Loving Picasso

Fernande Olivier was the first real love in the life of Pablo Picasso, and the years she spent with the great artist, 1904 to 1912, coincide with the period of some of his most revolutionary work. Here, in her compelling and revelatory journal, published for the first time in English, Olivier vividly depicts her turbulent relationship with Picasso and, in her letters to Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Guillaume Apollinaire, sheds new light on the Parisian art scene of the early 20th century.Loving Picasso brings Olivier's memoirs to life with archival photographs, reproductions of her own artwork, paintings for which she modeled before she met Picasso, and a selection of superb portraits of her by Picasso himself. A foreword and notes by Picasso scholar Marilyn McCully set the journal and letters in context, and an epilogue by distinguished art historian and Picasso biographer John Richardson tells the story of Olivier's life after her final breakup with Picasso.