone
asks Picasso
how he
painter.
PICASSO
became elongated.
almost noon.
A new wave
of visitors arrives.
The cream
and
^99
"Zette
"
to
her family
bad
by the Tail
took
Royan in
four days between 14 and 17 January 1941 in a school noteHe let his mind wander in keeping with "automatic writ-
book.
avowed
desires, comical
un-
it,
Picasso's
humor and
inex-
room and
kitchen
is
characters: Bigfoot,
The
six acts
Onion,
and
Tart,
so on.^^
The
second
sets as
varied as
act represents
one of
the hallways of "Sordid's Hotel." In this scene, the most successful perhaps, a half-dozen feet
two
feet in front of
each
My
The
man
think.
He
The
task of de-
announcing the acts, and presenting the protagonists also fell to Camus. He was equipped with a stick that
struck the three blows to announce the beginning of the performance. Leiris played Bigfoot; Raymond Queneau. Onion;
scribing the
sets,
Fat Anxiety;
Leiris,
these sessions.
at
artists.
them.
'
Campan was
Zanie de
/
have
trails.
six
hundred
liters
Osseous
of milk
And
Blood sausage.
gums, sugar
in nry urine,
wear
rny hair
sow's
tits.
all
over
Tripe. Sausage.
my hands
En-
to
am given
And
Ham.
cavities. Gall.
dressed, clean, I
my
in
of Tart:
with elegance. I
am
monologue:
You have a nicely turned leg and a well-formed navel, a slender waist and
perfect breasts, a terrifying arch to the eyebrow,
Nimes
and
andjour mouth
ofjour
little
creampuff nj duck,
rny
wolf
is
a nest of
belly a
andjour arms
I
am
losing rny
The
gratulated.
this
Some people
work by Picasso
Apollinaire's The
as a
mere
trifle, a
Breasts of Tiresias;
others found in
it
the colorful-
wanted
to
Cam-
who
is
breathtaking
silk
tur-
brooch and took the high crown of her hair up another notch.
As for Valentine Hugo, she must have paused before the family
jewel case before opting for the enormous brooch on her chest:
a coat of arms surmounted with a crown and angels made of a
silver compound, encrusted with enamel and carbuncle, v^hich
is
now
VALENTINE HUGO
to
fashion
at
it's
piece of jewelry?
belonged
It
Second Empire.
but
my
See
It's
How
do you
like it?
on important occa-
sions.
And
They
and nudes.
"How beautiful
me
tors forbade
can't
to engrave.
It
do
that
if I
con-
tinued."
Picasso gives a tour of his sculptures. But he has saved a sur-
From
his secret
crammed
full
as easily
he had
me
filled
The cupboard
and
illustrated by his
hand.
He
he showed
cycle.
faded
could just
Ubu
as
by Reverdy or
with animals of
all
kinds by his
Bestiaries,
day,
which
cupboard
it;
also contains
Albert Camus,
who shows
keen
tells
interest.
ban on
Andromaque,
Edward VII Theater. The Milice interrupted the performance and had the theater closed down. Since 1941. a
regular cabal has risen up against Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais. They have been the butt of an avalanche of insults, and the
ais at
the
of Parents
The 194^
revival
Le Gymnase was disrupted by violent demonmembers of the Milice. The Typewriter, which was
Terribles at
strations by
young actor got into a brawl one day with Alain Laubreaux,
one of the most venomous Occupation critics, and Cocteau
was injured, beaten black and blue on avenue des ChampsElysees. The "New Order" government attributes France's defeat to the relaxation of mores and has staged Socratic trials.
Andre Gide and Jean Cocteau, "corruptors of French youth"
both by their works and by their personalities were preappointed scapegoats.
Some maintain
formed";
movie
"It
itself: "It
stars."
the stage, his back gleaming, his chest and hips swathed in a
like a
REVERDY
decorated by Picasso, he
on comedy.
Jean Marais.
He
is
desperate.
His
letters
can
stick
man's private
life is
like,
is
You
but attacking
powerless be-
right to
defend yourself.
Valentine
REVERDY
Valentine.
Hugo
Working,
me? I'm
he
is
working on.
203
HUGO
communiques
are
REVERDY
more
interesting than
do indeed. That's
to insinuate that
poems?
exactly
what
mean. That's
remark
disaster, the
me
interests
to Reverdy,
Commune,
ulated
And
passionately.
"The
years
1870 71,
years of war, of
cially
you
it
war
as if the
espe-
arts,
"
artists.
can
tell
of writing
ready
left.
We
in the middle.
all
On his
left,
Valentine
voir.
ting
on
Leiris,
Camus
is
Campan, Louise
his
de Beau-
are sit-
mo-
the ''group."
1
We
walk toward
ing
my lifetime, my
my death."
like
"I
hope you
still
have the
friend; let
them be
after
204
a witness to
what
was,
Saturday 12
wonder
May 1945
if life
My
last visit
was on 21 June
1944, almost a year ago! Two months later, 25 August, was the
Liberation of Paris, and from one day to the next, Picasso's
made him
him
as
museum
uniform of Allied
ar-
become just
has
as
crush of people
at his place.
He
as
New
"I
it's
been
mob
PICASSO
Yes,
it
(embracing me)
Brassai, what's
become of you?
am under
siege. Visitors
nothing better
come
do than
still
to
was and
to see
them.
205
as if
Of course,
had
also love
doing nothing.
lazy.
Gome,
And
I'll
find
it
am
rather
Picasso drags
me
off to his
little
apartment.
The
book and
for this
He
also
it
He
when he enriched
tells
wanted
me, smiling:
to recover
"I
it
my money."
also
me
this
ing,
And
from the
with
hundred
far right, fell over his forehead, grazed his left eye
its tip,
that
left,
It
this
bygone
past,
solemnly
book by Mallarme.
past.
of hair?
And
is
cut short.
End
of the
"forelock period."
PICASSO
206
ward
to
immensely.
it
It's
if
We
of your photos.
looked
came
across a batch
at
BRASSAI
in
Cap
at
the
home
was able to
of a collector.
case,
did
it
now
my very
first
sculpture!
in 1899.
BRASSAI
Picasso
is
when
little
ties
who
to find
first
poem
of affection have
surrealists closer
on
a lecture
retrospective of his painting was being held. But the poet be-
came the
The
will to
common
realist
whom
can imagine
life
without love,
art
is
the act of
the physical,
it
built
on
thing gratuitous.
us.
Eluard, who
He bought a
with them.
is
remark
that, if
is
tell
happy
207
moment's
from the Aegean Sea, so
goddesses without
tures
ELUARD
The
art
hesitation; for
arts.
market
is
don.
And
They
little
money.
And
NUSGH
so
wanted
little
to have a
"blue period."
An
art
engravings he has
ELUARD
made
for him.
You must be
done
don't
complete: everything
is
in
it;
is
absolutely everything!
The publisher
settle,
fiow
much do
PICASSO
you
tells
I
Picasso:
still
owe you?"
Really, are
And
"We
Come on
later, they
to take
then!
A few minutes
reappear.
PICASSO
Done.
ELUARD
to install
I
was happy
208
on
friendly terms.
He
sent
me autographed
seen
him during
ber 1943'
Zone. I had in
But
had
time was in
last
rarely
Novem-
my hands some
under the
table,
and
book printed in red ink, but I did not know the role he had
taken on so courageously, if not recklessly, in the Resistance.
a
Le dernier chant
Sur
s'est
abattue
campagne informe
la
On
et
noire.
laughter
entering
a cafe
by chance on boulevard
move back
It
into his
didn't
come
lives in
to see
them?
La Chapelle,
Born
in Saint-Denis
it is
become
an ugly facade.
"
And
it
"I
"beautiful
in a
sinister way,
which
of the kings of
"
as Prevert
Paris,"
is
almost his
neighbor.
This
is
lives, in a
three-room apartment
Chirico-Picasso. Ernst,
logne,
is
A large
is
present in the
whom
Eluard
Blindfolded
mannequin standing
first
Man and in
a portrait
of Gala.
serted,
dreamy
The
ticos.
surrealists'
traction of an
unknown
at-
The cult of Chirico and Lautreamont dates from the day Andre Breton, riding a bus along
rue La Boetie during World War I, saw The Child's Brain in Paul
Guillaume's display window. He jumped off the bus and
fact.
to
and
Poet's Departure.
They took
and denigrated
his "metaphysical
on
"
paint-
his char-
acter.
But since
walls and,
from August
ture with
of, as if
all
the gentleness,
all
its
frail
on her
Emerging from
slight smile
beam of light.
lips,
wafted
a pearl gray
like a disincarnated,
imma-
being.
red
capable
is
lashes,
the
still life
saw
curious series of
A canvas by
210
erty in Sussex.
ican
of
from the
Man
Ray's,
annees foUes in
whose
Montparnasse,
portrait, full of
humor and
imagination,
in
wood
its
its
crown.
It is
fetishes
ico.
skull
opens
tic-tic
of
at
of time
is
like a
worm
in a piece
fruit.
Masterpiece, illustrated
me and
takes
relic,
the only
pered with
on
letters,
Breton lived
at
manuscripts, and
am
surprised
at all
me
few of his
own
his
"
me
2N
mentioning Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Lautreamont, Shelley, Novalis, Holderlin, or Goethe, he evoked Walt Whitman. It is possible that ten years earlier,
tells
this
name
so
did."
212
Paris
15
May ig45
from
its long illness and starting to come alive again. You wonder
where all these ravishing young women are coming from, pedaling bare-legged on their bicycles, their skirts multicolored
corollas puffed up and whipped about by the wind. At ten
o'clock,
of
my
of reservations.
like to
I
have
"
come? She
We
me
at
would undoubtedly
full
visibly recovering
is
eyes,
on
drinking
a glass
of muscatel.
A magazine
asked
woman
drawings.
made
Time
mistake:
with Orange.
with
What
passed.
it
at
my
photos,
my
was Young
a tragedy!
to publish
and apologized
instead of Woman
Woman
to readers for
again.
She
is
mauve
to tell
me:
"1
How would
213
me? To
bring
woman
home
to his
for
..."
ing skimpy blue shorts: "You're not alone? Excuse me. I'm not
presentable. Showing
He
says this
half-turn. But he
PICASSO
as if I'd
Why,
stays.
she's very
of the house.
Hello, Mademoiselle,
known you
forever, don't
charming,
you in
few
this
visits
He knows
all
the nooks
and crannies.
you
I'll
tour
be with
a few minutes.
When
A photograph of 1912,
"Look," she
tells
that statue
with
know each
"
other.
laughing.
as well,
Or-
we might never
"
repay."
Gilberte.
214
PICASSO
offered
me
my
exhibition
at
Renou
et Colle.
BRASSAI
You wouldn't
think
so,
it is.
brought you
my
announce
PICASSO
for
exhibition. So
kept
my
them out
ex-
hibit.
On
PICASSO
that account,
do
an exhibit.
ual
And Fm no
exception.
skill.
A military officer
comes
in. It
is
And
Picasso embraces
Andre Malraux.
MALRAUX
good shape!
What
a pleasure to see
was worried
when
you again!
And
in such
Paris.
When
PICASSO
did we
last see
have often
tempt
fate.
Malraux,
in
command
tells
how he
2^5
like
a daredevil.
all
the rough
by the
He also talks
German communi
says,
MALRAUX
heard the
fifty
I'll
air-raid signals
on
BBC, which
the
when we
finally gave
Malraux
elist
from the
fell
not
talk
mander
about
it.
He
recounts his
latest feats as
fight to prevent
MALRAUX
its
nov
He
brigade
does
com-
being evacuated.
All over
Germany, people
already virtu
man
cities
PICASSO
MALRAUX
It
must be unreal.
Yes, unreal!
An
apocalyptic sight!
No
streets
left,
snowplow through
like a
duced
For instance,
tory.
The
to dust.
The only
things
explosions blew
left
saw the
piles of
Museum
houses re-
of Natural His
skeletons
all
over the
They stare at you here and there in unexpected posisometimes through broken windowpanes. It's a house o
horrors. The house of the dead. Do you know what it reminds
place.
tions,
me
of? Goya!
PICASSO
What about
216
41
Following page
and poetry
"This
is
in the heart of
La Chapelle.
lives
"
|inj a
chapel of
art
MALRAUX
ler, volatilized
Each met the fate befitting his character: Hitin the fire and swords of the Berlin hell. A
And what
PICASSO
he had!
Hung up
by his feet
saw
many
MALRAUX
my
him
rode around in
the crowd,
chest,
of beef in
him haranguing
end
a terrible
in the behind.
attacks
on
the "occupiers."
accompanied only by
think if there had
could have done that? No, in reality,
a car,
Do you
BRASSAI
rious
Why is
"German
MALRAUX
everyone talking so
maguis"?
It's a
Is it
its
survival!
can do
all
On
They have
every interest
one
just a legend?
much
detachment armed
from the
"
In the
morn-
2/9
And
On
the
They too
"enemy."
he were addressing
MALRAUX
lies
a vast
now
as if
audience.
The most
serious thing,
you
Al-
The Russian
method
Nusch
Is
MALRAUX
there anything
Yes, pigs.
The
left to
buy in Germany?
quantity of pigs
is
unimaginand slaugh-
You wonder
if
look
was unable to
at
We
with Sheep,
is
cident."
chored Man
with Sheep to
the beams.
220
We
decided to
cast
it
in plas-
ter immediately.
I'll
remember
It
that one.
What a job!
it. You see
these long skinny legs, the barely indicated feet, hardly sepa-
from
rate
the
too
ground?
late. It is as
If
it is.
touched
it
to
model them
left it as it
Now
was.
risk of
ruining everything.
We
latest canvases:
Dame,
the
He de
la
became
One
me unbeknownst
to myself
began
to seep out.
How
do you
like
had permeated
tried to create a
Not one
with the "motif" in front of me.
is
a "slice
of
life."
them?
Malraux looks
at all
the variations
on
He
kinds of light:
skies. Piat
He
also
shows us
dawn,
under
where, between the arches of the Pont-Neuf and the large trees
of the quays, one can make out the equestrian statue of Henri
IV. Painted in I943 this landscape
is
the
first
of the series. In
memory
Malraux
groups together
all
the canvases
on which Notre Dame appears and asks me: "Have you photoDame from behind? find the back view more
graphed Notre
"
221
BRASSAi
Yes,
the cathedral
have photographed
From
it.
that angle,
is
is
the large metal spire planted right in the middle of the architectural construction by Viollet-le-Duc.
trary,
it
PICASSO
like
it.
morillo
On
v^as also
the contrary.
completely arbi-
don't dis-
of Notre Dame.
What
BRASSAI
is
It's
seems to me.
appeals to
me
though you
aim for likeness. A painter has to obmust never confuse it with painting. It can be
translated into painting only with signs. But you do not invent
a sign. You must aim hard at likeness to get to the sign. For
me, surreality is simply that, and has never been anything else,
the profound likeness beyond the shapes and colors by means
of which things present themselves.
PICASSO
always
PICASSO
too
many
can't
work
Too many
visitors,
NUSCH ELUARD
How fortunate
you from
The
You should
very
bed, almost
last
leave
some
painting by Picasso
monochrome, with
nude lying on
gray and blue. Even
is a
a little
large
222
and
still lifes
had
to choose
nude.
from
Of course,
do not touch
leeks
If
that
me
very
much. Whereas
that
nude
moves me.
and me into
Eros.
And one
"I'm going to
"
bursts of inspiration,
first
sexual obsessions.
cially, his
says:
No
throughout
doubt
his
notebook. To
and espe-
male preoccupations
his work,
all
these
come
the
a "classic,"
work
ought to appear in
it
it
Les demoi-
And yet,
in
disguises
and transposes
all
Was
it.
Even
It is
work he nourishes
most great
his "hell."
is always within reach to receive his most immeand intimate confidences. "Art is never chaste," he tells
me one day, showing me the erotic plates of Utamaro, prints of
small notebook
diate
up in
many
This notebook
through
it.
Among
is
the Seine.
No doubt
filled with
undoubtedly only
one of his
sample.
We
leaf
Kazbek along
"
Picasso suggests
We
are
sitting
all
and
I.
A ninth
seat, still
empty,
reserved for
is
Picasso
left.
is
almost
and
at
home
he
in this restaurant
He
is
form
in top
its full
Nowhere
today.
paradoxes.
A born storyteller,
gift for
taste for
amusement, con-
woman
He
talking to a
is
"She was
my
ears.
We had
a blowout.
her. So
had
me
Then we ran
money on
One
breasts.
to
lend her
five
francs."
Dora Maar
She
arrives.
is
sits
down. Not two minutes have passed before she stands up and
says: 'Tve had enough, I can't stay. I'm leaving." And she walks
off.
Picasso,
and runs
who
We
continue to
talk,
it!
sudden
Woman
me and
that
is
dis-
Nusch
says: "Let's
trouble!"
An
hour later, shaggy, panic-stricken, terrified, Picasso reappears at Le Catalan. I have never seen such confusion on his
face. "Paul, come quick, I need you, he says to Eluard. The
"
224
It is
them.
An
leave.
eternity.
