Artist Francoise Gilot, Partner of Picasso, Dies at 98 in Manhattan Hospital

The artist Francoise Gilotwho was Pablo Picasso’s partner for a decade, died in the last few hours in a Manhattan hospital, according to The New York Times, citing a daughter of the deceased.

Gilot suffered from lung and heart problems, his daughter Aurelia explained.

Author of a book entitled “Life with Picasso”, published in 1964, Gilot was not only one of the few women who left the Spanish painter of her own free will, but also rebuilt her sentimental and artistic life and had a notable career in the United States. as a painter and writer after their separation.

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Gilot met Picasso in 1943, when she was 21 and he was 61 and the two were married. They never married but were in a relationship for ten years and had two children together, Claude and Paloma.

At a time when the figure of Picasso is being reinterpreted as a manipulative and macho man, the newspaper recalls an excerpt from the book, when Gilot announced to the painter that he was leaving him and Picasso reacted as follows:

“Do you think that someone is going to be interested in you? They will never do it just for you: even the people who you think appreciate you, will only be a kind of curiosity for a person whose life touched mine so intimately,” he told her.

The book was a bestseller and despite his mostly friendly tone with his ex-lover -he came to dedicate it “to Pablo”-, it angered Picasso, who withdrew the word from him, as well as their two common children.

And although the book and her condition as ex-lover of genius was what brought her the most fame, her career as a painter was successful: several of her paintings are part of the collections of the MET Museum, MoMA or the Pompidou Center in Paris; even in 2021 a work of his entitled “Dove with a guitar” sold for 1.3 million dollars at auction at Sotheby’s.