A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 (Vol 3) (Hardcover)

by John Richardson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This third volume in Richardson's magisterial biography takes us through Picasso's middle years, as he establishes his mastery over craft, other artists and the women in his life. The story begins the year Picasso falls in love with Olga Kokhlova, a Russian dancer he met while working on the avant-garde ballet Parade for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. By the end of the volume, Olga—his first wife—becomes the victim of some of Picasso's most harrowing images. The book elaborates on the details of Picasso's inspirations, with Richardson providing a balance of fact, salacious detail and art-historical critique. He is particularly skilled at evoking the humor and sexuality that imbues Picasso's portraits of Marie-Thérèse, who became his mistress when he was 45 and she 17: As for the figure's amazing legs: the secret of their monumentality had escaped me until Courbet's great view of Etretat gave him a clue: Picasso has used the rock arches of Etretat... to magnify the scale of the bather's legs and breasts.... The artist's entire circle is also here, from Georges Braque to Henri Matisse, from André Breton to Ernest Hemingway. They are jealous collaborators, competitive geniuses, excessive bohemians, dear friends, frustrated homosexuals—while a handful of women come across as essential yet entirely replaceable. 48 pages of color illus., 275 illus. in text. 60,000 first printing.(Nov. 9)
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From The New Yorker
"My work is like a diary," Picasso often said, and Richardson demonstrates the truth of this in the third installment of his biography. He rejoins Picasso after his Cubist stage, when Picasso is designing costumes for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and entering a primarily neoclassical period. The volume covers the years of his marriage to the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, the mother of his only legitimate child, Paulo, and describes their lavishly bourgeois life style in Paris and their summers in the South of France. The most striking aspect of this surefooted account is the link that Richardson shows between the women in Picasso’s life and the direction of his art. We witness the classic representations of his newlywed wife evolve, by the end of the marriage, into bifurcated demonic images; simultaneously, the entry of a teen-age mistress unleashes Picasso’s sexuality, which infuses all his future work.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307266656
• ISBN-13: 978-0307266651
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,609 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TUMULT AND TRIUMPH IN AN ARTIST'S LIFE, November 27, 2007

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

To say that John Richardson has completed a monumental task is surely an understatement. His three volumes in a planned four part biography of this iconic artist are testament to the biographer's depth of knowledge as well as an intimate understanding of his subject's life and oeuvre. Mr. Richardson's authorial skills and powers of description are more than gratifying to both students of art and less informed readers as each page contributes to a greater knowledge of the man christened Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso.

The Triumphant Years, 1917 - 1932, covers a period of tumult and triumph in Picasso's life. Along with his friend poet Jean Cocteau Picasso has gone to Rome . He has agreed to do the decor for Diaghiliev's ballet Parade. While he had hoped to be married in Rome, Picasso's from time to time mistress changed her mind. Enter Olga Khokhlova, a lady like ballerina who was as "unbeddable as the `nice' Malaguena girls that his family had tried to foist on him."

There was naught to do but marry her - a marriage that may have begun in heaven but descended into hell with the deterioration of Olga's health and psychological condition. In 1927 he met 17-year-old Marie-Therese Walter, a young beauty with whom he became obsessed. Thus began an intense love for Marie-Therese and unbridled hatred for Olga, emotions which Richardson ties to figure paintings done during that time.

Picasso's 50th birthday, according to Richardson, was both a milestone and a millstone as the artist was driven to somehow stem the passage of years with work. In addition, we're reminded that biographer Jack Flam saw Picasso at that time "as a master who felt compelled to correct or improve his fellow painters' performances." (Especially Matisse).

Thanks to John Richardson, here is Picasso - explored and explained. Especially helpful for this reader was the light shed on the artist's often savage imagery. A Life of Picasso will undoubtedly stand for generations to come as the definitive biography of Picasso. We are in Mr. Richardson's debt.

- Gail Cooke

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Insights into Picasso's Sources and Methods , January 3, 2008

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

If you think you know Picasso's work, this book will convince you otherwise. John Richardson has done a tremendous service by sorting out when Picasso produced his greatest works between 1917 and 1932, what sources he "borrowed" from, what he was trying to accomplish, and how all of these works affected his career. This book was quite a revelation to me. Simply by seeing a lot of his work (as you can do at Musee Picasso, for example), you quickly realize that Picasso constantly copied himself. And, of course, it is well known that he borrowed much while trying to establish a style and while working with Braque to develop cubism. But Picasso borrowed early and often in ways I didn't realize. In that sense, he was a supreme stylist who could execute someone else's idea in a more profound way. I came away with a new appreciation for that aspect of his talent.

While Picasso was alive, very little was said in books about his mistreatment of women and the motives behind his paintings of his wives and lovers. While his second life was alive, people were still pretty circumspect on this point. But now we know that Picasso was louse when it came to women and his family. This book gives you the full story of his first marriage, relationship with his young mistress who inspired so many joyous works, Marie-Therese Walter, and his constant attraction to prostitutes.

There are some other surprises in this book including how central his work with ballet was in creating interest in his paintings and sculptures. It was through Diaghilev that Picasso met his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a ballerina in the Ballets Russes. Picasso decided it was time to settle down and marry. Despite having had long relationships with women before, he now was looking for someone who would help make him respectable. In the process, Picasso adopted the lifestyle of one of the first wealthy artists (famously being driven around in one of the world's most expensive cars by a chauffeur in the middle of the world-wide economic depression).

As good as John Richardson is on those subjects, he can be most annoying in other ways. For example, Mr. Richardson seems to have an obsession with Jean Cocteau and writes a lot about him even though Picasso didn't like Cocteau very much and Cocteau didn't influence Picasso very much either. Mr. Richardson also has a writing style that can be enormously elusive, describing what happened without saying anything. Picasso's wife seems to have had a lot of physical and mental problems but these are mentioned without providing much real information other than when they occurred. A greater problem comes in that Mr. Richardson likes to drop in lots of French phrases (I read French so I had no problem), but if you don't read French it makes the text harder to follow. Some will also find some of Mr. Richardson's put downs of those who disagree with as being rude and high handed. Perhaps the most annoying problem comes in using academic words to describe distasteful aspects of Picasso's personality and behavior. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.

But I advise you to read the book while being prepared for its weaknesses. I'm afraid there is no substitute. The generously represented art makes up for the weaknesses.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos to Richardson, February 8, 2008

By	Elio Lopez "elopez2" (Tampa, Fl USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mr. Richardson has out done himself on his Picasso opus. He displays Picasso in the light of his work and his influences without fluff and sensation. The book is a pleasant and interesting read sans the dry, academic, and often inaccurate writing of other books on Picasso. He also down plays the sensationalism producing a sensative and revealing portrait of the greatest artist of the twentieth century. As an artist myself, (www.arteespanol.us), I found this book extremely informative, useful, and entertaining. I highly recommend this, and Mr. Richardson's previous books on Picasso to art lovers and lay people alike.