Gilberte and
me
Now we
and we
do not dare
are
still
very
proud
back to Montparnasse.
225
of,
leave
waiting for
five o'clock
we
Thursday 1^
May ig45
Ran
day,
on quai Montebello,
to paint
M. C. He
tells
Dame
in
I
my
life I
wanted
struggled with
it. I
happy with what I was doing. The very idea that some curiosity
seeker might get a look at my painting drained me of my abiliSuddenly,
ties.
It
was Picasso!
I
I
wanted to
paintings.
life
turned around.
have
felt
so
I've
my
my
Never in
die.
Do
underneath me.
7
I
at his feet.
watch
Picasso
He
paint?
was so ashamed
My
bother
legs
wanted
me
to
jump
into the
Seine."
I
tell
C.
that his
canvas must have made a deep impression on Piand the person who painted it were probably the inspiration for the drawing he made in his private notebook when
he got home, of all the apes squatting or perched in trees,
painting Notre Dame.^^
cide
casso. It
226
Friday l8
May ig45
Prevert
at
Tisne
ings,
is
going to publish
and
me:
tells
"I
larly
left,
Picasso
des brumes.
Pierre
PICASSO
knew him
in
Mac Orlan
"
a great deal.
says Prevert.
Montmartre.
BRASSAI
on
About ten
years ago,
was working on
He
it.
social fantastic
fided in me:
likes
book
Mac Or-
photography,
in
it.
He con-
all
that
mean
227
to
me? Memories
of the
'bohemian
life'?
That's
all
bullshit! It
me
reminds
of the hotel
my room
A horrible time,
There
ation.
is
nothing so terrible
martre fortunately,
enough cash
key because
He
was
such
room,
went
late
youth. In
hit
as
a suit, a real
to see
my
Mont-
didn't have
meal.
friends,
it
was
was to
was."
"picturesque" Montmartre.
PICASSO
That's right.
He
down on
his
cheerful and
A mind full
wrote
little articles
for
humor magazines
or satirical journals,
and even licentious novels like Guillaume Apollinaire. Someone ought to put together a collection of those texts. Le Sourire
published a large number of them. They were signed "Dumarchais" or "Dumarchey," his real name. One day when he was
flat broke and his publisher didn't want to advance him any
more money, we thought up a very good trick. See what you
think. We put Mac Orlan to bed, closed the windows, pulled
the curtains. I made up a few empty bottles to look like drug
bottles, with labels and colored lids I had manufactured. Once
the room was turned into a sickroom, we went to see his publisher to announce tearfully and in a shattered voice that our
dear friend was dying. Panic-stricken, he followed us to our
"patient's" bedside. Then, sighing, his eyes clouded with tears,
he coughed up twenty francs. Twenty francs! A fortune at the
time. He would never have given them to a healthy Mac Orlan
so he could eat his fill and do his work as a writer!
PREVERT Le chant de Uequipage, Sous la lumierefroide, what beaubooks! Mac Orlan is more than a "master of adventure sto-
tiful
prostitutes
228
He
likes risk
A funny guy,
Mac Orlan.
The conversation
like
to better
fate.
him.
of Baron
Mollet.
dog.
him out
a little, as usual.
PREVERT
erator of
all
from
films
the action.
scratch.
prefer to base
them on people
my
know.
themselves in
Bird,
my
films.
As
my bird,
that's
Baron Mollet! Fits him like a glove! And then I built my character on him. So, the other day, I ran into him. I know everything," he told me, "there's no point in your denying it!" I
was playing the fool. Through an indiscretion, he must have
"
me?" he
stead.
He
thought
it
was funny.
BRASSAI And what vitality at his age! No one is more restYou run into him on the Left Bank, the Right Bank, in
less.
Montparnasse, Saint-Germain-des-Pres,
He's the
last to
Passy, everywhere.
first to get
up
in the
morning.
PICASSO
known him,
one studio
He
he's
is
as
cafe to another,
me
to a bar
got to
know Guillaume
I've
run from
it
was
Apollinaire.
He
fact,
229
And
it
was
in that same bar that I in turn introduced Max Jacob to Guillaume ApoUinaire. Mollet is a regular marriage broker. He
loves to make matches.
BRASSAi"
PICASSO
Only the
a job.
And
him. That was how he became Guillaume Apollinaire's "secretary," his claim to fame.
He
BRASSAi
Was he
PICASSO
a fact that
he did
his "secretary"?
thousand
services for
denies
to
it.
admit
it.
But
it's
ApoUinaire; he read
and organized his papers, even wrote The Murdered Poet, The Moon
King, and other texts at his dictation. They worked side by side,
founded magazines together, argued. He also fended off the
people assailing the poet. So he really was his "secretary." But
who
rosity.
You
has
have to admit
it!
by
If,
a miracle,
he has
a little
money, he immediately thinks of his friends. His greatest pleasure is to be of service, to make someone happy. In the worst
of circumstances, he brought me presents. Oh, nothing big, a
little tobacco, a Havana cigar, a book, whatever. But they
warmed your heart.
BRASSAi
Is
PICASSO
No more
ferred that
title
he
really a
on him.
baron?
than
am.
It suits
It
him
was ApoUinaire
admirably!
And
know
who con-
by in-
baron.
queen.
And
And
queen goes barefoot. She wouldn't eat anymore: a queen, don't you see, is
above such things. And she talked about a duke all the time.
queen. She wouldn't wear shoes anymore:
""^^
230
this," "the
duke did
when someone
that." But,
named
PREVERT
count!"
That's marvelous!
named
count!
am
"I
name you
"then
name you
As he
is
him:
is
a colonel!
a field
marshal!
"All right,
"
"
"But
Napoleon,
"
my
at
"This
said
"
When
she
He had
packed
all
'What are you doing?' his mother asked him. I'm leaving,
give
me my
bread coupons.'"
PREVERT
to
Monsieur Jacques, that's me. "He's very kind. Monis, he'll keep me!" Then his mother said: "To
Monsieur Jacques's? But Monsieur Jacques is gone. He's on a
trip. Then the kid turned pale. Without a word, he undid his
bundle and put away his little things.
Jacques's."
sieur Jacques
"
231
Friday
25 May J 945
"
He
is
only comfort-
his
abun-
Even the aquatints for Buffon came about spontaneously, and it was Vollard who worked things out by choosing
more or less corresponding texts from Buffon. Boris badgered
him about the curtain for Rendez-vous to no avail, it was still in
for the text.
42 "The
The
belong to
will
It
like best."
The
candle.
The
ballet lover's
home
is
strange,
its
among
high
it
great past
It is filled
drawings by Picasso,
sky, Stravinsky,
and the
Kochno
shares
arranged
Kochno's
around
place
is
Italian Renaissance.
door
that links
where
to insiders
who
to Berard's apartment,
you enter
the
world
dust,
and opium
it
reign.
It is
"Bebe
"
pretty
women, with
little
his arms.
I
bald
look
at
man
the appealing
eyes, his
still
has restored.
traits,
a beautiful
drawing by Picasso
tation.
We
talk
my
sets.
A young
will
Russian
be the hero-
we
Russian accent,
is
its
When
harsh
her.
235
26 May ig4S
Saturday
He
was
a Dadaist,
then
a surre-
editor in chief of a
together:
One
Bifur.
manuscript en-
"Read
He
thor.
I
it,"
is
began
bringing
to read:
Maries-de-la-Mer, where
my
Saintes-
he were speaking.
ature.
An
au-
its
It
exceptional case.
He
loves life
streets,
"it's
not from
liter-
'right-thinking people.' With his simplicity, his search for happiness, his caustic
I
inquired the
humor, he escapes
Dessaignes that
An hour
later
guez, a strapping
bullfighting.
ten.
Avery
made
He
"
It
first
time,
has been
even:
a great deal
are
all classification."
236
"
.
skill,
he
is
some of his
Picasso has a
of-
learning
canvases
weak
spot for this big lout with the gigantic, disproportionate head
of a hidalgo and a
down
mustache,
little
coat. Nonetheless,
who
is
an
attractive
mind, his
and troubling side of his Spanish blood. A demon
inhabits this large body with the peaceful appearance, and no
one is safe when, spurred on by alcohol, he lashes out. I have
Picasso likes his quick
the violent
seen
Dominguez brandish
It
was he
the eye of
and rage in Montparnasse. He threw a glass at his face, thus fulfilling, as in classical tragedy, a premonitory dream. For years,
Brauner had seen himself as one-eyed, and, obsessed by that vision, always depicted the human faces in his paintings and
sculptures with only one eye.
Dominguez admires
still
lifes.
PICASSO
move beyond
lose in spontaneity
what
it
less
and
less. If I
wouldn't be right
might gain in
were to
anymore.
solidity. Also,
let
I'll
on
you think?
my
A group
I'd
use
is
and
secret.
their heads;
we
talk
camps. Picasso
is
horror stuck in
seething.
He
left
betrays his
237
plodes.
We must
PICASSO
self.
fight fascism
wherever
much
it
manifests
it-
ward "collaborators." Didn't the Marshal himself escape punishment because of his advanced age? If the Germans God
us! came back again to occupy France, for my part, I'd
be the first to "collaborate" with them. Yes, I'd associate with
them, do business with them. Because you really aren't rewarded for resisting. They pass over all kinds of illegal dealings, every sort of crime. Understand that if you can.
And
his diatribe
with Eluard
on
moment.
this
as
the
mob
women, "
laughs
at
Eluard
said,
at
the
"trem-
mean-
Some,
knowing their power, even remain calmly at home, hoping to
begin again tomorrow." Picasso's "Understand that if you can"
was in fact the title of one of Eluard's poems, in which he
pointed an accusing finger at judges who struck indiscriminately and acquitted with disgusting leniency.
time, bandits with apostles' faces have left the country.
In a few days,
opens. As
am
my
exhibition of drawings
leaving,
ask Picasso if
it is
at
Renou
et
Colle
PICASSO
between
us,
A falling-out?
nothing that
on me
Opening
of the old guard. Picasso has known them for about twenty
238
who
comes around.
Of the younger ones, I have sometimes run into Antoni Clave,
the sculptor La Torre, and Xavier Vilato, Picasso's nephew.
From the outset, every Spanish and Republican artist is like
rarely
But he has never given advice to any of them regarding painting or sculpture. In that area, he thinks, everyone must
out
he can.
as
was exhibiting
He
has
known
make
Picasso since
1924.
PEINADO
That
tomne, where
it
and
said to Ortiz,
d'Auin front of
Falla:
tainly the
He paused
"This painting
"It is
cer-
is
by Peinado,
know
him," Ortiz had replied. "Then bring him to see me." That
how
was
him
associated with
though
life, I
Because even
One
him.
day,
wanted
to take a few
called
you like, and bring your friends," he said, "but you'll see
only me. "And why won't I see Picasso? "He's working at
if
"
"
day,
to
went
to
be seen, in
pears.
hear
now and
Lacouriere's right
fact.
On
He joined us.
me and my friends.
nado!"
to
And we
on
is
talk
his time.
It is
to
is
the kindness
my
am
"
unearth
my dance
hall
near the
Bastille, in the
sordid Thiere
Ourcq Canal,
its
sinister black
set.
240
me
Tuesday
29 May ig45
and
He
recites
publisher,
it
I
to
poem
Last Sunday,
dedicated to
bains de vapeur
dans
la
violente fraicheur
un jour de grande
Bien plantees
sur
la
figuration.
comme
des plantes
delave consterne et
les
choque
de leurs seins
et
de leur cul.
Light as trees
huge
my
was
as flowers
24i
at
Pre-
drawings
Legeres
et elles se
it
to the
of their raw
state
escapees
on
Firmly planted
on
like plants
the rising
This morning,
ass.
send
my
want
to give
Lavoir
his
the
command
Bateau-
tell
him
Picasso has
New York
others of her
when
ilk,
so that her
she announces:
visited
Pompeii, the
my
drawings for
In the afternoon
hanging.
many
at
the gallery,
A stranger enters. He
is
arrange
wearing
gabardine rain-
mustache, and
a lightweight
fedora pulled
on
the
wood
He
walks
U3
Wednesday 6 June
ig45
When
me
from my
tells
me:
happened
by, that
"
and read
Bistro-Tabac, a series
Picasso
leul.
DUTILLEUL
We
a regular
exhibition
at his
them, so
show
place.
PICASSO A permanent
them to everyone.
exhibition!
like
Along with Andre Lefevre, Douglas Cooper, Marie Cuttoli, the banker Max Pellequer, Jeanne Walter (Mme Paul Guillaume), and Georges Salles, Dutilleul is undoubtedly one of
the major French collectors, with a wealth of Picassos as well.
A confirmed bachelor,
is
maniac,
are not
like
most
collectors.
hanging on the
the laundry
by one,
as the
Japanese do.
my
drawings. But
did not
244
know
this
when
would be
made
the
a historic
World War
II
armistice,
PICASSO
days.
much
want
are
to
tu.
Should
me
nor the long habit of using vous he sometimes says, "Now that
all the same age but rather the example of those who
say tu to show off an often precarious familiarity. Picasso and
we're
"
him
him
"Pablo." Sabartes
"Jaime,
"
first
calls
vous
with
245
"
or even "son."
Friday 15 June
1945
first
at
hardt Theater since the war began. Liberated Paris was rallying.
We
dom.
A month ago.
capitulated.
The
a celebration
ballet lovers,
Wehrmacht
all
Marlene
few khaki uniforms are
on
to
Gilberte on
Dora Maar next to Picasso we leaf through the
sumptuous program: we see Picasso's curtain, drawings by Berard, Valentine Hugo, Mayo, and Lucien Coutard; photos of
my set, of the men and women ballet dancers. Very recently,
I have become immersed m this world of smiles and crying
jags, of leaping and tripping up, the exciting and hysterical
Sitting next to Picasso in the orchestra seats
my
right, with
world of ballet.
on boulevard de
land
Petit, full
of gusto, with
tively directing a
pumped-up
muscles, authorita-
and
fragile as a
who
left
is
with
nothing but the ashes of the unforgettable phoenix Serge de Diaghilev, we read in the introduction by Jean Gocteau. "But
"
the
are well
"
atmosphere,
Its
impatient frisson, are somewhat reminiscent of Russian balof the past. Could this miraculous synthesis of music,
lets
these
ened
him
me
on my
on
the dancers,
have seen
endlessly
sets.
He
on how
re-
closely su-
own
ballets:
Managers, his
little
American
girl; his
Tricorne,
women
de
in mantillas
nineteenth-century theater,
with red, black, and gold loges; the curtain of the Mercury ballet
for "Soirees de Paris
He may
rot.
"
with
its
After
Carnies,
by Kochno, Be-
and Sauguet. The cast of characters from the "blue period" comes alive again. Overwhelmed, half-starved, emaciatec
rard,
move
to the
legless
woman,
the butterfly
a single large
woman,
the
Roland Petit as a
prestigious prestidigitator throws out flowers and doves. The
Georgian Etherie Pagava, youthful grace in person, gets the
most applause.
ina,
Then
it is
casso's blue,
a great success.
The
vet
mask disguising
The word
destiny.
moment. There
is
remains
Suntuchia
applause. There
might look
is
Communist
mo-
have the
like,
the
effect
Vendome Column
tomne, which opened its doors barely six weeks after the Liberation and where Picasso waiving his rule for once never to participate in salons
A torrent of shouts,
does not flinch.
fore!
is
Some
five
He
The uproar
down
demon-
few canvases.
only frowns a
and
canvases
visitors
as well. Picasso
little.
on
this
Parade.
ballet that
At
and
and
Satie,
I,"
dance
tille
hall,
in the center, a
right, a
with
tall
on my
first set: to
the
left,
my
Bas-
panel of
streetlamp
lit
";
on the
'A la Belle
in blue;
a hotel sign,
am
time was
relieved. Putting
a
up
a set
made of photos
is
there:
it is
for the
first
and dreadful adventure invented by Prewhere love and death intertwine; for the idyll born in
sleazy bars and ending in blood; for the inevitable encounter
elbow
as
me
first
248
measures of Kosma's
as a street ballad.
And,
in the very middle of the ballet, Loris's voice sings for the
first
time:
les
les
portes de
la
nuit
And
Second
night.
Its
set:
the
at
them.
elevated
metro
at
wall,
man
Picasso
sets.
tells
me:
"It's a
And
like
249
your
that."**
Tuesday 10 July
1945
promised
to take
Miraculously, she
is
on
me. "How
he can be
rina.
will
me? What
he receive
The worst
that could
at a
happen
it's
seeing him.
she
tells
him? It seems
no fear, Mathat we miss him or come
mob scene. The last time,
can
say to
"
is
often a
left
without
"
PICASSO
Rendez-vous.
As
matter of
fact,
we've
And
worked together.
all
still
Show Marina
there, he tells
a bit
of
my
studio,
'museum.'
250
my
sculptures.
take
me
five
us,
he whispers in
my
ear: "She's
charming!"
Marina is delighted: "He's terrific, your Picasso! So unaffected! So kind! I'm having a great time!
I show her all the sculptures. She purses her lips. Except
for the cats and roosters, nothing appeals to her: "There are
nothing but monsters here! Horrid things!"
