In this mailing list we offer you a short article on Picasso's first wife, Olga Khokhlova (17.06.1891-11.02.1955), who on the 17th of June would be 110 years old.
Russian philosophers, art critics, and collectors were among the first to appreciate Picasso's work. In 1914, an excellent analysis of his works by Nikolai Berdyayev was published. Sergei Szhukin and Ivan Morozov brought his paintings to Russia; they are now in the Hermitage and Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Sergei Dyaghilev, who used to attract “the best names” for his Russian seasons, invited Picasso to make costume designs and stage sets for the ballet Parade. He was 36 then and he was famous.
Pablo Picasso got acquainted with Olga Khokhlova in Rome in the spring of 1917. By that time she had been in Sergei Dyaghilev’s Russian ballet company for 5 years. She was a disciplined and diligent dancer with good techniques, she looked good on the stage, but she never was a prima. Though she had a couple of solo parts, she usually danced in corps de ballet.
Picasso's friends could not understand why he paid attention to Olga,
a common dancer and not in the least a remarkable person. Maybe, the artist,
satiated with love affairs, liked exactly her ordinariness and commonness,
which looked as something exotic to him. Tired of his artistic explorations
and inner loneliness, he was looking for a refuge, an oasis of tranquility,
where he could have a rest from his own passions… Maybe, it was important
that Olga was Russian. Picasso, a revolutionary in art, was very much interested
in everything Russian, the Russian revolutions of 1917 worried many people
in Europe, and Picasso was not an exception.
Maybe, the atmosphere in the Russian ballet company, his friendship
with Dyaghilev, Bakst, and especially with the composer Stravinsky,
played its part. Who knows?
But very soon Picasso was fond of Olga with all his southern temperament.
Dyaghilev warned him mockingly to be very careful, because Russian girls
always went for marriage. The artist thought it was a joke.
In Rome, Picasso and Olga lived in different hotels, and though they met every day and had long walks around the “eternal” city, the dancer was not in a hurry to answer the artist's feelings. She liked Picasso, and though she was not interested in his art, his fame impressed her. She also understood that her own talent was only modest and there was not any hope for her career in ballet. It was better for her to get married, but could a Bohemian be a good husband? “Could an artist be a serious person?” Olga’s mother asked Dyaghilev. “Not less serious than a ballet dancer”, joked Dyaghilev.
After Rome and Paris the Russian Ballet company, and Olga, went to Spain. Picasso followed. He painted her much, in a realistic manner, on which Olga insisted, she did not like experiments in painting. “I want to recognize my own face”, she said. In Barcelona, Picasso made Olga meet his mother, who liked the Russian girl, visited many performances with her participation, but once warned her, “My son lives only for himself, no woman could be safe and happy with him”.
… Once, when Picasso and Olga had a walk around Barcelona, a gypsy came up to them. “What’s your name?” she asked Olga. “Carmen”, answered Olga, who liked to be taken for a Spaniard. “And what’s yours?” “I am Olga”, answered the gypsy.
When the Russian ballet company left for Latin America, Olga stayed. She
made her choice. Picasso and Olga returned to France, and settled in Monrouge.
It was there that Picasso painted the most famous of Olga’s portraits ‘Olga
in the Arm-Chair’.
Many Picasso's friends tried to dissuade him from marriage, but in
vain.
On July 12, 1918 in the municipality of the 7th district of Paris the
marriage of Pablo Picasso and Olga Khokhlova took place. From there the
couple went to the Russian Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky, where the wedding
ceremony took place. Among the guests there were Dyaghilev, Apollinair,
Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, and Matisse.
Pablo was sure that he was marrying for life that is why in their wedding
contract an article stated that all the property was mutual, including
works of art.
After the marriage the newlyweds settled into a big apartment in the
center of Paris. Olga decorated the apartment in accordance with her tastes.
Picasso did not interfere. He was satisfied with making complete disorder
in his own studio, which was on the lower floor.
Even after becoming rich the artist had very simple tastes. He was
not against Olga’s expensive dresses, but himself kept using the same old
suit. He liked to spend money on exotic things, which stimulated his imagination,
he also used to help his less fortunate colleagues. His wife, in contrast
to him, wanted to lead a life in high society. She liked expensive restaurants,
receptions, and balls of the Paris upper classes. For a short period she
managed to take Picasso away from his Bohemian friends.
In September of 1918 Picasso, Olga and the Russian ballet company went to London, again he was engaged in designs for the ballet. Picasso and his young wife were in the center of attention everywhere and gradually he got fond of this way of life; he ordered a lot of elegant suits and accessories. Within several weeks, a Bohemian turned into dandy. Though he never took his attire seriously, it was a part of masquerade, mystification, which he loved so much.
Increasingly this way of life began to annoy him. On one hand he loved his wife, and wanted to have his own family. On the other hand the conventions of family life interfered with his work and with his inspiration. He wanted to stay free and was ready to sacrifice everything for his freedom.
On February 4, 1921 their son Paul was born. At the age of 40 Picasso became
a father. He was excited and proud. He made a lot of portraits of his wife
and son, dating and timing them accurately. Olga loved her son affectionately
and almost painfully, she hoped that the son would save their marriage.
She felt that her husband was returning to his own inner world, where she
was not admitted. Olga tried to re-capture her husband and from time to
time threw huge scandals. Tired of the senseless high life and his wife’s
hysterics, the artist fenced himself out of her.
In January 1927, Picasso met the next victim of his passions – Marie-Thérèse
Walter. With her he wanted to cross Olga out of his life. His hatred to
her he began to vent in his paintings. He painted her as a horse, or an
old shrew. Later he would say, that Olga “wanted too much of me… it was
the worst period in my life.”
But Picasso did not want the divorce…
The first who failed to bear the situation was Olga. She could not stand
her husband’s hatred any longer, and the existence of a rival. After another
family scandal she left the house with her son. But they were never divorced
and she remained his official wife until her death in 1955.
During the WWII Picasso started to come to Olga, to talk about their
son, who was in Switzerland at the time. It was not a revival of the old
love. He was only lonely. But she understood it in her way.
In 1943 Picasso fell in love with Françoise Gilot, who became
his next muse for several years. It was also another blow for Olga, who
was jealous to all his new women. She used to write him letters in a mixture
of Spain, French, and Russian, their content was about how low Picasso
fell. She included in her letters portraits of Rembrandt, or Beethoven
and wrote that he would never be as great as them.
In summer Olga went after Picasso and Françoise to Mediterranean;
she was after the young woman. Françoise stood humiliations and
Olga’s hysterics without a word, understanding that Olga was lonely and
desperate.
Olga died of cancer in 1955 in Cannes.
Her son Paul Picasso died on June 6, 1975. Picasso's first grandson,
Paul’s son, Pablo (1949-1973), committed suicide on the day of his grandfather’s
funeral; Paul’s other two children, Marina and Bernard, were among the
heirs of the artist.
In the next newsletters....
More hidden treasures from the Hermitage: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse.
History of some private collections.