Jacqueline Roque

Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque (24 February 1927 – 15 October 1986) was best known as the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 11 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso's other loves.[1]

Jacqueline Picasso
Born
Jacqueline Roque

(1927-02-24)24 February 1927
Paris, France
Died15 October 1986(1986-10-15) (aged 59)
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1961; died 1973)​

Early life

Born in 1927 in Paris, France, she was only two when her father abandoned her mother and her five -year-old brother. Jacqueline never forgave him. Her mother raised her in cramped concierge's quarters near the Champs Elysées, while also working long hours as a seamstress. Jacqueline was 18 when her mother died of a stroke. In 1946, Jacqueline married André Hutin, an engineer, with whom she had a daughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay. The young family moved to Africa, where Hutin worked, but four years later Jacqueline returned to France and divorced Hutin. She settled down on the French Riviera and took a job at her cousin's shop, the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris.

Picasso

Pablo Picasso met Jacqueline in 1953 at the Madoura Pottery when she was 26 years old and he was 72. He romanced her by drawing a dove on her house in chalk and bringing her one rose a day until she agreed to date him six months later. They married in Vallauris on 2 March 1961.

Roque's image began to appear in Picasso's paintings in May 1954. These portraits are characterized by an exaggerated neck and feline face, distortions of Roque's features. Eventually her dark eyes and eyebrows, high cheekbones, and classical profile would become familiar symbols in his late paintings.[2] It is likely that Picasso's series of paintings derived from Eugène Delacroix's The Women of Algiers was inspired by Roque's beauty; the artist commented that "Delacroix had already met Jacqueline."[2] In 1955 he drew Jacqueline as "Lola de Valence", a reference to Édouard Manet's painting of the Spanish dancer.[3] In 1963 he painted her portrait 160 times, and continued to paint her, in increasingly abstracted forms, until 1972.[3]

Later life

After Pablo's death in 1973, Jacqueline prevented Picasso's children Claude and Paloma Picasso from attending his funeral.[4] Jacqueline also barred Picasso's grandson Pablito Picasso (son of Paolo, Picasso's son from his marriage to the Russian dancer Olga Koklova) from attending the service. Pablito was so distraught he drank a bottle of bleach, from which he died three months later.[5]

Françoise Gilot, Picasso's companion between 1943 and 1953,[6] and mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma,[7] fought with Jacqueline over the distribution of the artist's estate. Gilot and her children had unsuccessfully contested the will on the grounds that Picasso was mentally ill.

After the legal battles and death of Picasso's son Paolo, a French court ruled that the inheritors to the Picasso estate were Jacqueline, his children and grandchildren: Claude, Paloma, Maya, Bernard and Marina Picasso.[8]

Eventually Claude, Paloma and Jacqueline agreed to establish the Musée Picasso in Paris.[3]

Jacqueline Picasso shot herself in 1986 when she was 59 years old.[9] Shortly before her death she had confirmed that she would be present at an upcoming exhibit of her private collection of Picasso's work in Spain.[9]

Notes
  1. Hohenadel (2004).
  2. Johns (2001), p. 461.
  3. Johns (2001), p. 462.
  4. Zabel, William D. (1996). The Rich Die Richer and You Can too. New York: John Wiley and Sons. p.11. ISBN 0-471-15532-2. Accessed online 2007-08-15.
  5. Riding, Alan (24 November 2001). "Grandpa Picasso: Terribly Famous, Not Terribly Nice (Published 2001)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  6. Kazanjian, Dodie (27 April 2012). "Life After Picasso: Françoise Gilot." Vogue. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  7. Yoakum, Mel (2012). "Introduction: Françoise Gilot." The F. Gilot Archives website. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  8. Esterow, Milton. "The Battle for Picasso's Multi-Billion-Dollar Empire". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  9. Kimmelman, Michael (28 April 1996). "Picasso's Family Album". New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2015.

References
  • DuPont, Pepita (2007). La vérité sur Jacqueline et Pablo Picasso [The Truth about Jacqueline and Pablo Picasso]. Paris: Cherche midi
  • Hohenadel, Kristin (21 March 2004). "Mixing art and commerce." The Los Angeles Times
  • Huffington, Arianna Stassinopoulos (1988). Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. New York: Simon & Schuster
  • Johns, Cathy (2001). "Roque, Jacqueline." (pp. 458-462). In: Jill Berk Jiminez (Ed.) & Joanna Banham (Assoc. Ed.). Dictionary of Artists' Models. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-57958-233-8
  • Richardson, John (2001). The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-71245-1
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