When he is free, Picasso has us go upstairs to his studio and
shows us his latest still lifes. "I started them at six o'clock last
"
night."
look
ror.
On
at
each canvas,
jects in front
skill
Of course,
it.
with mir-
tones reflected in
ous
left
still life
warm
Three
rough paintings
to paint
think
"
that preserve
and
Pi-
water-
or months,
if
and
a reply
state;
of sorts to
Guernica,
"I
other canvas.
would never be
it
and take it to a more advanced state on anThen I'd do the same thing with that one. There
it is,
'
as
mean-
ing? To complete, to end, but also to put to death, deal the death
blow?
paint so
neity, and,
once
many
I've
25^
it."
Marina looks at these three still lifes with mirror. She is dismayed: "How dreadful your pictures are! They frighten me!
Three paintings since six o'clock yesterday afternoon. And how
much do you sell them for? Tell me the truth, Brassai, do you
them? You find that beautiful? It's just snobbery that
like
makes
I
all
am
casso.
PICASSO
she
like
love that!
is! I
Did you
now? He just
don't get
ings? If
at all!
much
out of them!
"
listened to
(Turning
you think of my paintunderstand you, not one of my canvases has had the
mocking tone)
in a
I
is as
to
see the
So,
is
that all
MARINA (a
offer me one,
little flustered)
to
And
I'd
Oh, on
We
woman
is
PICASSO
by Andre Marchand,
not by Picasso.
is
embarrassed.
One
first.
day, at the
gouache.
derful!
Olivier.
fallen
inspired!" But
It's
And he was
at a
wasn't mine,
it
won-
was by Fernande
when
told him.
know Fernande
BRASSAI
PICASSO
Oh yes. And
didn't
Fernande had
a large
number
One
day
I'll
show
of them in
my
boxes.
it.
Olivier painted.
^5^
legs crossed,
nose in the
is
sitting
on
lightly
little
air,
tousled red hair, her face, long neck, and arms sprinkled with
freckles.
PICASSO
adorable. If
were an
artiste
peintre
You'd do my
MARINA
Her
profile
is
no thank you! I
want none of that! You won't fix me up the way you did all
those women over there, their eyes in their ears, their mouths
portrait! Well,
in their noses!
MARINA
say
PICASSO
Whisper in my
am?
never give
my
age.
man
like
tell me.
ear.
An
old
me.
MARINA
PICASSO
It
looks like
it.
On
it's
I've
enough just yet. Oh, if only you'd seen Diaghiman! He didn't fool around! He always
his hand, and when someone didn't obey him,
disciplined
lev.
What
had
a stick in
a forceful
him.
MARINA
You
PICASSO
think that's
MARINA
it
good method?
in a hurry!
get hit
He
on
253
very capable,
himself.
He
take
trained by Diaghilev
PICASSO
I
He was
you think?
my
But
alas!
He
latest graffiti
isn't
Diaghilev.
from my
He
briefcase.
snatches
a great deal
was young,
graffiti.
have
BRASSAi
PICASSO
You
couldn't take
gether,
it
there,
me
it
and
carve
with you.
to
its fate.
Graffiti
why don't we
day,
belong
to every-
on
it
(laughing)
abandon
one and no one. But one
to leave
my
wall
When
times
walls,
graffiti.
BRASSAI
PICASSO
Yes,
have too.
bank.
It
One
left a large
day in Paris,
a wall?
number of carvings
I
was waiting in a
section of
condemned
wall,
put up
a graffito.
it
could photograph
I
it
one
day.
many
paintings
on
walls,
now
lost
forever.
He mentions
the
human
figures he painted
on
the landing
254
love with
which he decor-
PICASSO
I
turned
it
simply enclosed
it
within two
large eyelids.
still life
on
it
transported to Paris in
it
Ma JoUe
title
had
with a mandolin, a
a sheet
wall,
and
a special casing.
Nusch Eluard.
BRASSAi"
would
tain
rise
I'd like to
on
do
a large wall
covered with
wall,
on
graffiti
The cur-
and
a little
graffiti
little
would
step
the
and other
also
signs.
are
It
We
applaud. Picasso
core! Encore!"
It
is
would not
much
take
for
him
to shout: "Ole!
Ole!"
Out of breath,
I'm having
she
sits
a great time!
down and
tells
MARINA
Because
please him.
laces.
PICASSO
This reminds
BRASSAi
me
of
many
things.
My wife
was
like
Olga?
me
the
Kochno's apartment.
And I am
young dancer met one winter's day in Rome; and that, forgetting his bruises, he is deeply moved to rediscover, in Marias a
na's pretty
little face,
the
his
256
like
And
PICASSO
Do you
it
And
solid.
your sUppers
MARINA
you can
PICASSO
leather.
do
I still
my wife.
also
It
good
it,
made of cardboard.
ing to
I've
for.
have quite
I'll
them
give
to you.
secure
I'll
Andre Bloch,
like to
director
to secure leotards.
He would
it?
The painting
is
quite recogniz-
but translucent.
PICASSO A curious thing, don't you think? Marie Cuttoli had the idea for this experiment with gems. Do you know
Jean Crotti, the brother-in-law of Marcel Duchamp and
Jacques Villon?
to
He
Someone remarks
that these
gems
glass.
PICASSO
with light.
Of crushed
glass.
It's
You
you
light
sizes
process?
As
usual, this
Picasso
and spurring
his imagination.
He
is
already
consuming
disappears to get
dressed.
When
a steel-gray suit,
he
is
PICASSO People are always asking me for the most incredible things. Look what someone sent me: twelve thousandfranc bills, unstamped. They are invalid. An American, Katherine Dudley, sent them to me. She has had many troubles.
And now she forgot these bank notes in a drawer and let them
become invalid. She asks if I have any way of exchanging them
for her. As if I were the Banque de France! But I have an idea.
And she may be able to get her money back.^^
The
is
a big
"Marcel
is
delighted," he says.
'
He's already
up the motor
When
a road, to
wake
must return your manuand had Dora read it. It's very interesting. You have a gift for capturing conversations. By the
way, did you find my signature at your exhibition? I went by
he leaves me, he
script of Bistro-Tabac.
And
You
read
says: "I
it
tells
the leotard."
I
He
how he
others, never.
Now
is.
You'll be welcome."
"It's strange,
and
yet,
"
says
Marina.
suit.
When
he was great.
tie
"I
saw
I've always
much
"
258
him
at all.
But in
much
the
his shorts,
Thursday 2 August
is
1^45
ending.
the
end of
One
PREVERT
is
what
it's
hair?'
Impossible!'
gotten
much
Rene
as:
guy
like
worn
out. Discus-
nuisance! Everything
me
with
my famous
comments such
him?' or
damn
so tiring, so demoralizing.
But
is!
All
'Look,
it's
man
all.
will
po-
soon appear in
one volume.
PREVERT
And
look what
259
Paroles will
look very
received.
An album
of
my poems. The
young
me
strangers
so
and
much
their teacher.*^
260
26 November ig4^
Tuesday
SABARTES
Yes, they've
form. Fran^oise
young
And
is
come
been
made him
feel
to the
do lithographs
Mourlet brothers'
studio.
head shaved,
of the sea
last visit,
at
his face
still
in his nostrils
Juan; in August, he
d'Azur.
It
was his
left
first
long
stay in the
midity
already felt
northern
fog, the
in his childhood
low
sky, the
hu-
as
sea
He had
Paris every
and
"I
understood
this
Now
"
For
long time
Relaxed, in
good mood,
261
casso
We
embraces me.
months.
BRASSAI
Castle.
PICASSO Absolutely true. Are you familiar with that palon the way to the Antibes ramparts? Someone once offered
to me for twenty thousand francs. It's magnificent, don't you
ace
it
think?
worked
The
like a
madman.
provincial
it
of
human
What
comical demonstration
soil
among
Our
dear
Emperor
is
once again
"
PICASSO
beach.
One
day,
Do you know
wherever
ately said:
ing?" So
have
many
go, don't
"What
if
me
you gave us
thought about
walls at the
it.
And I made
Grimaldi Gastle.
He
262
this proposal:
It
"You
might be better
was delighted.
He
if I
offered
me
the whole
I
rectly
on
the wall
they bought
me
is
too risky."
"No
offered canvases
remounted on plywood.
Do you
them.
And
Finally,
I
And, from
ended up
a large
bathing
suit,
whites of his
photos:
tle
little
fauns,
sailboat triangles.
a great
filigree
An
innocent
as
the Mediterranean.
all
it
are.
PICASSO They are big, but they seem small on the enorwalls. Three meters by one meter and a half. Others are
smaller. This one I nicknamed "La joie de vivre." This other
one is Odysseus surrounded by sirens. I painted it on three
plates of asbestos cement placed end to end. I'll leave them all
in that room. They want to make it into a "Picasso Museum. 1
may donate the other objects made there, bones, sculpted
mous
"
stones.
The publisher of our book arrives. We made an appointment with Picasso to ready the album of his sculptures for publication. Alas! There are still many missing. At least fifteen.
This has been dragging on for three years now. Some of his
old sculptures are with one collector or another.
take a
morning
for
me
to do.
We open
been taken.
263
And
each
will
all
PICASSO
Impossible! Did
had done
really
so
do
many
all
that?
would
sculptures in
my
life.
PICASSO
Small objects,
He comes
I'll
show them
back with
box
to you.
full
sea, all
en-
slightly.
PICASSO
so beautiful
them
so nicely, gives
"
Now we
PICASSO
How surprised
strange signs.
sea.
What
The publisher
conundrum
PICASSO
I
start
A dreadful amount
sharp scissors.
^64
And
of work.
continue with
different
from
PICASSO
my
You
These are my
stones
change in
"stone ages."
"complete works."
signature.
One
different
that in the
all
all its
variations.
is
album.
The publisher
have only
the time.
all
to look at the
like
new
some of
mediocre.
says,
"I'm loath to
They
PICASSO
jects
are execrable!
reproduced that
it
did in white.
times
it's bizarre,
my own
my
that
And
They
colors,
find other,
get a shock.
the worst
And some-
reproductions,
nothing remains of
excite
me. Yes,
my
to be frank
new version,
new
am
left
to
me.
drowned
BRASSAI
I photographed them while you were gone.
had landed on the cage.
One
265
He opens
the cage
fly
He
always
saw them fluttering around him. His father painted them, often leaving his son the job of finishing their feet. Since then,
and
in cages
turtledoves
likes
PICASSO
Turtledoves
may be
going on in their
cause
my
little
heads.
turtledoves are
may
And
it's
both males.
like to
know what's
Could they be
inverts?
indispensable
love or hate
at his side as a
ark.
rounded by
And
birds.
that bird
bought
it
is
She
also has a
so in love with
female, the
it
its
free.
its
so jealous
it
wanted
to kill
a celluloid doll.
And
dove plays such love games with the doll and swoops down on
so violently that you'd think
series of
it
wanted
266
to rape
doll:
it's
it.
it
did a whole
One
porcelain egg.
plained to me.
And when
Swan.
ficial egg,
day,
found
PICASSO
our lovemaking?
to
that
It
attracts
it sits
get
it
on
that arti-
off."
sets their
blood on
BRASSAI
a colonial
He
it:
a naturalist, said:
He
to Paris.
on
off.
little
and
captivity."
"Don't count
Then, one
said: "So,
day, he
He
in-
bow before
the evi-
exclaimed: "Impossible!
the
male?
his brain.
"
It
a terrible suspicion:
private detective
"
26;
leave
him.
It is
not the
first
me
to
Manolo. Ever since our first meetings he has said: "You remind me of Manolo." Who is this man? I have been trying to
elucidate the "Manolo mystery" for a long time. A Spanish
painter told me one day: "Manolo? You mean Ugue, Manuel
Ugue? He was the son of a general, but sort of the way Apollinaire
is
roamed
As
he was down
a child,
at
the heel,
a horse, a harness,
weapons. Then
one night, farewell Spain! He crossed the Pyrenees with weapons and baggage. In France, he sold the horse, the harness,
and the weapons, and with the money bought a ticket for
Paris."
it.
He
never passed up
One
mous
ears that
his
'I
you!
donkey ears
him coming up
all
tell
if
could
even
evening in Ceret,
good fellow a
a joke,
is
absorbing
The
all
next day,
Manolo,
Ugue
I
con-
the
sees
thought
Your
story doesn't
hold water!
"
ears the
martre to take
"
to
Mont-
of cubism.
He
is
268
painted The
Burial of Casagemas.
from Barcelona,
That where he
studio!
first Paris
that, arriving
He
on rue Campagne- Premiere when a Catalan painter returning to his own country offered him his place on rue Gabridio
elle. If it
We
On
me
it
used to be called
the outside,
it
informs
'
of the en-
left
We
visit
been completely refurbished. Raynal evokes a string of memories, the legless base of his bed, the round folding table, Picasso's white wooden cupboard and his rickety, creaking easel,
as a matter of fact, he still has in his studio on rue des
Grands -Augustins. He also tells me how Picasso and Fernande
moved from the Bateau-Lavoir to his studio on II, boulevard
which,
RAYNAL
first
"middle-class"
home
in Paris.
And
change!
A large,
at
It
was Picasso's
The building
he lived in
it
too.
to transport.
We
across what
rets
is left
from the
garden
at 12,
past.
We
cafes, the
house and
caba-
rustic
269
Emile Bernard.
It
We
behind
Manolo.
to
anyone
else.
BRASSAI
criticize
me
He
RAYNAL
Too
unconcerned about
nervy, too
and even by
petty larceny.
It
One
still
He
gifts.
preferred to
day,
he
in bed.
stole
live
Max Jacob's
Then,
few hours
he
by his wits
only
later,
it
him
death," he told
innocently,
"I
was starving to
Manolo
bust or statue.
He
also
organized "lotteries."
The
prize was a
Sometimes
them. "I'm
he
said.
to
my
much
had
all
number on
270
even took
A strange
him with me
idea, don't
you
do your military training in the company of a "deserter"? But he was such a marvelous companion. And yet this
man who led such an eventful life was the soul of sobriety. He
never drank. In my little bungalow on rue de Rennes, I invited
think, to
hunt.
He
except Manolo.
was acting
like a
all
"party-pooper." Alfred
Beat
it!
Or
I'll kill
up
him: "Get
to
We
all
lost!
laughed.
and bang!
Manolo took
BRASSAI
off
But was he
stairs.
tions?
RAYNAL
Yes.
to accept cubism.
A good
it
to
Picasso
He
States.
first to
Then, one
exhibit
day,
Ma-
point of his
BRASSAI
RAYNAL
life!
It
It
was he
Is
that
artists,
when he moved
to
Ceret?
"
forbidden him.
271
It
was to smell
offered
him
contract with a
little
to
get to work.
BRASSAI
And when
amnesty.
to his
BRASSAi
And
RAYNAL
He
exile.
Picasso?
It
was in
Rosaline.
me
PICASSO
it
represent?
with an owl
to see,
left several
Jarry
It's
at his feet.
You ought
always
had
my
to
a live
photograph
it
is
a fellow
one
day.
him? His
my own.
What does
of these bas-reliefs.
long time,
have brought
graffiti.
PICASSO These graffiti are really astonishing! What phenomenal inventiveness you find in them sometimes. When I
see kids drawing in the street, on the pavement or on the wall,
1 always stop to look. It's surprising what comes out of their
hands. They often teach me something.
I
faces
made
Look
PICASSO
at
those eyes.
They
are
all
were in
effect;
relief.
we
273
Our knowledge
in-
Do you
BRASSAI
my mind.
graffiti for
BRASSAI
on
the wall,
PICASSO
you
few "tips."
prison.
It
Some
day
is
unique.
can give
the Gisors
visit
A prisoner sentenced to
exist
them. That
at
It's
incredible!
What-
Of
then.
course, the prisoner did not have his freedom. But he was
quite at
circular
home
room
came from
in his "cell."
with
skylights
And
he took advantage of
on
yes,
It's a
And
it.
to
wall,
which allowed
light.
how he managed to fill the walls of his cell with absoYou should photograph them one day.
They
are
As
to give
little
am
masterpieces!
leaving,
them
to
try to
reclaim
my
graffiti.
He
is
reluctant
me.
till
Thursday
28 November 1^4^
As arranged,
PICASSO
but
arrive early.
have to go out.
back tomorrow?
together.
them.
It
my
comes back):
beret?
A beret,
didn't matter.
You went
into a store
still
(a bit perturbed)
it
and
to save
place.
completely ruined
it.
it.
it
find berets?
ask
PICASSO
as alabaster. (Pi-
bust of
came back
to
me.
wonder
if
to
me. But
wanted
might
I'll let
morning,
absolutely want us to
held them up to
seen
this
to patinate
still
Go
to
be able
her
her know.
and washes; the main door with the Kanak sculpture; the little
table with pots and brushes that serves as his "palette"; and
then the Catalan Virgin with
large studio.
Is it a
gift?
home
here, seems to be
to his
homeland and
halo of light, in
corner of the
ties still
linking Picasso
275
An hour
am
at
Dora has
many
portraits of her
addition to the
there
still lifes,
is
drawer-
al-
me
could photo-
eroded by the
sea,
transformed into an
bone fragment
eagle's head.
