Pablo Picasso. Favorite places to live and to work.

I thought I knew all about Pablo Picasso. I’ve read John Richardson’s four-volume biography of Picasso, Françoise Gilot’s terrific My Life with Picasso and Hugh Eakin’s Picasso’s War and Brassai’s Conversations with Picasso. I knew he was a genius who dominated the art of the 20th century and a monster who ruined the lives of the women who loved him. But what about places where he lived? Let’s have a look.

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, to the artist José Ruiz Blasco. At the age of 13, Pablo Picasso became a student at the Academy of Arts in Barcelona. Pablo did so well at the entrance exams that the commission accepted him into the academy despite his young age. In 1897, Picasso went to Madrid to enroll in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He studied there for no more than a year – the academy with its classical traditions was too boring for the young talent. In Madrid, Pablo was more fascinated by the hectic life of the metropolis.

The artist first came to Paris in 1900, when he was only 19 years old. A Spaniard originally from Malaga, he brought one of his paintings to the World Exhibition.

Picasso moved to Paris in 1904. In 1936, Picasso rented a studio at number 7, Rue des Grands Augustins, where he stayed for twenty years: this is where the hero of Balzac’s short story “The Unknown Masterpiece” lived. Massive wrought-iron gates, a paved courtyard, tall windows. The studio under the roof, flooded with light, was huge – this allowed Picasso to create the famous “Guernica” measuring 3.5 by almost 8 m.

In the City of Light, he spent his time with anti-fascist artists, writers, poets, and musicians through the German occupation. In interviews, Picasso recalled times when Nazis, suspicious of his association with other resistant creatives, would stop by his studio. The period was one of fear and stress for the artist, who lost many friends during the war. He lived in Paris for almost half a century.

Picasso had a 10-year relationship with artist Françoise Gilot from the early 1940s and into the 1950s. The couple took up permanent residence in the French Riviera town of Vallauris in 1948. The Mediterranean was one of Picasso’s main sources of inspiration throughout his creative life. Local landscapes, Greek mythology, legends about the Minotaur – all this was reflected in his art. The artist spent the last 27 years of his life in the south of France. Here he created a huge number of works, became interested in ceramics, met his last love and found his final refuge.

Pablo Picasso loved the south of France. Born in the southern Spanish coastal city of Malaga, the artist always strove for the sea and the sun. Every summer he went to the sea, and in 1946 he finally moved from Paris to the Cote d’Azur.

The first stop was Antibes, a small resort town between Nice and Cannes. The narrow streets of the old town lead to the Grimaldi Castle, built on a cliff overhanging the sea. In the Middle Ages, it served as a bishop’s residence, then belonged to the ancient Grimaldi family, and in 1925 the castle was bought by the municipality of Antibes and turned into the Museum of History and Archaeology. The further fate of the castle is associated with the name of Pablo Picasso.

In 1946, the already famous 65-year-old artist came to the Cote d’Azur and was looking for a spacious place to work. He told Mr. Sucher, the director of the museum, about his search, and he offered to set up a studio in the castle. In return, he wanted a painting from the artist that he could place in the museum. Soon Picasso was given the keys to the castle, which was transformed into an art studio for several months. Picasso loved Antibes and called it a city that knows what joie de vivre is (French for joy of life). Unlike neighboring Nice and Cannes, there is no hustle and bustle here, but there is the charm of an old port city with a wonderful Provencal market and a huge yacht port. Picasso spent the summer of 1946 in the castle. The paintings he painted during these idyllic summer months are among the most joyful in his work and radiate amazing optimism. They reflect the happiness of the post-war period – France was free again, and the personal happiness of the artist – his beloved woman and muse Françoise Gilot was next to him.

In 1948, Picasso moved to Vallauris, a lovely town near Antibes, where he lived with Françoise and later their young children Claude and Paloma at the Villa Gallois.

Since the end of the 19th century, Vallauris had been a famous center for pottery production. At the annual exhibition “Ceramics, Flowers and Perfume” Picasso met the owners of the Madoura pottery workshop, Suzanne and Georges Ramier, who invited the artist to visit. Picasso was delighted with the experiments with ceramics. He discovered a new way of self-expression that combined painting and sculpture. Thanks to ceramics, Picasso’s art literally stepped into the hands of the people: pots, jugs, vases, and dishes are used in everyday life, which significantly expands the circle of people who can enjoy his work.

