Geneviève Laporte
Genevieve Laporte (1926 – 30 March 2012) was a French philanthropist, documentary filmmaker, artists' model, poet, and author of sixteen books. She is known for being one of Pablo Picasso's last lovers during the 1950s. In 1951, they began an affair which lasted for two years. In 2005, she auctioned off 20 of Picasso's works which had been given to her, many of them portraits of her.
Biography
Relationship with Picasso
Laporte first met Picasso in October 1944 when she was 17 and was interviewing him for a school newspaper.[1] They developed a platonic friendship while discussing his art. Years later, when she was aged 24, Laporte met Picasso again at his apartment and they began an affair in 1951. At the time, Picasso was nearly 50 years older than Laporte and had recently fathered two children with Françoise Gilot. They spent the summer of 1951 together on a holiday in Saint-Tropez alongside the French poet Paul Eluard and his wife, Dominique. Picasso made several sketches during their time in Saint-Tropez which display the inscription "For Genevieve". The sketches were later described by the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg as Picasso's "Genevieve Period". In an interview, Laporte described her relationship with Picasso, "He was a tender man, respectful, intelligent, timid — not at all the abominable snowman we’re used to hearing about". Two years later, Picasso asked Laporte to move in with him at a house on the French Riviera after Gilot had left him in 1953. Instead, Laporte married a former Parisian resistance fighter in 1959 and they had a son. She said, "His ex-girlfriend leaves one morning, and he asks me to move in to the house the next day. Would you have gone?"[2] She was told by the artist Jean Cocteau that this decision had "saved her skin".[3]
In June 2005, she auctioned 20 drawings produced by Picasso, considered to be "love letters" by the artist. They were given to her by Picasso during their time spent in Saint-Tropez in 1951. The auction took place at the Artcurial in Paris and achieved a value of 1.54 million Euro (£1.03m).[1][2] With the money earned from the auction she created a foundation "Genevieve Laporte de Pierrebourg, pour la defense de la nature et des animaux", with agreement of the Fondation de France.[4][5]
Work and achievements
Laporte made 18 documentary films in Africa, and the Académie française awarded her a prize in 1999 for a volume of poetry.[3] She wrote sixteen books, four of which are on Picasso:
- Si tard le soir le soleil brille (1973)
- English translation: Sunshine at midnight (1974)
- Un amour secret de Picasso (1999)
- Du petit Pablo au grand Picasso (2003)
- Le grand Picasso (2004)
Her final book was Du petit Wolfgang au grand Mozart (2006).
References
- ^ a b Portugal, Rádio e Televisão de. "Os desenhos de Picasso "a Geneviève" vendidos por 1,5 milhões de euros". Os desenhos de Picasso "a Geneviève" vendidos por 1,5 milhões de euros (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-02-22.
- ^ a b "Picasso mistress sells sketches". 2005-06-27. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
- ^ a b "Picasso's mistress survives, with a smile". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
- ^ "Les dessins "à Geneviève"vendus 1,540 million". L'Obs (in French). 4 July 2005. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
- ^ "Fact sheet on the Fondation Geneviève Laporte de Pierrebourg". www.fondations.org. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
- v
- t
- e
- Le petit picador jaune (1889)
- Science and Charity (1897)
- Le Moulin de la Galette (1900)
- The Appointment (1901)
- Child with a Dove (1901)
- La Gommeuse (1901)
- Yo, Picasso (1901)
- Portrait of Jaime Sabartés (1901)
- The Blue Room (1901)
- Femme aux Bras Croisés (1901-02)
- Old Jewish Man with a Boy (1903)
- The Old Guitarist (1903)
- La Vie (1903)
- Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto (1903)
- Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904)
- The Actor (1904-1905)
- Woman Ironing (1904)
- Girl in a Chemise (c. 1905)
- Acrobat and Young Harlequin (1905)
- Family of Saltimbanques (1905)
- Garçon à la pipe (1905)
- Girl on a Ball (1905)
- Les Noces de Pierrette (1905)
