The Argentine journalist and photographer Roberto Otero was one of the few reporters to whom the Málaga-born painter opened the doors of his house in the south of France, allowing him to record for posterity not only his working environment in the 1960s but also many scenes from his daily life: his family, his friends and his customs.
Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso in the sculpture room, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, October 1966
Picasso next to Edward Steichen
Taken in the sculpture room at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, in the image Picasso appears next to famous photographer Edward Steichen. In 1911, in his gallery in New York, Steichen had organized the first Picasso exhibition in the United States.
When Roberto Otero takes this picture Picasso is wearing, businessman and art collector, Joseph H. Hirschhorn’s jacket and bow tie, who Steichen had just introduced him to.
Impressed by Picasso’s work, Hirschhorn offers all he owns for one of his sculptures. Picasso accepts the offer and at that moment, dressed in the clothes of the businessman, raises a finger and says: «I am the world’s first collector of Picassos»
The re-framed version of the photograph, in which only Picasso can be seen, became one of Otero’s most widely-circulated pictures.
Picasso next to Edward Steichen, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 6th August 1966
Pablo Picasso with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
Picasso met the art dealer and publisher Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979) in the summer of 1907, when the latter visited the studio of the Bateau-Lavoir. There, Kahnweiler discovered Demoiselles d’Avignon. In 1910, he became one of his most important dealers.
Pablo Picasso with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 1964
Para Alberti de Picasso que tanto lo quiere. El 16.6.67 (To Alberti from Picasso who esteems him so much. The 16/06/67)
With these words Picasso dedicates his album A Eventail (1905-1914) to the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.
This photograph was taken in the artist’s bedroom at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, the last of his homes, that he moved to in June 1961.
Picasso dedicating a book, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 16th June 1967
Picasso in Vauvenargues
Picasso bought the château of Vauvenargues in 1958. It was a remodeled 17th-century castle near Aix-en-Provence and Mont Sainte-Victoire, which Cézanne painted frequently.
In February 1959 he started working there, where he lived until 1961. The he moved to Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins.
Picasso in Vauvenargues, Vauvenargues, entre 1960 y 1972
Courtyard of the entrance to Notre-Dame-de-Vie
Picasso moved to this residence near Cannes after he married Jacqueline, in 1961. There he established his last workshop and died on 8th April 1973.
On the left, ‘The Little House of Jacqueline’ can be seen. On the right, his car, the Hispano-Suiza owned by the artist since 1933.
Courtyard of the entrance to Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 1964-1972
Picasso working on the project The Chicago Picasso
Picasso studying one of the photographs that is part of the project “The Chicago Picasso”. The artist made two copies of the sculpture, entitled Head. He kept one copy in his studio and gave the other one to the American architect William Hartmann (now in the Art Institute of Chicago).
With the help of artist and poet Roland Penrose, Hartmann had persuaded Picasso to design a huge monument of steel for the new Civic Center in Chicago, which opened in 1967.
Picasso working on the project The Chicago Picasso, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, August 1966
Picasso in a Christian Zervos photo session
Picasso next to the Linhof camera that was used to take pictures of his works for the catalogue raisoné published by Christian Zervos (Argostoli, Greece, 1899-Paris, France, 1970).
Art historian, Zervos met Picasso in 1926 when he founded the magazine Cahiers d’art. He is also the author of the catalogue raisonné of all Picasso’s work. The introductions of each of its 33 volumes (published between 1932 and 1978) are a pioneering work in the history of modern art.
Picasso in a Christian Zervos photo session, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, 1968-1969
Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso in the sculpture room
From left to right, Pablo Picasso, his wife Jacqueline Roque and Louise Leiris, owner of the gallery of the same name. In the background, the model for The Chicago Picasso and a plaster cast of a slave by Michelangelo, that Picasso found in the basement of the Museum of Antibes. On the right, Figure (1962).
Located on a hillside, the dimensions of Notre-Dame-de-Vie offeredPicasso the space he needed to work and to house his art collection. On the ground floor of the residence, the artist situated his sculpture room.
Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso in the sculpture room, Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Mougins, October 1966