
she left her family to live with him. Outraged, her father cut all ties with her. Fortunately, her grandmother stayed close and provided emotional support.
behind his creations — paintings, lithographs, sculptures, ceramics and more. The critique also included the works of other artists such as Eugène Delacroix,
Alberto Giacometti and Matisse, whom she came to know through her association with Picasso. Gilot includes anecdotes of their travels to the south of France, Picasso’s political associations and the discussions they had as a couple about life and love. Gilot
was certainly no doormat. Nor was she just an apprentice working for her master. Picasso depended on her to help him with his artistic creations and endeavours. Throughout the period, Gilot maintained her independence by continuing her own artistic endeavours, although this slowed down when she became a mother.
Picasso was particularly kind during her pregnancies, a period she speaks fondly about in her memoirs. There is even some loving chatter about the children, whom she admits had a good relationship with Picasso in their early years. But with children came domesticity and a more structured life, one that Picasso found suffocating. With the stabilisation of their relationship, he gradually
withdrew from her, and their love for each other rapidly fell apart; she had become a maternal figure. It was this metamorphosis that marked the end of their physical relationship. Picasso’s absence from home and his philandering brought much anguish to Gilot, who finally accepted that permanence was not in his character, and that the age gap between them was too huge. The relationship had run its course. Picasso had become extremely controlling and sadistic with age. Whenever she spoke about separation, he told her she was nothing without him. “Your job is to remain at my side, to devote yourself to me and the children,” he said to her. To be passive and submissive was how Picasso perceived women should be. Despite her loneliness, Gilot persevered with their union for the sake of the children until it was no longer tenable. When he refused her the medical care
that she urgently needed, Gilot found the strength to leave him, taking their children with her to live in Paris. Not long after, Picasso’s last muse, Jacqueline Roque, moved in to live with him. Gilot was the only woman to walk away from Picasso. Financially independent, thanks to the art she sold and her family wealth, she was able to start a new life on her own terms. The others remained obsessed by him and two committed suicide.