Françoise

Françoise Gilot (1921–2023) began painting at the age of seventeen and later studied under Endre Rozsda (1913–1999), who was living in Paris. Rozsda, who had fled Budapest for Paris in 1938, returned to Hungary in February 1943. Françoise was saddened by the painter’s departure, as she considered him both a mentor and a friend. As they said goodbye at the Gare de l’Est train station, Rozsda called out to her consolingly from the train: “In three months, you might just meet Picasso!”

Rozsda’s prediction came true almost to the day: in May 1943, the girl dined with a friend, and actor Alain Cuny at the Catalan restaurant, at a table next to Picasso’s. Picasso took an interest in the two young women and invited them to his studio. As their affair slowly blossomed, the features of Françoise, the flower girl, began to wind their way like vines through the painter’s canvases and drawings. They had two children together, Claude (1947–2023) and Paloma (1949–). Françoise left Picasso in 1953, and the painter then used his extensive connections to make it difficult for art dealers to purchase and exhibit Gilot’s works. As a result, she eventually moved to the United States, where she enjoyed a long and successful career as a painter.

In her book My Life with Picasso (1964), Gilot recounts her relationship with Picasso, pointing out the painter’s human (and inhuman) sides with captivating detail. Her writing paints a portrait of an artist who was headstrong, impulsive, and prone to subordinating others to his own interests; an artist whom the young painter, forty years his junior, nevertheless found to be an intellectual companion – for a time.