artist and Picasso’s muse dies at 101 – .

Françoise Gilot was a renowned French artist whose 1964 memoir, “Life with Picasso,” told the story of her years as the muse and lover of Pablo Picasso. 

Françoise Gilot’s legacy 

Gilot studied art from childhood, and she was already a talented painter in her own right at the age of 21 when she met Picasso. They began an affair that would last 10 years and include mutual influences on each other’s art. Picasso painted Gilot many times, and she developed her own organic version of his cubism. The couple had two children, Claude and Paloma Picasso. Their relationship was fraught, and Gilot’s memoir offered examples of his abusive behavior toward her. When she left Picasso in 1953, she became the only one of the artist’s partners to break up with him, rather than being broken up with. 

“Life with Picasso,” published 11 years after their split, became a bestseller despite Picasso’s attempt to block its publication. His anger over the book prompted him to cut off contact with both Gilot and their children, and it may have had a suppressive effect on her career. However, she continued painting, and in 2021, her 1964 painting “Paloma à la Guitare” sold for $1.3 million. Other noted paintings by Gilot include “Étude bleue” and “Living Forest.” 

In later years, Gilot was married to polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk. She designed costumes and sets for the Guggenheim Museum’s productions, and she taught at the University of Southern California. She wrote several other books, including “Interface: The Painter and the Mask” and “Matisse and Picasso: A Friendship in Art.” 

Notable quote 

“You might say that I am a little bit hard-boiled. I have to admit that I was never so much in love with anyone that I could not consider my own plan as interesting. It’s a bad idea that women have to concede. Why should they? That was not for me. Probably I was a bit ahead of my generation.” —from a 2016 interview for the Guardian  

Tributes to Françoise Gilot 

Full obituary: The New York Times 

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