And
charred
hoaxes,
piece
a flat
bone
has been turned into a nit comb. Picasso meticulously drew the
fine teeth
the
and embellished
has
become
with a pair of
it
boxes, cut
Most
The round Q
the head of a
in
little
up with
are
lice in love.
scissors or
As for
torn with
CELTIQUE with
human
figure.
Amid
the ani-
mals fish, fox, goat, vulture the satyr masks, the children's
faces, the death's heads,
an extraordinary
had
and
its
own
meal for
it
history.
is
also
Dora
little
"patinated"
in a row.
BRASSAI
to tell you.
The bronze
got to be
at.
that possible?
Is
me
in Marly-le-
it"
his bronzes.
MAAR
appalling green.
eras.
SABARTES
didn't
And we
talk
know him
my cam-
about Manolo.
my
Paris,
during
like
was yesterday.
it
first stay,
I
in I90I-
any, but
which appeared in
And
a portrait
German
"A
Selbstbildnis,
review.
of himself his
little
face,
"
"Monsieur
my
Brassai,
shadow.
"
"
Picasso collection ?
277
enter the
so low
little
it
The
roof
draw-
gouache
still life;
and
few lithographs.*^
Friday
29 November 194^
An American journalist
has
come
to see
me. He
is
not the
first
imagine that a word from me is enough to get Picasso to welcome him with open arms. But although I sometimes intro-
to
preparing for
tune on
sive list
that,
it;
had
him and
is at
is still
We
tenacious.
is
is
killed
me.
liked that in
alone.
We
talk
nearly finished.
What
PICASSO
it?
if
good
of time with my sculptures and
you wrote
it?
Surprised,
know
within
has been
The publisher is going to repaper soon. What holds him back is the text. Who
which
ceive the
not
He
stake.
would have
refused, he
gave in.
Picasso
tures,
his career
of questions to ask, he
is
He wagered
it.
I'm
all
for
it.
am
object that
his
body of work
He
insists:
text,
well
ask
him
PICASSO
if
we can photograph
I
going
to
hop over
to see
I'll
stay.
And we
I'll
be back. Will
stay
Point
He
with Sabartes.
explains to
me
my
collaboration.
SABARTES
And wouldn't
it
be more amusing,
a regular
And from
at
this pile
of
letters, arriving
A group of painters
is
the
at
some
Since
all
our
bases France
efforts to crush
especially in
we decided your
failed,
fate last
week
at
have
the
we
In conclusion,
home
truths.
know how
personally must
tell
you
few
are an incompetent
little
who
doesn't
to paint or draw.
So place
all
you
will see
And
what
since
garbage
you are
a.
you
are!
failure,
an
incompetent,
280
Poor
cretins!
Signed:
A group
June 1946
American journalist, arrives with his questionon several typed pages. I introduce him to Sabartes, who
on his role as Grand Inquisitor, and, knowing perfectly
Wallace, the
naire
takes
well
how
to speak English,
interrogation.
Then he
SABARTES
It's
a close
turns to me.
all that.
And how
them.
In the meantime a dozen people arrive,
even, perhaps fifteen, most of
them
They
all
techambers
to glory,
all
him
more than
that
foreigners: Swedes,
want
to see
and hear
Picasso.
where there
is
not
a free seat.
is
They
are
already palpable.
Here and there you can see sculptures and gouaches. They
look, they poke around, speak in hushed tones: "Very interesting! "Very beautiful! My American is beginning to be at a
"
"
loss. Picasso's
all
absence bothers
these people.
tell
him
him
Weimar
much
as
that these
as the
presence of
morning receptions on
me
of Goethe's receptions
fame
same
attraction and reproduces the same phenomena. Rushing in
from Stockholm, London, Paris, New York, visitors to the
"sage of Weimar" waited with the same patience and impain
281
exerts the
Goethe.
"Yes! Yes!
Weimar!
Exactly!
But Picasso
is
I'll
put
it
into
my
What
wait.
ies
at first sight,
is
going on?
the
more
would be amusing
Picasso,
exceptional des-
As paradoxical
think about
It
might
it
more
the
it,
as
affinit-
eyes wide
open on the
feel
him,
young
romanticism,
ment"
with an
"I see
on
It is al-
Goethe. Weimar.
seem
me. "Goethe!
tells
(Picasso).
is
only senti-
to
on
every
form of
existence.
An
someone
else's
iron stomach,
harmed by
it
more or
less
yes
educators
the same
Charlotte
The
ability to
An
Devotion
to
of Mephistopheles, more
the
the intervention of a
new woman's
face:
extreme excitement,
282
as
spring-
place what
who
have in
my head?"
is
will write in
my
hardest, because he
"Who
it.
become
the coldest
and
unsatisfied,
whose
thirst
"When people
Youth
activity.
Ever-
solitude.
am
in
windows
with a bronze head in close-up when, suddenly, the door
opens and, accompanied by Dora Maar, Picasso enters. He is
completely shattered. He has just pushed through the crowd of
visitors without saying a word to anyone.
the midst of photographing one of the large studio
DORA MAAR
lost
of
fell all
it
was
all
sudden. She
over. Cerebral
hemorrhage.
PICASSO
Eluard
is
(repeating
dead!
MAAR
We
Eluard
in a
is
in Switzerland.
to
"I can't
imagine
my
her.
"
It's a
terrible
The news
We
him. Everything
he told me:
Nusch
cracked voice)
is
gone! Nusch
sent
.
him
everything. His
guardian angel.
life
telegram.
A year
without Nusch.
ago,
can't
con-
spreads.
The
visitors are
283
dismayed. They
will
not
see Picasso.
his
list
of
The audience
fifty
so
is
it is
left.
Poor Wallace
for us,
cancelled.
folds
up
questions.
Everyone has
sense
is
we
common
284
Friday 13 December
1^4^
Yesterday, returning
He
calls
Come
SABARTES
He
ing.
on
told
me
to call you.
most of
I
them
it.
Jump
What's
it all
A surprise! We
He might
into a taxi.
about?
can't explain
He
wearing
is
no
doubt
when
a thick
a gift
from an American
Sabartes drags
me
visitor.
We'll be rid of
women
theme.
''^
SABARTES
effect
285
of surprise on my face)
What do
look
the
at
to
him
all
artiste peintre. It is
of a sudden.
And
he pro-
body
rigged out in that way. In a rush to join us, he has gotten rid of
his visitors.
"I
wanted
you
to give
a surprise!
Strange fellow,
got
it
They make them there out of unbreakthink. As a palette, it's worthless. You can't
States.
I
same, what
palette?
at his
huh? And
it's
And
magical object!
artiste peintre
that's
what gave
me
the
all
the idea
palette!"
I
it.
complicitous eyes, he
tes's
on
Picasso helps
as
is
a pal.
amused
When we
me
as a
PICASSO
tact.
found
several of
is
in-
clay
is
little
earthen figurines.
so very fragile,
forgot to
breaks, crumbles.
it
as
it is, its
exact dimensions.
nothing so deceptive
as a
PICASSO
Here
box)
On
reproduction!
I
took
it's a little
it
gouache.
painted
it
"after Poussin,"
during the
look
at Bacchanale: a
286
ies.
On
gouache
this
cue from Poussin, Picasso, in these tragic days, had given free
rein to his eroticism.
Around
plump behind and aggressive breasts, there was a mehand-to-hand combat. Hands and feet were shooting out
from everywhere, you could not tell which body they belonged
with the
lee,
to.
PICASSO
In the
photographer made
American
first
come and
to
color reproduction of
see
it.
He
American
was the
first
its
environ-
I always begged Zervos not to limit himself to reproducOften you understand a painting better from the life surrounding it.
ment.
tions.
And we
them without
ephemeral
objects,
PICASSO
want
to
It
to
be
the right angle for shooting, the most favorable lighting. But
when could we
287
Tuesday
1'/
December 1^4^
A big commotion.
SABARTES
What good
(grumpily)
is all
Wouldn't
it
soon
come up,
With this
enormous studio.
a few rooms? It
that coal?
seems
like as
up
all
as the sacks
before
Guillaume Apollinaire
dawn
of authority and loses
He
is
absolutely terrified
summons.
Portraits
Then
He
I
have a
and Memories.
A delicious book in
its
discon-
one might say, methodical disorder. Like a faithdog gamboling around its master, following him even as he
certing, and,
ful
at
288
jumps
to
him
criticizes
ings.
He
him
which are
moodiness,
all
his weaknesses,
more than
tween the
self-portrait.
esty,
It
extreme discretion,
it is
almost a
modwho never
congratulate
him
he painted of
me
my
portrait.
as a
it,
at
my
my memories.
he
crit-
icism!
BRASSAI
The
can make
only reproach
SABARTES
Too
affairs.
well situated.
289
My
For me,
that subject
is
taboo. In
fact,
don't
That's not
We
speak.
at all
the case!
When
loneliness.
of his
and
fall
of his love
affairs.
women? To enumerate
don't think so.
Picasso's
I
look
at
He
is it
and
arrives.
He
290
counted in his
life? I
now living in
much less
father.
rise
women who
Women come
son Paolo
him.
the
But
effects
Switzerland.
like his
20 December
Friday
The other
day,
ig4^6
at
La Coupole.
And
You ought
when
to
do
hat.
was in Vence
"take advantage of
it!"
This afternoon,
boulevard Montparnasse.
God knows
am
at
132,
From her
place,
is
filled
sometimes with
291
The
first
time
long-
that strange
1
went up
to
it
was to photograph
Ma-
The
beautiful Russian
where, during
my
woman
months
room
MATISSE
coming back
Memories of my
very
little at
later, as obsessive
all
the wall.
to
madrepores, coral,
me
them up on
sponges.
now
images:
It's
odd,
the time?
lutely
yet
hesitated: "If
said to myself,
see in Oceania,
And
the
"
pho-
"
It
was the
first
fact:
itself in
painting.
A kind of
is
that,
even
from
as
it
it
is
the furthest
a literature
remove
all
communica-
tion between your present self and the past, the essence of
which resides in things, and between your present self and the
future, where literature invites us to savor it once more. It is
that essence that art
He
particular time, a
book we
"Moreover,
"
a thing we saw at a
remain joined for-
around
at
us;
also
it
the time;
it
remains faithfully
And, somewhat
graphs of
later,
whom
person
at
the time."
one
than
if
one
Regained).
from the
wall.
And
ask
MATISSE
off to
made
England and
on
gone
will
A limited
background.
a beige
edition
of thirty copies.
In their place
tisse's canvases,
now
is
few arabesques in
charcoal.
had this photo of my painting taken with a tapestry in mind. I'm transforming it. Tapestry is different from
oil painting. It obeys different laws. On a black panel, I'm go-
MATISSE
ing to indicate
my
me
been
comrade
in arms.
London
his pal
and
remember
is
been up
to recently.
For
last year, at
and
bition in
at
the Victoria
"Braque,
my
ex-wife."
293
4
"How
So he questions me:
plays
them in
and
his studio
is
tells
No one
and ad-
No doubt
MATISSE
re-
from him. What a preposA transparent palette! For you to see the colors
has to be opaque. I didn't even try out the one he
terous idea!
properly,
it
sent me: anything that shows through the glass gets in your
In
fact, I
the
tisse at
saw
it
my
main amphitheater
"It's a frightful
it
at
still
last
time
submit-
ve
"
as
it
developed to
its
making an appearance
good-heartedly.
tisse
The
the Sorbonne.
at
ted to
film?
No
told
doubt he wanted
final stage,
found them
him
so.
But Ma-
to leave that
of himself to posterity.
MATISSE
ing shown.
Many
things about
it
bothered me.
294
It's
very indis-
creet to
BRASSAI
He
Le Cannet.
fact,
Some time
like,
was
my
at
later, filled
interested
me
understand
Because the
MATISSE
me
felt like I
place, except
my face,"
it
he told me.
a display.
me.
at
And
trait that
you work.
to submit to such
approached him.
also
In
face as
as well,
my
What
a strange
work of the
hand, captured by the movie camera and decomposed. That sequence left me dumbfounded. I kept wondering: "But is that
really you doing that? What the devil can I do now?" I had lost
my bearings. I didn't recognize my hand or my canvas. And I
thing! Suddenly,
you
my hand
drawing,
so scared as
own
is it
it
going to stop?
going to go now?"
going to
Is it
was stunned to
way, as if
"Eyes shut.
hand beyond
But
I've
"
saw
The
start
never been
when
going
its
and even the brain, preoccupied Matisse a great deal. He wanted to know what it could
do when abandoned to its fate, cut off from the body as it
were. Perhaps Picasso's exercises played some role in this. The
the control of the eyes
drawings,
made
closed, in
no
longer
on rue des
One
day
ing for
chalk.
me
asked
to take a picture of
him
only in
States?
It's
my
he
that
it
No
photo.
Fernand Leger?
and un-
very amusing
You
him making
"You have
to know how to make a salad!" He puts in salt and pepper, mustard, he adds oil and vinegar. Then he says: "You also have to
know how to make beef stew! Then you see him taking a ladle
and tasting the stew. But then, don't you see, "You have to
red face
is
just horrid.
see
a salad.
"
know how
And
two golden brown chickens from the oven, pouring sauce over
shown painting, as if painting were the logical follow-up to good cooking. "Don't you see, you must also
know how to paint." And he plays around with colored bits of
wood. He puts them on the canvas. But he puts too much on,
everything gets muddled and you can't make out a thing anythem.
Finally, he's
his
painting.
And
his silvery
looks
at
them with
show him
few
He
graffiti.
show female
genitalia.
"
him whether he
ask
from
his
illness.
MATISSE
Before,
The operation
gave
me
time.
given
296
me
my head
all
the
The
effect of
ers, after
shock
is
always unexpected.
One
of
my
publish-
cured from
sympathico-therapy, electroshock.
ten years ago,
from
a
when
his sciatica,
doctor
who applied
As
am
leaving,
tells
297
28 December ig46
Friday
shouting
want
Picasso!
He
stairs.
fight.
to see Picasso!
Now! Now!
begs
me
Furious
He
am
"
he
to get dressed.
at
want to see
in a hurry!"
The
taxi
is
waiting for us
down-
put up a
takes a letter
can to
casso so early.
"I
Orly.
first
want to
set
up
a Picasso
We
"
he
exhibition in
arrived
New York,
at
the
matter of hours,
It's a
if
not minutes.
"
is
lery near
he
is still
selling
him
paintings.
me at the beginning
me to collaborate on
think, asking
S98
works from
45
Preceding page
"Picasso:
Above,
.
"Third
kills
the
set
carve
is
faces myself.
to signs."
48
Above,
"One
day
drawn with
me
blindfolded.
It
was
a face
"The day
Left,
session
see
me and
after [that]
came
[Matisse]
to
asked point-blank:
my
face?
"Kahnweiler
composes his mail without
Above,
glasses,
with an
his
enormous
Picasso
lying
"
"
"It's like a
nicknamed Angels."
produced during the war and the Occupation, works still unknown to the American public. And
the author was able to announce proudly: "Not one of these
original paintings has yet been seen in our country." Then I
photographed a few Picasso "motifs" for them, the inside of
Dora Maar's apartment, Mme Cuttoli's collection.
Janis was a shirt manufacturer who gave up his profession
1939
to 1946, everything
works, published two years ago, was devoted to abstract and surrealist art in the
United
him
to Sabartes.
States.
At ten o'clock,
at
having achieved his goal, begins to poke around in the vestibule, Sabartes takes
me
aside:
in luck.
announces
He opens
magi offering
Picasso's arrival.
He
is
beaming. Kootz
gifts, takes
is
bacco. Camels, and a pipe and pipe cleaners, things that are
still
all
"Thank
He
offered
me
so
much
'thank you.
and
hats, that
can say
Americans have
at least
had
much
to learn to say
'
book by Sidney Janis, which Picasso immediately grabs from his hands. I love his curiosity,
the way he paws the ground, ready to pounce on his prey. On
Kootz
PICASSO
is a
or Aubade.
307
It's
not bad
at all! It's
very
my
is
captured
it
there.
PICASSO
unrecognizable.
my
And
old paintings.
Sometimes he grimaces
as well, since
it
has to be admitted:
PICASSO
I
Why do
maintain that
black-and-white reproduction,
is
if it
wrong?
repro-
gives a
more
He
is
Maar, in
lar,
indignant
a
when he comes
Dora
BRASSAI
blouse.
A nice bit
of paint.
308
How I
vas.
repainted
PICASSO
shirt.
He
devoted
shirt.
And
painted and
of bread. Later
a piece
I first
my
painted bars,
erased them.
New York
who
poor
kids!
recognizable.
cradle."
The American
breeder
talks
point of his
bition in
vases.
He
visit.
He
New York.
explains to Sabartes the idea for the exhiPicasso will not have to lend
all
him
of them. Sabartes,
the can-
at first
And
We
go upstairs
"
"
Tirelessly, Picasso
ers,
still lifes
with pitch-
And
309
women's
portraits.
He
the
tells
woman
of today.