For several years, the pottery workshop became Picasso’s playground, where he frolicked like a child. One can imagine the artist sitting in his studio in shorts, making jugs and vases in the shape of women, doves, bulls, faun heads, pots depicting bullfights and dishes with Arcadian scenes. Over time, Picasso’s works become more daring and less suitable for domestic use. Picasso worked in ceramics until his death. He created around 4,000 original works. Madoura was the exclusive publisher. Thanks to the partnership between Picasso and Madoura, a new boom in ceramic art began in Vallauris. The city still has many pottery workshops and galleries offering artistic pieces in the style of the great master, and the Madoura workshop has a permanent collection of Picasso ceramics.

In 1955, Picasso and Jacqueline moved to Cannes, where they bought the villa La California. In 2006, the English artist Damian Elwes created a series of paintings that recreate Picasso’s studio in “California”. You can see what the master’s “holy of holies” looked like.

Picasso’s villa in Cannes still belongs to the artist’s family. In 2020, his great-great-grandson, DJ Florian, set up a music studio in the former art studio and organized a live show with music and light, turning the villa into a huge glowing art object.

Tired of the bustle of Cannes and annoying tourists, in 1958 Picasso moved to the quiet village of Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence. He acquired a huge estate of over 800 hectares on the slope of Mount Sainte-Victoire with an ancient castle. Immediately after the deal, Picasso called his gallery owner and friend Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler and said: “I bought myself a Cezanne’s Sainte-Victoire.” “Which one?” asked his interlocutor, thinking that he was talking about one of Cezanne’s paintings with Mount Sainte-Victoire. “Now I have the original,” the artist replied.

Picasso wanted to settle in the places where his favorite artist Paul Cezanne painted his favorite landscape – Mount Sainte-Victoire. In addition, he was fascinated by the severe dignity of the castle, reminiscent of a Spanish castillo (castle).

Picasso gave Vauvenargues to Jacqueline. But the castle turned out to be dull and uncomfortable, and Jacqueline was bored, constantly complained about drafts and after a couple of years persuaded Picasso to move.

Picasso’s last place of residence on the Cote d’Azur was Mougins, a town between Grasse and Cannes, where the artist bought a villa on a hilltop. Just above the house there is an ancient chapel, which gave the name to the estate – Notre-Dame-de-Vie. Picasso himself called this house “The Cave of the Minotaur”, and in his old age he often compared himself to a gloomy monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. The Minotaur replaced the carefree Antibes fan. In the “cave” Picasso built a huge studio with a terrace with a stunning view of medieval Mougins, Cannes was visible in the distance, and even further – the sea.

Picasso was fascinated by Mougins. Here he found what he was looking for in his last years: solitude and peace. He spent the last 12 fruitful and happy years here. He worked a lot and created hundreds of works. He married Jacqueline Roque, who devotedly looked after him and remained by his side until the very end. Picasso died in Mougins on April 8, 1973, at the age of 92. He bequeathed to be buried in the courtyard of the Château de Vauvenargues.

1. His real name consists of 23 words, 123 letters. Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano (Crispiniano) de la Santísima Trinidad Martir Patricio Ruiz y Picasso.
2. The first word of little Pablo Picasso was piz — “pencil” (short for lapiz). And the artist painted his first full-fledged work at the age of eight, inspired by a bullfight. “The Yellow Picador” is part of the collection of Claude Picasso, the son of the master and Françoise Gilot.
3. Once visiting an exhibition of children’s works, Picasso said: “At their age, I drew like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them.” The master believed that every person is initially an artist, but the difficulty lies in maintaining a special vision of the world as an adult.
4. Picasso’s talent manifested itself not only in painting and graphics, but also in sculpture, scenography, illustration and design. His work contains features of various styles, the main ones being realism, surrealism, expressionism, postimpressionism and cubism. The master stood at the origins of the latter along with Georges Braque.
5. Picasso is considered the most “kidnapped” artist in the world. He is followed by the modern American master Nick Lawrence, then Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, David Levine, Andy Warhol, Rembrandt and Peter Reinecke.