- Au Lapin Agile (1905)
- Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905)
- Famille d'acrobates avec singe (1905)
- Boy Leading a Horse (1905–06)
- Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905–06)
- Head of a Young Woman (1906)
- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
- Woman with a Fan (1908)
- Brick Factory at Tortosa (1909)
- Woman with a Fan (1909)
- Femme et pot de moutarde (1910)
- Girl with a Mandolin (1910)
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910)
- Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910)
- The Accordionist (1911)
- Le pigeon aux petits pois (1911)
- La Coiffeuse (1911)
- Violon et Raisins (1912)
- Bottle, Glass, Fork (1912)
- Ma Jolie (1912)
- Arlequin (1913)
- Ma Jolie (1914)
- Three Musicians (1921)
- Reading the Letter (c. 1921)
- The Pipes of Pan (1923)
- The Three Dancers (1925)
- Woman in a Red Armchair (1929)
- Le Repos (1932)
- Girl before a Mirror (1932)
- La Lecture (1932)
- Le Rêve (1932)
- Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932)
- Nude in a Black Armchair (1932)
- Femme à la montre (1932)
- Two Girls Reading (1934)
- Jeune Fille Endormie (1935)
- Guernica (1937)
- Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)
- Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937)
- The Weeping Woman (1937)
- Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom (1937)
- Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937)
- Maya with Doll (1938)
- Woman's Head (1939)
- Dora Maar au Chat (1941)
- The Charnel House (1944–1945)
- Nature morte au poron (1948)
- Massacre in Korea (1951)
- Les Femmes d'Alger series (1955)
- Las Meninas (1957)
- The Fall of Icarus (1958)
- Bust of a Seated Woman (Jacqueline Roque) (1960)
- Jacqueline (1961)
- Femme au Chien (1962)
- Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse) (1931)
- Tête de femme (Dora Maar) (1941)
- Bull's Head (1942)
- Baboon and Young (1951)
- Figure découpée (1963, 1964, 1965)
- Chicago Picasso (1967)
- Sylvette (1970)
- Vollard Suite (1930–1937)
- Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl (1933)
- Minotauromachy (1935)
- The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937)
- 347 Series (1968)
- Girl from Majorca (1905)
- Don Quixote (1955)
- Toros y toreros (1961)
- Le Taureau (1945-1946)
- Dove (1949)
- Desire Caught by the Tail (c. 1941)
- The Four Little Girls (c. 1947–48)
- Picasso and the Ballets Russes
- Parade
- The Three-Cornered Hat
- Pulcinella
- Le Train Bleu
- Mercure
- Musée Picasso (Paris)
- Musée Picasso (Antibes)
- Museu Picasso (Barcelona)
- Museo Picasso Málaga (Malaga)
- Museo Casa Natal (Malaga)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Normandy)
- Fernande Olivier
- Marie-Thérèse Walter
- Dora Maar
- Françoise Gilot
- Geneviève Laporte
- Olga Khokhlova (first wife)
- Jacqueline Roque (second wife)
- Maya Widmaier-Picasso (daughter)
- Claude Picasso (son)
- Paloma Picasso (daughter)
- Diana Widmaier Picasso (granddaughter)
- Marina Picasso (granddaughter)
- Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (grandson)
- José Ruiz y Blasco (father)
(France)
- Bateau-Lavoir (Montmartre Paris)
- Villa La Vigie (Juan-les-Pins, Summer 1924)
- Château de Boisgeloup (Gisors, 1930-1937)
- Château of Vauvenargues (Vauvenargues, 1958-1962)
- Villa La Californie (Cannes, 1955-1961)
- Château de Vie (Mougins, 1961-1973)
television about
- Visit to Picasso (1949)
- Guernica (1950)
- The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
- The Adventures of Picasso (1978)
- Surviving Picasso (1996)
- Picasso: Magic, Sex & Death (2001)
- Modigliani (2004)
- Genius (2018 TV series)
- Carles Casagemas
- Carl Nesjar
- Lydia Corbett
- Lump (dog)
- Fundación Picasso
- Picasso. In the heart of darkness (1939-1945) (2019-2020 exhibition)
- Picasso & Lump (2006 book)
- Picasso referendum of Basel
- Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria
- Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1915 painting)
- "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1924 poem)
- Woman, Bird, Star (Homage to Pablo Picasso) (1973 painting)
- "Pablo Picasso" (1976 song)
- The Blue Guitar (1977 etchings)
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993 play)
- Picasso (crater)