Book description
From 1950 to 1962, John Richardson lived near Picasso in France and
was a friend of the artist. With a view to writing a biography, the
acclaimed art historian kept a diary of their meetings. After
Picasso's death, his widow Jacqueline collaborated in the preparation
of this work, giving Richardson access to Picasso's studio and papers.
Volume one of this extraordinary biography establishes the
complexity of Picasso's Spanish roots; his aversion to his native
Malaga and his passion for Barcelona and Catalan
"modernisme". Richardson introduces new material on the
artist's early training in religious art; re-examines old legends to
provide fresh insights into the artistic failures of Picasso's father
as an impetus to his sons's triumphs; and includes portraits of
Apollinaire, Max Jacob and Gertrude Stein, who made up "The
Picasso Gang" in Paris during the "Blue" and
"Rose" periods.
John Richardson was born in London in 1924. He studied art at the
Slade School but soon gave up painting for art criticism. In 1949 he
moved to France, where he lived for the next twelve years, befriending
Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Cocteau. In the early 1960s Richardson
moved to New York, where he was appointed head of Christie's US
operation, and eventually became a full-time writer and editor. He has
published books on Manet and Braque and is a contributor to The New
York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.
The first volume of A Life of Picasso, covering the years
1881-1906, was published in 1991 and won the Whitbread Prize. The
second volume of A Life of Picasso, covering the years
1907-1917, was published in 1996.
In 1993 Richardson was made a Corresponding Fellow of the British
Academy. In 1994-95 he served as the Slade Professor of Art at Oxford.
Currently he divides his time between Connecticut and New York City,
where is working on the fourth volume of A Life of Picasso