He
"
till
lifes
fish, eels,
"It's
Plant.
am
brown color
It's
to shake his
not abstract
And
left
still
cially sea
it's
he
selects
He
shows
me
his
most recent
PICASSO
This
now. In Antibes
is
my head
right
were
me company. Then, one day, the animal responsible for the cries got hurt and revealed himself. I
was able to hold him in my hand. He became my friend and
companion.
the only things keeping
And
in several paintings
perched on
I
vas.
a rustic chair.
artiste peintre
is
doing now.
PICASSO
or another in
BRASSAI
my
my surroundings come
canvases.
to
at
night.
PICASSO
He had
only an
oil
lamp!
as daylight,
310
And
at
night.
The
light
to natural light.
have
night
at
magnificent,
is
even prefer
night to see
shadows making
it.
it
A light
around
the canvases and projected onto the beams: you find them in
most of my still lifes, almost all of them painted at night. Whatever the atmosphere, it becomes our own substance, it rubs off
on us, arranges itself to fit our nature.
that sets off every object, dark
Picasso brings
me
A little
Bastille Day.
a ring
dered the quays, the row of Paris houses, Notre Dame, the
and
trees
In
it,
streets, the
common
Day was
particularly
ing and gaiety, lasting three days and three nights, with
its
PICASSO
day.
I
This
painted
The
For
five years,
first Bastille
Day
it.
makes
me
think of one of
Ho-
PICASSO
(prickingup
his ears)
know he
didn't
also painted
large canvases.
BRASSAI
"You're only
all
"
and he resolved
to
pull off a
They covered
it
with paper.
he had invented
end everyone
Dharma,
Dharma
to that
the
tea.
it is
PICASSO
remember
that story.
That happened
at
the
home
that
don't
who
painter had a
of a prince
The
maple
remember only
the circumstances.
BRASSAI
wanted
know
didn't
fall
And
everyone recog-
washes
shape to chickens'
down crimson
feet.
These improvisations by Hokusai excite Picasso only bemany affinities with him: a keen curiosity about every aspect of form; the power to capture life on the fly and fix
cause he has
it
Hokusai did
jected nothing.
tools at
He sometimes
all
liked to improvise,
pastiches. In fact,
is
wood or
312
activity
of his
hands for one single day in a long life? I imagine Picasso the
way the "crazy old man of drawing" depicted himself in his Trea-
on Colors:
My
PICASSO
night.
I
palette
photograph the
is
left
alive today.
it
painted
in a mess.
table. Picasso
'
ended.
Now
there
is
The
meeting has
secret
go over to look
a large
at a
sheet
would be the date: 25 DECEMBER 46. In the fever of exciteall around the bird, in longer and longer strokes, he has
written: 25 DECEMBER 46, 25 DECEMBER 46, as if he had
wanted to give the Christmas Day we just celebrated a place
apart in his memory. What could have happened on 25 December 1946^ Will we ever know? A little ways from it, the same
bird has already landed on a canvas. It is still rough, but the
that
ment,
December 46.
I leave with Kootz. He is thrilled. The deal is in the bag. Picasso and Sabartes have asked him to come back the next day
painting
is
already signed: 27
snow boots
at Picasso's
apartment.
3^3
SABARTES
You
running around:
that day
ticket
damn
to us, I've
been
He bought
mouth, one
on
cigar in his
had
the air-
paperwork.
New York,
He
He
He
Left, in
him
Montpar-
as to
if
taxi to
hazard a few
replies.
Cannes, Tuesday ly
May i960
We
Henry Miller
where he
a
is
staying.
At the next
at
and
few friends.
MILLER
BRASSAI
him
again.
MILLER
to
Yes,
is
after
drawing to
me
is
tomorrow,
a close
The
festiI
have three shows to see instead of two, and the second one begins at three o'clock.
You can be
BRASSAI
by
taxi.
And
MILLER
est desires.
you'll get to
Meet Picasso
But
at
meet him.
.
Of course,
it's
I
one of my deep-
could probably go
him
at a fixed
BRASSAI
I'll
And you'll
introduce you.
be able to come
MILLER
You're probably
may present
We must
fium-hum, ha-ha-ha.
it to chance. The opportu-
right,
leave
years,
don't
itself
GILBERTE
remain
Do you
active.
really
think so?
You
believe in
immor-
tality?
ha.
MILLER Yes,
You know, my
in a sense. Immortality!
dear Gilberte,
am
Hum-hum,
almost
a follower
ha-haof
me. In any
him, how
Why
not?
much I would
am a philosopher when it
how much I like and admire
too
316
Cannes, Wednesday l8
May 1960
hills
is as ordinary and opulent as all those surrounding it from the era of grand dukes, the glory days of the
Cote d'Azur. But the grounds! For want of a gardener, no
doubt, pines, cypress, eucalyptus, mimosas, medlars, rose
laurels, and honeysuckle have grown haphazardly, choking
one another in the luxuriant vegetation. Only the high plumes
of palm trees emerge from it, breathing in the sea air and
Picasso's villa
honor of offering
and
Picasso
happen
anything in "good
the
like for
How did
Only
his
"
its
name
beside
Picasso's
immense
dis-
is
lives,
and
his
Kahnweiler the
task of
later
his studio
from Montmartre
to
Montparnasse during
why he
moving
left to
his
was away from Paris, pursuing perfect love with Olga in Spain.
I
am
my great surprise,
The groundskeeper's wife an-
is
not closed.
The courtyard
nounces
us.
cars, the
is
is
an old acquaintance,
on the
left, a
3^7
The Stag
To
irom
made of a dismantled
sowed destruction.
Looking
on
tiny
this
not changed. In
He
kisses
a close-fitting
me on
both cheeks.
wool sweater,
his face
as its
He
has
weathered
three vast
to
PICASSO
You
had an exhibi-
recently
about
it. I
keep up on everything.
BRASSAI
PICASSO
you ever come
that possible?
to see
me?
have
Thirteen years?
been tempted
my
film Tant
Why
didn't
him? And
to visit
1956 when
been since
last?
Nineteen forty-seven,
Is
it
Cannes
Festival in
BRASSAI
in Eze-Village.
you, to
I
I
come
have a house
call
PICASSO
new
faces
wouldn't wish
318
my
celebrity
on
my worst
protect myself as
can.
enemies.
gives
It
me
physical pain.
BRASSAI
If
a fortified castle.
more or
how
PICASSO
Alas! That's
BRASSAI
less
it is.
tected there?
from
very
at this
from
moment
indiscreet eyes,
really
wanted
to
be
see, I'd
safe
all
these
be depriving myself of
And
that's
not
all.
don't
hide
my view
able to spy
force
me
of the
de Lerins but
lies
on me from
all
stories,
will
it
their balconies.
coast?
BRASSAI
Cannes. He's
member
of the jury
at
the festival.
During the
day he's very busy, but we spend the evening together. He's
afraid of celebrity; if his works were published in the
States,
United
PICASSO
even more
already have
enough? You
can't eat
I'll
3^9
The
only ones
like. So!
Gauloise?
BRASSAI
would so like
wanted
to introduce
you
to
Henry
Miller.
He
to
PICASSO
Henry
Miller. Per-
haps you could come back with him after the festival?
MHiile
we
PICASSO
What region
GILBERTE
(laughing)
PICASSO
ately that
One
you from?
are
I'm
a little bit
Catalan.
Catalan?
warmth)
saw immedi-
GILBERTE
PICASSO
But
tell
me.
my
there.
exactly?
little village
know
GILBERTE
from where
name
Its
is
ridiculous,
Caudies - de - Fenouilledes
PICASSO
But
know Fenouilledes
Do you
speak
Catalan?
A few words.
GILBERTE
Picasso laughs
and
asks
5ouf[/are5.
her
PICASSO
BRASSAI
see.
You're not
a very
good Catalan.
about Sardanas.
Picasso
and
alert
lifts
his
Catalan
who begins
to dance,
320
Sardana.
It is a
who makes
young
his feet,
wood
floor.
Now glowing,
Catalan country.
free,
he has
left
for
Is
for
valley,
of a mule,
as
he once did?
Or
on
the back
was there.
BRASSAI
When
to one's country."
Sunday afternoon in Barcelona, I got a shock. That sour, harsh music. That large plaza
filled with young women and young men. The pocketbooks,
the jackets piled up on the cobblestones, and around each pile
a circle of dancers men and women weaving in and out. It
was so unexpected.
PICASSO
arrived one
And
thought
a
I
is
And
It
show him my graffiti album, which has just been published in Germany. We sit down around a small round table
flip through it.
I am trying to transcribe faithfully the words exchanged,
I
to
like a fish
commotion. Only the frequency of my visits could immunize me from the violence of
the shock. But 1 have not seen Picasso for thirteen years. Most
of the works and objects that surround me here are unknown
to me. Nothing protects me anymore. I have been assaulted a
few times in my life: in the port of Tangier by a crowd of Arab
porters, shouting, gesticulating, one pulling on the tails of my
ever they might be, always cause a
321
another grabbing
jacket,
on
rounded me
Istanbul,
my
in a ring
who
sur-
army of picaninnies
in a
fit
of over-
at
band around
suitcases; in
excitement
my
overcoat, another
at
left,
alive,
While
am
enormous rooms,
are these
women
mean? And
And what
in
tions.
it
catches
it
ahead of
What
in the
sun with
Where does
drop
me and
my
come from?
it
And
these silver
and Picasso
me. At eighty years
cigarette holder,
holds
it
out to
am
Mu-
be Picasso's handiwork?
the eye.
live
this big
is
Mexico? Could
me
pants.
Raw
silk?
come from?
look
at his face,
from
ear,
when he
this swirling
Look,
tian?
it
laughs.
And what
is
a basset
And
another one,
Montrouge,
more
hundred, to spring out from all the
studio: his two watchdogs from
a third one, a
boxer?
expect
listen to
him, but
3^^
at
life
or would have
all
the ob-
made by him,
jects
me and
this
try to
formed. The
is
The
And
its
delicate foot?
bottles, these
sel?
and
like
no doubt
aigrette,
it
fruit,
brothers and
sisters
of the
enormous
these three
long
a spade; the
bronze pieces of
Glass ofAbsinthe,
What about
tail is
about
in
still
spotlights focused
on
the ea-
Added
this studio.
to this or-
buzzing
the
like
How to
is
render
this
at
view of things,
am
to
an
all
overall, instantaneous
in an arbitrary order.
the instruments in a
Used
It is as if
symphony
one
after
conceived
els as
like a
symphonic
many
lev-
It would probably be only an artifice beyond the linguistic "rules of the game," but otherwise, how
could anyone place the words reported here within their con-
text, so that
Thus we
is
are sitting
looking through
words about
graffiti
graffiti in
PICASSO
around
my book
it.
I
a little
Graffiti. I tell
it
ask him.
Sabartes about
it.
He knows
ev-
erything.
How
morning
at
is
he? Very
because
well.
me
Some-
as in the past.
guage of the Wall." The large brush strokes that obliterate the
inscriptions
on
You
PICASSO
But
it's
and sometimes
mean something:
crowd. To arrive
concrete
it
a bull,
too
make brush
an arena, the
at abstraction,
mountain, the
sea, the
reality.
He comes
grouped the
faces
made of two or
"
where
three holes.
who
man
face, sufficient to
evoke
it
Two
without representing
But
complexity.
PICASSO
low?
sors.
But
at a
A pigeon?
probably not
bird
he exclaims: "This
took for
"
pigeon or
is
he
pigeon.
it's
rather a swal-
The
reality.
isn't it
it.
a swallow,
like scis-
We come
Two superimposed
hearts,
like a sort
of
em-
among
the
cliffs
the gigantic graffiti stands out against the four strange towers
BRASSAI
at
PICASSO
ask
him where
PICASSO
it.
this big
We
a "Picasso
The
museum
museum."
municipality wants to
shall see.
From Barcelona
of
GILBERTE
PICASSO
He
which
PICASSO
it
mon
of
Many
postcard.
sacrilege.
my visitors
find
it. It's
make
it
colors.
a tapestry.
that after a
A felcom-
But
that's precisely
though
it
new
ones.
It's
almost
a different picture,
even
demoiselles d'Avignon.
And we take a tour. He points out an extraordinary mahogany cupboard equipped with a large number of shallow
drawers.
PICASSO It belonged to Matisse and, since I often admired it at his home, after his death his family gave it to me as
a gift. He had ordered it for himself, wanted it to be very tall
with about forty drawers to put his drawings in. Don't you
think
its
of Matisse;
it's
BRASSAI
just like
When
look
at
it,
think
him.
What about
this
New Hebrides?
PICASSO
Not
braid,
is
far
Also
from
there, shining in
a torero's
costume.
3^6
all
the splendor of
its
gold
PICASSO
II.
He
see
personally sent
to
many more
a bull.
gone.
I
By the time
him
PICASSO
to
if
he
my
spirit,
can't get
One
that led
the horns of
message of friendship.
it's
case,
on
And
is still
Yes,
them. In that
doble,
this
final
It's like a
ask
a hurry.
me
began
day,
found
it
so painful
it.
months,
And
I've
been
And we
talk
ask
him
at
if
he
is
thinking of
going to London.
PICASSO
Why would
paintings again?
waste
have a good
me enough pain. They're exhibiting only paintings and very few of my recent works. But you'll also see the
large curtain from Parade. Exhibitions don't have much to offer
me anymore. My old paintings no longer interest me. I'm
and
that gave
much more
At the
sight of
all
his
new
haven't
yet.
explains he had
form
some of
lent themselves to
made of a wicker
"No one
done
Picasso
and
basket,
it
palm
say:
on your works. Hardly has one appeared than you've already made it incomplete. After four years, we thought
all
up
curious
wood
never seen
tish. I've
it
reproduced anywhere.
was familiar
know
was? Here's
was
still
didn't
PICASSO
I
its
had forgotten
story.
living in
My
it
myself.
housekeeper's
little girl
fairly
wanted
broke
at
I
it
a doll.
the
don't re-
member anymore how the little girl liked it. I also don't know
what hands that wood statuette could have passed through since
then before
it
was sold
at
BRASSAI Kahnweiler would like to publish a new, "updated" book of your sculptures. It's supposed to be published
by a Stuttgart firm. He asked me to photograph the statues
you've done since 1947-
Whenever you
PICASSO
ing, but
The
like.
Break them
as well.
statues of
Then we come
I'm jok-
Man
Ray.
And yet,
also
going to
it's
not
is
blind. Picasso
tells
the
vent
tian.
casso.
3S8
my
paintings,
"
says Pi-
Placed on a sideboard on
PICASSO
a
"panettone.
forgot about
"
it's
it. It's
eroded by the
It's
We
ate a piece of
it.
A treat
started to nibble at
Now
it,
for
dug
my
about
it
sea.
It's
it.
called
Then
maze
inside.
So
as iron.
left it to
them.
you find?
Night
is
beginning to
many long
shows
and
this
A few months
on La
Californie.
hours, he talks
We
have been
tirelessly, asks
ques-
that,
with me.
fall
found
a
"
box
reread
PICASSO
esting! Let's
I
read
from the
you wrote all that down? That's so interdown and you'll read me a few pages.
Really,
sit
him
pile.
He
me sometimes
as
read about
my visit
random
asks
I
me
to
read, in-
complete
PICASSO
In the end,
wasn't able to
tell
cure a leotard, was I? Well, with a coin! At the time, Olga used
a
penny with
hole in
it.
You
rolled
it
and it
secrets, which
its little
you
can't
BRASSAI
to a convent.
Miller
expecting us
is
places his
hand on
"It's as true, as
As
am
at
o'clock,
We
Henry
genuine,
leaving,
as
your
graffiti.
it."
museum
noon on
this
Wednesday
no
collector,
l8
May i960,
friends.
330
all
Picasso devoted
it
no
afterto his
Postscript
22 September ig6o
Thursday
Mme
I
but the
ceal
little
MARGUERITE DUTHUIT
I've
taken
on
a difficult job:
me
vas or another.
all
have
I'm
need your
my
father's
documents, and
yet, it's a
BRASSAI
Fakes?
DUTHUIT
to
It's
contend with
several fakes.
The
I've
ments from
difficult to
had
several canvases to
BRASSAI
DUTHUIT
closely are
way from
that
my
father.
last
life
was nearby.
BRASSAI
tions
It
If
made of his
DUTHUIT
BRASSAI
remember well,
canvases.
Only during
Do you
certain periods.
yourself
33^
DUTHUIT
Not
many.
SO
My
Since
have
little
hanging on the
BRASSAi
yesterday.
at
my
among
place, there
is
not
a single canvas
What about
DUTHUIT
us, my
brought
room
many
Picasso?
Picasso ...
remember
to
in
odd get-ups,
especially Gertrude,
who was
massive,
fat,
And
at all
in fashion.
dals,
BRASSAI
they
Do you
still
all
Duncan
family.
Very
rarely.
him or
try to see
BRASSAI
him,
During
all
run into
if
call
a wall.
let
Picasso went to see his friend. But if he did that for everyone.
332
DUTHUIT
can. His
fame
know.
paint.
left to
And
He
understand.
does what he
is
is
sometimes
phone
We
were expecting
a telegram,
call.
him
It
And when we
we were
"M. Picasso
has nothing to say about Matisse, since he is dead." Could he
really have said that? Or could someone have replied unbetried to speak to
knownst
to
a third time,
told:
BRASSAI
and he
hates effusiveness. That news was a terrible blow for him, I'm
sure of
it. It
No one knows
DUTHUIT
owns.
exactly
how many
Matisses he
let
Matisse choose
And
BRASSAI
DUTHUIT
traits
me
the large
my
fiercely
with Oranges
defended
of me, entitled
with
and
it
Still Life
Marguerite,
long hair.
A year
is
from l^Oj
it.
also
.
and Bananas of
My
meeting,
was struck by
BRASSAI
its
extreme simplicity.
don't think Picasso and Matisse have
333
many
He
rivals
My
DUTHUIT
more
solitary,
He
me
my
a thing. It steals
out."
me
time, empties
social invitations.
When
he insisted
it
come
his
And
his
It
cost
him
it
head by Gauguin.
him,
seems to me.
DUTHUIT
BRASSAI
to see
own
still
it?
along with
woman's
fabulous
He even had to
money. His friends told him: 'You're crazy
to pay a fortune for such a lousy painting. Return it to Vollard, even if you have to lose a few hundred francs, and be
happy if he takes it back." But my father replied: Fm not
crazy. I don't know what I'll get out of life, whether my paintings will earn me money one day or not. All I know is that this
painting is a masterpiece and one day it will be worth a great
teen hundred francs!
come up with
deal.
Can
buy them
make
this
BRASSAI
canvas.
He
the
What
often had
investment for
a better
my
children than to
painting?"
I
surprises
me
no money.
is
It
to acquire the
334
it.
to sell
it.
DUTHUIT
remember
that after
my
father
had gone several years in a row without a day of vacation, he exclaimed one day: "I can't go on! I'm suffocating! Air, air! I
need country, sea, sky! We must absolutely get away." Obviously, selling the Cezanne would have allowed for trips, stays
in the country, a more comfortable life. But even under the
my
worst circumstances,
a place there, a
from
us.
left
but
He
was expecting a
my
can speak to
him
it.
to
admire
bound to fall
Bernheim did not
was
fact,
a price.
suffered for
it
was his
But wasn't
own work
it
re-
that
it.
DUTHUIT
in.
"
BRASSAI
ally
from Bernheim.
"Sell your Ce-
visit
father:
want
day,
offer.
One
about
it.
He
ning
to find buyers.
Not wanting
When
to give in
Woman
with
on
the price, he
years.
And how
335
made
my
As
a mistake.
letter,
was blinking
blow!"
at
And
ing to
father
a rate
hundred
three
such
francs for
my
letter to her:
my mother
let it
"They're offering
more
who
hundred
my brother:
'That canvas
francs.
is
and he
And
was overjoyed
also
worth
well
five
made no concessions
won't give in on the price.'
it
BRASSAI
Is
your mother
still
alive?
sunny home.
DUTHUIT
A perfect
asleep
fell
most insignificant
event.
We
look
his studios
villa
at all
the photos
of "Reves," in Vence,
BRASSAi
He
at
des Plantes,
at
the
When
The
came
to see
me and
my
him.
He
morose professor.
look
like
my
face.
an old fogey.
"
And
it
was true.
He
become him.
It
dis-
trouble finding himself; the stern ones belied his nature; the
up
light
DUTHUIT
laughing.
of
all
You're
They
right.
smile had to
all
It's
man
not in possession
ity,
his face.
he was
odd, in
quite able to
still
fact,
know, he was
I
mention
DUTHUIT
the
When my
and grandparents.
my
him
father was
a priest. It
It
was
probably
religious funeral.
337
we opted for
GisorSy
14 February ig6l
luminous, sunny.
as
casso has
We
been
me
telling
hot
It is
as in
much
hotter in Paris
We go
Tamanrasset.
Tower" and
its graffiti,
to
Gi-
which Pi-
accompanied him
to Boisgeloup. It was
ago. Since then, the Paris suburbs have spread out to Pontoise.
You
it is
really the country, with large fields, horses in single file, peas-
When
"Hamlet of Boisgel-
arrive at the
Paulo,
who
him
to
inspired so
BRASSAI
PAULO
follow
when
is
many of his
thought the
castle
father's Pierrots.
keeps everything.
338
to sell
it.
He
always
BRASSAI
Boetie.
PAULO
still
to; they
were requisiti-
that.
BRASSAI
PAULO
also leaving
BRASSAI
PAULO
is
For
my
isn't
father
is
La Californie
too
my-
not
The funny
for a
either,
a time, there
The
it
Yet he
sell
keep Vauvenargues.
he'll
Vauvenargues
that
He much
And
it.
up next
settle in
thing
La Californie.
late.
new
And
since he doesn't
place to
BRASSAI
live,
like to
He
spend
learned about
he stayed in Cannes.
many
at
home,
in
things attaching
him
PAULO
And
While we are
talking,
on
the green
member?
PAULO
Now Fm
the
It
one who
it?
remember it well.
my wife.
339
We
often
come from
Paris to
spend
Do you want
tour?
While we were
the castle;
are
now
walls
its
bare.
PAULO
talking,
They
ivy.
ivy,
even the
We walk. The
state.
The
yard has
a great deal
all
as
PAULO
damp as
It
all
it's
become
me
vacant
lot,
is
with
the sta-
letters:
It still
HISPANO-SUIZA.
PAULO
kitchen
is
Do you
want
large
We come
to
this
is
to a large
ramshackle
and her
fireplace next to
which
is
delicate profile.
where we
fixing
live.
The
up certain rooms.
room turned
and
in particular
lor
unkempt
full
its
before.
We
of charm in
into a shed,
Olga in 1932.
PAULO
ing
it
for the
We
This
room
moment.
Soldiers
camped out
here.
PAULO
is
where
my
father
painted.
rooms
He
left traces
very
Beyond the
best view
He
from
liked these
here.
little
tiers
on
the
hill,
up
to the cur-
On
and Paulo
casso looks
age five.
lar
and
on
We
little
at
suit.
we
are in the
PAULO
It
still
amuses him.
interests
is
me
etc.
He had
an
miss
him
a great deal.
BRASSAI
effect
PAULO
all
the time.
When
the bull
when
it
moment.
That black thing getting bigger and bigger, and with horns.
A transistor
Mme Picasso
is
day.
ask
them
Kahnweiler
PAULO
tells
if
me
she heard
they saw
my
me on
the radio
television broadcast,
also appeared.
a set.
La Californie for
year and
a half.
had one
Then he
he
London and also the wedAnd that won him over. He has a
"
34
We
at
Buckingham
Palace!
only grandson.
up
when
in his carriage.
ask if he has
the eighteen-month-
It's
Bernard, Picasso's
met him.
little
And
all
skirts,
is
swarm of
You would
that today
They
all sides.
or Peru.
father even
We
Mardi Gras.
342
6 June 1962
A crowd at Louise
Leiris's,
is
latest
he displays
It is
the strange
tures.
In the crowd
man from
catch sight of a
from
It is
looks
at
to
Sabartes!
still
He
it,
covery
wanted physically
is still
paralyzed.
is
who decided
It
that!
even
photo
BRASSAI
There
will
be an archive,
a library,
and
library.
That's marvelous!
congratulate you!
343
museum
What
of Bar-
SABARTES
They
will also
and
come
which he
inas,
perhaps,
me
Las
Men
day,
Guernica.
of
Then
find in front
museum
Barcelona
is
ment of his
his apotheosis.
life,
He
tells
in
crowning achieve-
me
about
it
with
strange fervor.
One
SABARTES
museum"
city,
if
told
all
him
my
"My
of course, but
this
"It's
My
lips
in Barcelona?"
The
Now
were sealed.
By
all
my
a "Picasso
my
native
museum
and
was planning
we located
friend!
canvases
What
negotiations
can
tell
you: Jean
all
longed
to the city.
He had
scale
sent to Mougins. In the end, Picasso opted for the Aguilar Palace.
It is
splendid.
I'll
What about
BRASSAi
SABARTES
He'd
He would
you
love to see
He
he
is
resisting.
But
conception
Sabartes
as for the
it.
He
set
foot
museum, he was
all
closely.
falls silent.
Then,
all
344
for
of
sudden, he
tells
me:
"How
That question
"nibbled" on
my
leaves
me
drawings.
The man
He
in-
greatest seriousness.
am
As
leave
my
leaving him, he
tells
now
live
and
see
me."
345
to
Come
Wednesday
October
ig62
known him
have
he welcomes
alert,
Monceau.
and
me
What
a contrast
be-
tween his minuscule gallery on rue Vignon and his setup here,
which
is
whelmed by
a career."
He
demoiselles d'Avignon,
decided in
flee Paris
casso,
who made
it
life
he
lost Pi-
man
This
Under
trait
magnifying
glass,
Kahnweiler
is
examining
por-
Then he composes
his
him:
woman
lying
under
pine
still lifes
bursting
KAHNWEILER
casso broke
new ground
years ago, he
began
in linoleum.
Then he
mode
in that area, as in so
to carve a portrait of a
of recutting the
or four colors;
now he
He must
there's
own
many
as
possible!
don't even
mental operation.
BRASSAI
Clairvoyance.
KAHNWEILER
I
gets as
same
he was
no pentimento
to give that
plate
ance.
others. Five
by Cranach,
instead of executing a
same
cal!
many
woman
would
call it "pictorial
it's
kind of clairvoy-
premonition."
was
at his
home
result.
BRASSAI
KAHNWEILER
As
Do you remem-
ber the period in about 1945' when he started doing lithos and
was beginning to go regularly to Mourlot's? At that time, it was
still
heated studio.
It
it's
send
and
lithos.
fact,
It's
For each
state,
he has to
tle
remark
347
remind me
a lit-
On
KAHNWEILER
that point,
you! Picasso used colors this pure during several periods in his
life, as
BRASSAI
The
KAHNWEILER
193233?
era of Woman
Yes,
his
and
all
in the
in about 1932?
Mirror,
him
a great deal.
Do you know
that!
that,
That
it
car,
his paintings.
I
after
I
tell
comparing
my
prefer
it
and how
Picasso,
Matisse!
KAHNWEILER
He
still
likes certain
for me,
my
favorite painter
is still
Rembrandt.
much less. As
him above
put
there
is
tell
him
essential qual-
for Matisse.
KAHNWEILER
there never was,
casso: he's
It's
will
is
also a
all
unique
348
not.
is
and
he doing?
case.
How
is
he recovered
body
part of his
fairly well
is still
and
is
so
dangerous
fairly quickly.
a bit paralyzed,
Obviously,
The other
is
day,
good
I had
at his place.
While
am
at
Barce-
He
like
me.
And we
and
When
his
home
leave
me
directions to get to
et Zette
Louise
They've
left
You'll see
them when
349
We
for us.
it
An enormous
Not
far
work.
from
It is
shifting,
it,
still
lying
on
the lawn,
from
is its
its
tall;
chrysalis.
wooden form-
am
door separating
that courtyard
the
KAHNWEILER
is
own
first
them with
a pistol that
stay
smooth. But by
You should
see
statues of Picasso's,
nicknamed "Angels," on
KAHNWEILER
cess. It's a
finished now,
It's
effect
Guided by Kahnweiler, we
tine chapel,
a
it
truly striking.
is
of
left
KAHNWEILER
Under
it.
ivy.
The
still
the foliage of
cor-
He
collec-
also sculpted a
Doucet wanted
to
1920, Picasso's
sculptures,
and
in
New York.
modern
art.
Since
In
moment
Mu-
as resistant as
color
is
"The Priory"
is
a beautiful
if
Picasso has
come
KAHNWEILER
settling
pretty pink
him
Its
to Paris.
ask
He
here.
Only once,
permanently
come back
it
is still
hasn't
35i
"The Priory" in
its
present
state.
Germany done by
the gardens in
a certain
very
to
be almost
much
liked
landscape architect.
who planted
every-
common and
leaves.
beloved in
Germany
trees.
BRASSAI
KAHNWEILER
ready
bloomed
this year.
And you
flowers.
They have
al-
and
a large
planted.
My
me
by
this
Somewhat surprised by
ask
its
plots of
him
if
he
KAHNWEILER
We
Lascaux,
who
is
also here.
is
Vilato, Picasso's
nephew.
how
ask Kahnweiler
Picasso
is
doing.
KAHNWEILER
been
seriously
ralgia.
On the whole,
ill.
eral times
happened
He
to find
reality,
he has never
treated it?
him
lying
covered with furs. His enormous output might give the impression he overworks himself.
When
he
stays in
feels the
need
Not
now he
fact,
Is
who took
care of Matisse.
he sometimes
BRASSAI
Mougins?
at all:
days.
KAHNWEILER
Permanently?
No one
can
say.
There
is
ment, he
likes
it
there.
"Notre-Dame de Vie"
is
mo-
a beautiful
new
me one
is
And
is
obvious from the entry gate: the visitor has to talk into
microphone
protect Picasso
BRASSAI
to be
from
announced.
And
indiscreet eyes.
KAHNWEILER
Almost
all
353
still
there.
He
up something. And
he should
spend the night there, he could, since even the
to pick
if
And how
BRASSAI
KAHNWEILER
severe.
It's a
The landscape
time,
first
pointed
it
I'm
Spaniard and
is
gubrious
out to him.
it.
Too
enough
to live there.
As for Jacque-
castle.
BRASSAI
KAHNWEILER
times goes
down
Something
there
when he
or Nimes. Aix-en-Provence
I
too
like sadness."
vast,
itself is so sad.
about Vauvenargues?
Kahnweiler
tell
is
like that.
A caprice. He
some-
on
the way.
was surprised
when
found
recently
KAHNWEILER
wanted
to return to Boisgeloup.
A simple
to Paulo.
great deal
I
ask
and
my
host to
Then,
The
grass was
growing
it
KAHNWEILER
poverty.
We found
accompanied him.
tell
me
about Manolo.
to survive, he
damaged
his career as
an
artist.
weird, farfetched
you
But
as
He
titles to his
At another
level,
composer.
And
his
music
354
is
it
as well.
as serious
today.
Ma-
nolo was
good
sculptor.
Of course,
he understood nothing
dles.
can
since he
asked
one, in
full
fact,
of charm and
We
Museum
in Barcelona
vitality.
And
is
No
character
ask
pro-
ceeding.
KAHNWEILER
It's a
magnificent fourteenth-century
warehouse.
it
It
museum
Picasso
augurated
it.
some
it
and
and
no doubt it opened without
es-
fanfare.
BRASSAI
What about
KAHNWEILER
there!
It's
you can
funny!
It
I
exists,
visited
it
Don
in
Malaga?
some time
museum
the Picasso
ago.
Do you know
what
museum
355
of
matter
as a
fact.
What about
BRASSAI
me
showed
their
more
museum
Is it
going to
owns? Picasso's relcollection one day. I saw some of Pisuch as Science and Charity, but also some
the canvases
it
recent works.
KAHNWEILER
The
They cannot
And
it.
that will
ex-
change.
Lunch
the wall
is
see a
still life
On
light.
Henri Laurens. An abstract fresco with bright colors by Fernand Leger adorns an entire wall.
KAHNWEILER
That may be
He
painted
you
to
wipe
it
has remained.
off. It
it
Do
here on the bare wall, scarcely two weeks before his death.
It
me much.
Leger was truly very gifted for large mural decorations. But,
for lack of commissions, he created very few of them.
turned
deaf ear.
You
have to admit
it:
how to spur on
The
contemporary
You
rier has
shown
ten reluctant,
task.
They
a great deal
if
art.
art-
have to go to
want to see
state
if
you
Father Coutu-
some reason,
were for the most part nonbelievers. But the most beautiful
thing Leger ever did
Rocquencourt.
work by
is
find
it
fairly
communist and
religious sensibility.
windows of
slightest
offend the
concession
in his art or his ideas, Leger simply took the elements of the
art:
the
356
hammer,
etc.,
BRASSAI At the church on the ^\5sy plateau, he proceeded the same wav. The entire facade depicts the attributes
of the Virgin in mosaic: the throne, the crown,
frescoes if he'd
KAHNWEILER
commissions
like
He
ver\'
much.
Guernica.
what
Do you
about Picasso?
more
And
etc.
War and
to
Peace,
doesn't
he created
Salles
insis-
None
of
his other
On
BRASSAI
t see it from a suitable disAs soon as you step back, a catwalk cuts off the panel. And do you know what that catwalk is
for? It's a passagewav between the two rooms for the electrician
KAHNWEILER
He
it.
as well.
replied: "I
asked
made
it
to create a rupture."
BRASSAI
It's
vou from
KAHNWEILER
BRASSAI
plain,
it
Reeds,
well located.
the dinner
at
As the creator of
And
can't
that panel.
artists
com-
attended
were
all
there.
And
what
a lovely
done!
It exists!
pounded
And we're
357
a toast.
Overheated with
the ones
who produced
it!"
Then he added
Georges
Salles
in a
going to
is
of Picasso's panel."
to stand up, but
it
years."
And
sincerity
all
Georges
what he thinks
Salles was
about
masterpiece.
It
all
KAHNWEILER
telegram of congratula-
around the
are sitting
directly
us in
is
Its
tions signed by
We
tell
A bit surprised,
trust
casso's panel
of
table.
This caviar
is
very fresh.
bottles of Vodka.
It
it
pare the major Fernand Leger exhibition, which will take place
in
December. In
fact, it will
some.
many other
A turning point,
will
be hung
canvases.
think
life,
all
Germany. In comparison, Czechoslovakia is in the forePoland and Hungary. I myself will go to Russia for the inauguration of that exhibition. Michel and Zette
will accompany me. Nadia Leger asked us for our head size, so
East
front, followed by
Moscow
in
it
may be
very cold in
December.
Kahnweiler, who
will
BRASSA'i
Much
fixed
up
manded
recently saw
richer than
to receive
it.
home, with
358
It's
the
KAHNWEILER
You
admire
always have to
criticize
What
all
the Renoirs,
all
the Gezannes,
sense
all
who
them pre-
art lovers
there in that?
more
It
logical or-
Gamondo
BRASSAI
is
to
stipulated the
to the state.
KAHNWEILER Yes, and for a long time there was a Gamondo collection at the Louvre. But since the thing was so absurd, they
I
ask
had
to
break
him what
has
it
up.
Dutilleul col-
lection.
KAHNWEILER
is
less
my
helm Uhde,
What
a delicious
first clients, if
not
my very first?
He played
so refined, so cultured.
development of modern
He had
art.
also liked
a very
Wil-
impor-
But he doesn't
did.
It
was
who spoke to me of the strange canvas of Les demoiand prompted me to go see it. A German subject
like myself, Uhde lost his very beautiful collection following
World War I. When he came back to France, he turned to the
naive painters. He was also one of the first to discover and like
he, in fact,
selles
Avignon
Le Douanier Rousseau.
Then we
359
BRASSAI
all
kind
a diabolical skill, a
sorts of techniques.
Dur-
and appropriated
works
KAHNWEILER
too
far.
for those
as to
(smiling ironically)
who were
how to make
cate fakes.
name
One
He pushed mimicry
a great deal
day,
when
a bit
of indulgence
they went so far
does not
know
was?
proposed
to sell
it.
bought
it
from him.
my
house.
He
told me:
the
bandit."
When
lunch
is
every
room
cially
recent works.
over,
Kahnweiler has us
The most
curious
still lifes
its
Mme
house. In
Picassos, espe-
bawdy nude,
conspicuously
his bed.
But there
On
many
may be
slit
by Juan Gris,
visit his
360
which
am
The
library
is
decorated
Kahnweiler
it
in the stairwell.
From
also
Gris,
made
for a costume
Night
is
falling
when we
leave
361
"The Priory."
Thursday
2^ November ig62
autumn, one
Pont-
too invaded,
it
alas! like a
Michel Leiris receives us in the "music room," where, during the Occupation, Picasso's
was per-
tended
major
sale.
KAHNWEILER
later,
made
still live
thinks
there.
it is
When
number of trips
I
find
it
London, and
My brother and sister
was young,
there.
lived in
362
and
still is
in
some
As
far as
comfort
on illusions now.
concerned, London has become the least
be outdistanced.
is
living
It's
In London,
exists
it
only in
Kahnweiler has us
casso did of
him
visit his
in charcoal,
room
and which
Mme
adorn the
am
to hang.
My
choice
made,
is
Van Dongen
also
walls.
KAHNWEILER
I
a small
collection
I
not
and
really like
is
but an
a collector,
that
art dealer.
my walls
allow
So
me
my
my wife. Our
it
was in Boulogne.
KAHNWEILER
tantly.
But
wood
is
fireplace
I'm sacrificing
my
is
up
to
be replaced
by shelves.
Wherever
go, an avalanche of
bedrooms and
boom"
is
in apartments
my
hallways.
The "book
"traffic boom"
will
no longer be
3^3
from
it.
in
It
home
of books.
What about
BRASSAi
books?
I've
must have
brary. But he
KAHNWEILER
been in
always
a large
Ever since
piles. So,
he puts them in
Paris, in
crates.
I've
much
it's
easy for
him
to find the
to us, Zette
and me,
left
running
to find
truckfuls or vanfuls
thing he
books have
many
his
book or
known him,
from time
He
li-
number of books.
this
kingdom.
what he asks us
I've
forgotten
Now
for. Little
it's
by
up
little,
And
there can't be
on rue des Grands -Augustins. But, in spite of Pihis phenomenal memory, his supervision from
"lists,
left
casso's
"
it
was
made
crates.
364
Notes
Introduction
1.
1994
the
Musee
2. Picasso always
Picasso in Paris,
Anne
Picasso photographe
Baldassari in
ig00igi6.
are
now
in the
fir
Musee
wood
Picasso
in Paris.
3. It
does not matter that Brassai dates them from 1930 31, though
from autumn 1928. At the time, he had no way of dat-
ing
them more
year of manufacture.
Paris: Picasso
tal
in the
Musee
about the
Picasso in
as a
plan for an
Apollinaire
sequently acquired
numerous Gezannes
(a
sub-
black
small Gourbets,
some Vuillards
Max
Ernsts, sculptures by
Wright, Ribemont-Dessaignes, a
but also
beyond civilization, uniting man with cosand to rediscover mystical, alchemical, esoteric knowledge.
Surrealism sometimes took on the trappings of a religion. That explains his pretensions to be a magus, head of a secret society, and his
references to occultism, to the Orient, to Buddha, to the great pioneers, to the Dalai Lama. As the "Incorruptible One," Breton sowed
reestablish secret relations,
mic
forces,
name
terror in the
3.
their
is
now
is
We
are
Histoire du
surrealisme)
4.
What
painting.
particularly bothered
Its
me
cepted
Once
erotic
or poetic
'
the
was ac-
works to the skies, and could like even good painting only for bad reasons. These reservations were already expressed by Baudelaire, perhaps
the only poet to have liked painting for itself and not for the ideas in
it
destined to
I
suffer
move
when
at
his art.
To
Painting
is
is
it.
its
368
it
resembles
as the latter
reader.
modern
all
these
5. In 1908, Picasso told his friend Gonzalez that, if one cut up and
reassembled the planes of his painting, one would be in the presence
sculpture. And, three years later, he declared that a painting ought
show objects with such plasticity that an engineer could execute them
of a
to
in three dimensions.
6.
"Variations
on
works between 193O and 1935was no doubt the bitter disappointment caused by Picasso's failure to "rally behind" surrealism that led Breton to denounce his blindness, even though Breton had always praised the artist's clairvoyance.
casso's
7. It
Viennese
garding a
visit
all
visit to
the
addressed to Stefan Zweig in 1938, reby Dali, Freud wrote: "Up to now I have been inclined
scientist.
In
a letter
who
On
seem
madmen
it is
to have
(let
adopted
me
as their
pa-
Tail, are indebted to surrealist poWithout the example of automatic writing and free association,
Picasso might never have dreamed of spewing forth the colorful verbal
torrent of his imagination. And, oddly, he did so at a time when he
had become associated with Paul Eluard, who had just turned away
from automatic writing for good.
9- Picasso even lent him money for his first voyage of discovery and
conquest to the United States. Dali continually denigrated him, even
insulted him, beginning at the time of the Spanish Civil War.
10. One has only to substitute the words "creative artist" for "para-
works, including
etry.
man who
11.
all
it
the great
to
be valid for
styles,
all
Gaudi
also
had
more impressed by
Gaudi gave
pointing out the rippling benches encrusted with broken crockand sometimes set out like "Miros" before the fact, Miro told me:
"That's where all my art comes from." As for Picasso, he always
claimed Gaudi had had no influence on him. Certain elements of
Giiell,
ery
prelude to cubism.
12.
of
reality, etc.;
tive
megalomania";
soming of unconscious,
a close
dreams, reveries, daydreams; the presence of characterisoneiric elements condensation, displacement, etc.; flagrant orna-
affinity with
tic
My
Maillol,
Vollard;
Paris Nocturnes,
on Ambroise
and nudes,
accompanied by a text by Maurice Raynal. It was in Minotaure 34 ^^^.t
published my first article on graffiti, whose title, "From Cave Walls to
Factory Walls, " was suggested to
16.
Lipchitz; a series
me
Nights:
by Paul Eluard.
When
recently (in
1963) asked Marie Guttoli why, she told me Picasso had insisted that
his cartoon not leave his studio, that all the work of transcription take
place there. But, for technical reasons, that was not possible.
17.
home
made
into cannons.
tined for the colossal statues of Arno Breker, fiitler's protege and
Third Reich,
being
19. Since
cast in
monument,
Apollinaire
erected
on
des-Pres church.
seems to me that the death's head motif began with the skelehead in Royan in 1939reappeared with the skelecontinued with a series of still lifes
tons of bull's heads in 1943
with death's heads in 1945
194620.
It
ton of
a sheep's
21. In
came
cluded
22.
him
to
a
It
preface by
Raymond Queneau.
mean
later,
him
Claude.
a son,
Wet
at Le Catalan as follows:
group where each had his knees,
his bottle. Picasso proposed a paradox from time to time, the way
someone pulls a Brazilian cigarette from a case. A doctor greeted me.
I saw an order of leg of lamb go by. And wham! The hour of reckoning, which falls with its storm accumulated drop by drop, had
sounded" (En rampant au chevet de ma vie, 1946).
25- One day, he said to Sabartes: "People don't pay enough attention. That's what makes Cezanne Cezanne: when he is in front of a
tree, he looks attentively at what is in front of his eyes; he stares at it,
like a hunter homing in on the animal he wants to take down.
Often a painting is only that.
You have to give it all your attention"
the
little
(Sabartes, Iconographie)
26. [Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen, trans. WilEditions, Ltd., 1991), pp. 33
BOA
Mais
oil
Comme
air
dans
le ciel et la
la
sans cesse,
mer dans
Comme
oil
paresse,
on ne peut aimer,
et
la
mer
sombre
illustres
Ombrage par un
Car
c'est
vraiment. Seigneur,
le
meilleur temoipnag-e
37^
Et vient
27-
eternite!
Picasso's
Sculptures
in his crema-
He
was also a
for many; the return of his ashes to Paris. Also well known is the gripping poem the very last found on him at the time of his death: "I
Have Dreamt So Fiercely of You. " But does anyone realize that this
"last poem" was only a reminiscence of another, very old one, entitled, "I Have Dreamt So Much of You," which appeared in the collection A la mysterieuse (To the mysterious one) in 1926? Everything is already said in it, almost word for word, as in a first draft. And Desnos,
far from Paris, suffering from a high fever, separated from his be-
found no
premoni-
poem.
de
ne me reste
fantomes et plus ombre cent
qu'il
les
qui
toi, tant
se
fois
le
et
I have dreamt so much of you, walked and talked so much, lain with
your ghost, that I am left, perhaps and nevertheless, to be only a
ghost among ghosts, and a hundred times more shadowy than the
shadow
that
wends
Twenty years
give
it its
come
later,
its
way,
and
will
wend
its
life.
to
It
was the
last act
inspired sleepwalker:
de toi,
marche, tellement parle,
Tellement aime ton ombre.
me
Qu"il ne
II
me
reste
d etre
Dans
I
1'
ta vie ensoleillee.
Have
so
much
am
left to
To be
To be
30.
think he
of Picasso,
is
as well as
31. Xaturallv. this plan was never realized, like most of those
on
moment. That
fragile construction
made
stroved.
33-
dandy
It is
is
condemned
vet
depending
shirts, jackets,
him
wide-brimmed
anyone
else, fie
to
hats,
Now
hats. In
women's
gnst,
fabrics
when
35- In an essay.
to
36.
About ten
depicting Nusch
a
portraits of Eluard
attest to their
373
texts
devoted to
him. In 1947'
mam
la cleffragile
wrote
long prose
du probleme de
la realite
(The
problem of reality).
handwriting and initialed with the crossed swords of his odd signature, was a cryptic and friendly reproach: "To Brassai, closer to him
than he thinks. Paul Eluard." This was his
weeks
last
message.
He
died
few
later.
38.
Upon
this
de I'Art Moderne.
39. Eluard never saw "automatic writing" as an end in itself, but as
way to enrich and add suppleness to his poetry. For him, it was only
a catalyst. His inimitable voice, already formed before the surrealist experiment, emerged from it all the more authentic. The friendship between Eluard and Breton, their names placed side by side on many
texts for several decades, seems to attest they were of the same persuasion in all matters. Their profound differences revealed themselves
only later, when Breton acknowledged that "Eluard participated in
joint activities not without reluctance." He criticized him and this
was a major heresy for attaching himself to "aesthetic" poetry in the
traditional sense of the word. And, as the proof and open confession
of that heresy, Breton cited the blurb for Les dessous d'une vie (The underside of a life, 1926), in which, even at that time, Eluard contrasted poetry to dreams and automatic writing, an attitude Breton judged "ultrareactionary and in formal contradiction with the surrealist spirit."
"The telling of a dream cannot be taken for a poem, " wrote Eluard.
"Both are living realities; but the first is a memory, immediately worn
out, transformed, an adventure; and from the second nothing is lost,
nothing changes. The poem heightens the universe for the sole benea
fit
of
human
faculties, allows
man
way." But Eluard always very loyally recognized his debt to surrealism
and especially to Breton, who, he claimed, had been and remained the
"
one who "had most taught him to think.
It
was only in
that Picasso
artiste peintre
ers,
Among
among
all
all
came out
in
of Drawings,
all its
vio-
published in
the fat
Series
374
models," the apes on the quays of the Seine reappeared: one of these
apes, palette in hand, was painting a
in a hat
and necklace.
The person
43.
The
44for
many
years
at
Jean Rivier
Raymond
at
other photographic
Cocteau
at
Le
Theperformed
Champs-Elysees, then
atre des
in question was
sets:
executed three
et
d'eaufraiche
Champs
Elysees;
at
and Jean
and
one-act play by
few days later, Picasso waved these bills at me: "Look, I re45.
valued them." He had carved a little wood plate and had printed the
Twenty years
returned the
later, in
bills to her.
1962,
if
Picasso
had
47-
set
de-
Kosma, and I met at "Les Vieilles" on rue Dauphine, to discuss Doors of the Night. Carne wanted the sets to recreate the
atmosphere of my Paris by Night. Marlene Dietrich was supposed to come
with Cabin, but only the actor joined us. Kosma opened his briefcase
and pulled out a few sheets of music. He sat at the out-of-tune piano.
Prevert told Cabin: "Here's a song you'll be singing with Marlene in
the film. Kosma began the tune and, hunched over the notes. Cabin,
signer Trauner, Joseph
"
le
dans
vent du nord
la
ramassent a
emporte
la
pelle
The dead
And
se
les
up
wind sweeps them away
the north
We
Feuilles mortes,
song that circled the globe. In the end, Marlene Dietrich, paying no
attention to the song even though it was written for her, turned down
the role on the pretext that the film presented France in too bad a
375
light.
Nattier and a
As for the role of Destiny, it was given to an actor who was beginning
to make a name for himself: Jean Vilar.
48. That important remark by Picasso takes us back half a century
to the great turning point in our art. As soon as one refers to something we know, it is a matter of indifference whether the eye is represented
as a
pebble, or a piece of coal. Placed within an oval, this sign will always
as an eye. D.-H. Kahnweiler notes that on Wobe masks
and Picasso owned one in the place of the eyes were two long cylin-
be identified
ders.
"Of course,
it
Wobe
art," says
encouraged him
to
Kahnweiler,
bring about
Wobe masks
a to-
imita-
all
tion.
rity.
to read a
Picasso's reliefs of
protrusion
as a
depression,
this
same
strictly
is
de-
(Picasso's Sculptures)
characteristic of the
masks.
many
families, Picasso
bought
several
One
casso's
who
is
husband; an-
now
eighteen
years old, spends his vacation with Picasso in the Midi, in the
pany of
Picasso's children,
who
same
com-
age.
hope in
the world, in poetry itself. The great poet of love, happiness, and joie
de vivre fell silent. His friends including Picasso and Dora Maar
deep sadness. In losing Nusch, he also
who did
despair, which
his life upside
Nous ne
vieillirons pas
ensemble
jour
en trop: le temps deborde
Voici
le
376
mon amour
le
poids d
leger
si
un
prend
supplice
Tu
Aurore en moi
Dix-sept annees toujours claires
Et
la
We
my
on
You
are
dead and
My vegetable
The
life
this
for
me
Daybreak in me
Seventeen years always bright
And death enters me as it would
a mill.
lost forever.
Two
years later,
It
later,
during
a stay in
both
from
textiles?
He had come
to the
and canvas
was a scarcity of his canvases on the American market, which had not
had
a fresh
left
nothing to
reproduced
in the book. Seeing his "promises to sell guaranteed, a rich Chinese
shipowner lent a sympathetic ear to his plan. They were supposed to divide the profits fifty-fifty. In that way, the nine Picasso canvases had alsell
377
To be allowed
before
into Picasso's
home, the
art dealer
sons boasting they were the painter's close friends. But on the eve of
even
his
is
no fun. There
are times
when
want
my vacation. But
to
run
to a plastic
the de-
surgeon
number
of his sculptures.
58. Every time Picasso loses a friend, the whole world waits for
"what he thinks." Thus he was literally besieged at Braque's death and
had
to flee his
died.
378
/
Photographs
on rue La
Boetie.
The mantel
21
La Boetie, with
painting by Le Doua-
22-3
empty
cigarette boxes,
4
5
first
sculpture by Picasso,
24
25
from 1899
26
(1932).
The thirteenth-century
The
27
28
(1932).
castle
Hispano-Suiza (1932).
29
30
10
Miro in Park
11
45
45
4^
Giiell in
Barcelona (1955).
12
Element of
13
at
14
77
7^
15
79
16
Jaime Sabartes.
Picasso in his studio on rue des Grands-Augustins (photo published in Life on the occasion of the major Picasso exhibition
in
17
18
New York
signed for
19
at
the
one of
Museum
of
Modern
Art) (1939).
bronzes (1939)Picasso in front of Women at Their Toilette, a tapestry cartoon dePicasso with
Picasso's
Mme
his
Guttoli.
hand mixing
Dcat/i'i /icaJ
Si
823
20 Bronze
80
(1943).
84
85
21
22
ber 1943).
Ambroise Vollard in his mansion on rue Martignac (1933).
23
Die
Octo-
bronze (1943).
i?ea]}er,
86
87
88
28
29
(1944).
157
158
159
159
Picasso
160-I
to right: the
30 Group on
Cocteau,
31
162
Brassai'
Picasso,
Jean
162
Grands -Augustins,
w^ith his
163
164
32
d'Art.
34
35
36
37
38
39
for Cahiers
40 Meeting with
190
191
^9^
Leiris,
189
189
192
leaves.
right:
164
by the Tail.
Upper
left to
lower
(16
2I7
June 1944).
Dormoy
2l8
(1944).
42 The entrance
43 Sculpture cast from a cake mold (1943)44 Sculpture cast from a box lid (l943)'
45 Paris graffiti (1933).
3S0
Emile-Godeau, for233
^34
234
299
Mayo, photographic
sets
47
48
49 Mannequin
of Rendez-
30I
30I
an
artiste peintre.
The
pal-
Plantes (l939)51
52
his studio
on rue des
Plantes (1939).
302
303
304
53
model in
300
fingers. Picasso
October 1962).
Angel, statue in
305
D.-H. Kahnweiler
(21
October 1962).
381
306
Index
Numbers
in italics refer to
photographs.
abstraction: in America,
309 lO;
20, 36,
life,
African
art, xviii,
14;
Auschwitz, 237
"Automatic Message, The"
(Breton), 47
Avenue
ballet,
Balzac,
Bacchanak (Picasso),
Angel (Picasso),
202
350-5l> 53
226
mimicking
of,
atti-
31O, 28,
49,-
of Drawings,
374~75;
statue
285-86, 294. 49
307
of,
Aubier, Jean, 40
368
371-72
12
of, xx,
Series
Georges, 137
Bateau-Lavoir, 269 70, 42
Baudelaire, Charles, 112 13.
photograph
69, 371-72
artiste peintre:
149-
Bataille,
art
Honore
3637
28687
50, 211
(Hogarth), 94
Anatomy (Picasso),
(Doua-
also Rendez-vous
in
nier Rousseau), 58
32
in
Beauvoir,
Simone
de, 52,
40
Bell,
Marie, 121
358-59
202,
Marina
Berg-.
58, 329.
250
46
14041
bugle,
BulVs
Bertele, Rene,
bullfighting,
259
Besan9on, Dr., 19596
Bestiaries
(Apollinaire),
Bird, The
(Picasso),
202
Bistro -Tabac
Blaisot,
(Brassai),
cafe period,
244, ^5^
Cahiers d'Art,
8, 9; first
1518; portrait
visit to,
of, 7;
second
visit to,
50-53, 57
90
243
xix, 61
326-27, 341
Cadaques, 38
Cafe de Flore, 52-53, 15
69
266-67, 313
birds,
Head (Picasso),
6;
33842, 354;
Carnies, The
studio of, 9
Sauguet), 247
bones,
castings, Picasso's,
44
276
cataloguing, 182 83, 23
Catholic Church, 356-57
castoffs, 173,
celebrity, 319,
320
334-35
Chagall, Marc, 2IO
Braun, Eva, 2 19
Brauner, Victor, 237
Breasts of Tiresias, The
378
censorship, 56,
Charcot, Jean-Martin, 44
(Apollinaire),
Chicuelo
201
II,
25^
327
12; as
magus of surrealism,
368; and Paul Eluard, 374;
"Christmas tree
circus,
on
Picasso, xvi,
ifesto,
xvi,
3638;
His Ele-
Surrealist
373-74
Man-
surrealism
bronze, 61
bronze
statues,
(Picasso), 14,
3538, 369;
"
37. 5
ment,"
35'
36364
books,
347
185 86, 34,
58 60,
148,
276
203, 30
cold, 118, 139, 142,
17
384
144-45
238
238
commissions, 35^57
Concours Lepine, 44- 37^
collaborators, Nazi,
Colle, Pierre,
confiscation, 56, ig
(Gala),
38
"Dinner of Heads"
Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille, 34
costume, Picasso's, 196, 214'
(Prevert), 143
(Gide), 65
document, 133
373-74
Cote d'Azur, 261, 317
courage, jG, 89
Crotti, Jean,
Crucifixion
257
(Griinewald),
33~34
cubism, holy
247
268 70
sites of,
375-76
Dordogne, 9596
double
^47
370
207-8
Cyclades,
9394
"s,"
Dachau, 237
tion with, 44; Brassai's view of,
fame
of,
sions of,
en-
first
of, xviii,
dust,
38;
39 4O; obses-
7^8,
4243;
96-97
arid Picasso,
244-45, 359
appearance
of,
38,
and
movement, 39 4I;
11;
The
El Greco, 194-99,
Eluard, Cecile, 40
Visible
Woman, 211
David (Michelangelo),
374' 376
Eluard, Paul: friendship with Pi-
95
195-96
casso,
Head (Picasso),
xix, 59-
of,
II,
4^'
(Manet), 343
politics of,
1
95,
death,
376-77
372-73
bills,
home
63,
65, 103, 20
devalued
207, 37374;
209 II;
3o8
248
practical
surrealist
equilibrists, 18,
erotica,
258, 375
385
223
20
eruption of
Mount
Pelee,
99
34-35
etchings,
glass plates,
238.
eyes, ix,
3435
99-100
242-44
128 29
"God-Table-Pitcher" (Raynal), 12
324. 371
27374' 3^4
106-7, 109-10, 333, 360
Falla,
Manuel
faces,
de,
281-83
Gogh, Vincent van,
239
Angel (Prevert),
105 6,
Gonzalez, Julio, 17 18
Goujon, Jean, 47
270, 371
Fascism,
238
graffiti, Brassai's,
Graffiti
fluidity, 251,
(Brassai),
32 1, 323-25
granite,
Great
95
Man Alone,
The
(Benjamin),
71-74
375
90
flashlight,
25455' 273"
373-74
Feuilles mortes,
373
39
Golfe-Juan, 262
236
x,
308
4S
'
Frede's,
255
Freud, Sigmund, 40, 4^' 44'
Griinewald, Mathias,
369
Guernica (Picasso),
Guitar (Picasso),
hair,
'
30
3334
357
173
women's, 135 3^
Haviland, Frank, 2 71
"high society" period, 4
fiitler, Adolf, 2l6, 219
nova), 38
Hogarth, William, 94
Hokusai, 311 14
gems, 257
296
Germany, postwar, 2l6, 219 20
genitalia,
Holocaust, 237-38
Giacometti, Alberto, 44
Gide, Andre, 65, 203
Gilberte, 213-14,
320
134 3^'
30
The (Dali),
39
386
"I
"I
228
(Desnos), 372-73
lies
222
35^57
Leger, Nadia, 358
Leiris, Louise (Zette), 199 200,
349, 362-64, 40
Leiris, Michel, 199-200, 349,
362-64, 40
Lee, Francis,
Leger, Fernand,
44
277-78, 26
66
inspiration, artistic,
insults,
280-81
(Freud),
Interpretation of Dreams
40
359
Les Deux-Magots, 51, 13
307 9,
959^
Theo (Van Gogh) x
Liberation of Paris, 205, 246
Les Eyzies,
377-78
Jarry, Alfred, 202, 27l,
Letters to
273
fuliette, or the
to
Dreams (Cocteau)
lighting, 108,
23
L'Intransigeant,
Kahnw^eiler, Daniel-Henry:
Loeb, Pierre,
first
Louvre Museum,
second
visit to,
34649,
5^'
visit to,
350 6I;
Picasso's
Luxembourg Gardens,
7,
25^
Boris, 232,
Kootz, Samuel,
xx,
39
Mme M, 194-99
M. C. (English painter), 226
Kneeling
Kochlova, Olga,
288
3, 172,
Sculp-
376
tures, xvi,
Kochno,
31O-II
linoleum, 347
172
235
of,
275-76;
nervous breakdown
of,
224
377-78
Kosma, 232
Krishnamurti, 316
trait of,
casso, xviii,
Mac Orlan,
40
La Chapelle, 209-IO, 41
"Lajoie de vivre" (Picasso), 263
landscape painting, 221
22729
353-54
Lacan, Dr.
5^52
Pierre,
94
343, 355
206
Man
387
Ray, 211,
328
Man
Medrano
memory,
accident
60 execution
of,
Man
with Square
and drawing
220
151 52; an
class,
ness,
Prevert, 143;
210
nasse,
Michelangelo, 95
Miller, fienry, 315-16, 319-2O
German, 2I9~^0
Minotaur and
202-3,
28, 29,
Montpar-
103
Michaux, Marie-Louise, 105
portrait
of,
maquis,
67
Fargue's attack,
of,
arts,
13^-33' 25
for,
18 20, 369
148 50, 29293
circus,
x,
the Sleeping
42
Woman (Pi-
casso), 8
30
79'
Minotaure, xvi,
H ^3'
42
Minotauromachia (Picasso), 8
mobilization, general,
Marguerite (Matisse),
33
333
4849
229-30,
371
money, 147
Mother and
173,
Mount
368
drawings
of,
death
of,
Murdered
333;
230
Musee
(Picasso), Jl
99
Munoz, Paquito, 34^
CMd
Pelee,
Leger, 358
Museum
29496; home
Vie (Apollinaire)
Poet,
of
Modern
337; and
trip to
48
naturalness, xv, 4
"Negro
Ta-
292-93
Matisse, Marguerite,
Art,
"
art, xviii,
Nesjar, Carl,
32
350
33137
Matisse, Pierre, 14
Night Fishing
388
in
Antibes (Picasso)
4S
Picasso, Bernard,
Picasso, Paulo,
Picasso (Janis),
222-23
nudes,
342
Picasso by Picasso,
Nuremberg, 2l6
"Picasso in His
Picasso
55
Element
xvi, 3638
Museum, 34344, 349,
(Breton),
238; deprivation
of, 5^-57'
200, 373; Picasso's role in,
xix XX, 8889; repression of,
Ode
203
old masters,
7,
247
Poet's
(Mallarme), 7
Departure (Chirico),
Poiret, Paul,
(Giacometti),
popular
44
fete,
portraits: of
4, ig
94
Dora Maar, 308 9;
panettone, 3^9
of Jaime Sabartes,
Man
247-48
paranoid criticism,
Paris by Night
Portraits
40 4I1 37^
288 9O; of
Nusch Eluard,
Paroles (Prevert),
Penrose, Roland,
268, 345
Prado Museum, 198
23839
2IO II
32
Benjamin, 44
Petain, Philippe, 71-74
Peret,
288-90
practical jokes, I20, 193, 228,
259
Peinado, Joaquin,
372
44
herdess
179-80
Picador's
Head
with Broken
casso), xvii
206
(Brassai), xvi
of,
Ray, 211; of
48
Parade (Picasso),
Petit,
2IO
252
Pont-Neuf, 221
9798
119-20
Poe, Edgar Allan, 206
xvi,
pockets,
Poesies
Palace, The
"Pigeondre" (Fargue), 13
141
Pagava, Etherie,
(Kahnweiler)
place de I'Opera,
252
318
(Parmelin), xv
376
3334
Oliver, Fernande,
Picasso Plain
Picasso's Sculptures
(Cocteau), II9
to Picasso
355
Picasso Mystery, The,
Nose (Pi-
and
the
primitive man,
Priory,
9597
promises, 129
properties, Picasso's,
Royan, 49
rue des Grands -Augustins, 49
339
29293
Proust, Marcel,
3h 40
25, 29,
xvi,
37.
2, 3, 4,
1,
247
Sabartes, Jaime: devotion of, 50,
Quai
des brumes
Picasso
355; portraits
146,
rabbit, skinned,
17273
12729, 132,
jokes and, 193, 345; public relations and, 122, 132; Portraits and
of,
206
Memories,
268
70
196 97.
288 9
Sagot, Clovis, 19
xviii,
98. ^3
Saint-Hilaire, 35O-52, 53
Saint -Jacques Tower, 47
Reeds (Brassai),
Salles,
23
357
Georges, 357~58
Reichel, Hans, ix
64, 108
Rembrandt, 348
sandstone, 95
Sarah Bernhardt Theater. 232,
reflexes, 177.
373
relief, xix,
235
246
320 21
Sardana,
37576; performance
24649;
of,
Picasso's evaluation
Renou
et
Golle, 215,
238
286-87
Resistance, xx, 209, 215 16, 372
203 4, 332,
40
scapegoats.
203
Science
35^
man, 133
sculpted papers, 279
science of
sculpture:
cubist,
and abstraction,
185-86; definition
Rocquencourt, 35^
Roque, Jacqueline, 318, 353, 354
Rosenberg, Paul, 6, 130
Rousseau, Le Douanier, 20, 31,
and painting,
importance of
for,
of.
69:
Picasso's, xvii;
15.
369; stones
95
166-67, 27
Woman (Picasso). 74, 207
14;
Ribemont-Dessaignes, 236
Rimbaud, Arthur, II7
154-55. h 2
40
(Claudel), 121
and
285.
307
Series
of Drawings (Picasso),
374~75
Surrealist Manifesto, 9,
surrealist objects,
229
9294
Suspended
(Prevert),
signature,
Siren
(Laurens), 351
skeletons,
seau),
la
tapestry, 54,
tauromachy, 327
(Lautreamont)
(Mac Orlan),
lumiere froide
Tell,
Teriade, E.,
"Terrif^^ing
Spies,
Werner,
317-18
xvi, 3, 7
and Comestible
Beauty of Art Nouveau, The"
xvii
The (Picasso), Ij
(Dali),
43-44
thumbtacks, I02
378
Thursdays, 103
Stein, Leo,
torero's costume,
332
Stieglitz, Alfred,
Still Life
336
332
Stein, Michael,
271
Treatise
313
247
trumpet, 14O 41
251
Still Life
on Colors (Hokusai),
Tricorne,
still lifes
326
Trauner, 236
165
with Oranges
(Matisse),
and Bananas
198-99. 333
26465, 273
26566
turtledoves,
Twilight of the
stones, carved,
Typewriter, The
(Cocteau), 171,
Ubu
success, 180,
329
367
in
6768
See
1314; evolution
202
202
Manolo
Chains (Jarry),
Ugue, Manuel.
205
succession, poetic,
203
137
xvii,
318
370, 18
228
Stag,
44
(Chagall), 2IO
(Douanier Rous-
285
Songs of Maldoror
Sous
292-93
Tahiti,
Soirees de Paris,
The (Giacometti)
lOO
Ball,
35
37^
9 II;
Unknown
39J
44
Woman
Woman
in the
Vert-Galant, 221
Woman
with
Woman
Woman
with
Woman
lOO
vertebra,
Museum, 293
Vilato family,
356
Vinci, Leonardo da, 42
Virgin, the
Visible
(Mme
Yadwigha
31.
in
135,
289 90
(Picasso),
53
II:
aftermath
of,
2l6,
213
Walt, 212
188, 30
Zayas, Marius de, xix
376
Woman
33536
54.
Paul Guil-
103-4
art,
348
266
255
laume), 358
Walter, Marie-Therbse, 16 17,
Wobe
Hat (Matisse),
at Their Toilette
279-84
Walter, Jeanne
Whitman,
Mirror (Picasso),
Crow (Picasso),
an Armchair (Pi-
76, 270, 22
,
in
36
World War
Wallace, Mr.,
women,
Women
42
Nightdress
213-14
(da Vinci),
in
casso),
34
Zervos, Christian,
90 91
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all
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My
literally
The Univer-
1997-
J^-^ic
Marie Todd
translator
Letters to
is
Largesse
Words by
by
Mona
Gilberte Brassai.
I'
Lucien
I
I)
C'lcrirue.
IN
II
U.S.A.
i^icasso,
"
"Read
this
to
understand me.
PABLO PICASSO
"
"Brassa'i's
essential to me.
lOHN RICHARDSON
AUTHOR OF A
LIFE
OF PICASSO
ISBN
0-226-07148-0
PRESS