After Eva Gouel died, Picasso assumed he and Gaby Lespinasse would marry as he was in love with her. Gaby, however, decided she would rather marry Herbert Lespinasse. She was already in a relationship with Herbert and had adopted his last name. Picasso was devastated. So Eva had died, and now Gaby completely rejected him.
Following is how the story continues, according to Jack O’Sullivan from a 1996 review of A Life of Picasso: Volume II by John Richardson featured in The Independent:
“So, on the rebound, in the spring of 1916, Picasso fell madly in love with Irène Lagut. He and a friend, the poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, abducted her. They took her to a villa in the Paris suburbs. But Picasso didn’t fasten the shutters well and she escaped, although she came back of her own accord a week later.
“The affair was on and off until the end of 1916, when they decided to get married. Then at the last minute, when they were going to meet family in Barcelona, she returned to her previous lover in Paris. Irène was basically a lesbian. That is why she went back and forwards between girlfriends and then boyfriends. She led a peculiar life – she had been kept by a Russian grandduke in Moscow.”
–Irène Lagut working on a painting in 1922 in her studio when she was the companion of Serge Férat. From Bibliothèque nationale de France.
She did, however, become Picasso’s mistress again in 1923 and one of Picasso’s most famous works, The Lovers (1923), showing a young man and a woman, is, reveals Richardson, of the couple.
“Irène recently died in an old people’s home, aged 101,” he said, “but a friend did meet her and like many old ladies with disreputable pasts, she denied all the stories. Fortunately, I found her letters in an archive in Florence.”
—Portrait of Pablo Picasso, Irène Lagut, ink on tinted paper, 21.1 in. x 6.67 in., offered by Christie’s (You can purchase!)
The consequence of Picasso‘s second rejection, Richardson says, was that Picasso went in search once more of a wife. In spring 1917 he went to Rome to work with the Diaghilev Ballet, whose wartime headquarters were in Rome. There he met the Russian ballerina, Olga Kho-khlova, whom he married in 1918 when he was 37.
Irène Lagut was an artist/painter and she was born Marie-Reine Onésime Lagut in 1893 in Sucy-en-Brie and died in 1994 in Menton.
When I hear the name Picasso, I think only – famous art, good art, fine art. Beautiful art. I never really think about the romance and life that’s hidden within those paintings. Thanks so much for sharing some facts about his life, and the lives of those around him. Very interesting.
Thank you so much, Debi!
Always in search for love. Debi is right, so many stories behind those paintings.
Hi Denise – extraordinary tale … and Irene looks so attractive – but ‘love’ is varied and muddled … and Picasso obviously wanting love in a big way – yet desirous of the female form too … so interesting – cheers Hilary
For the record; there is absolutely nothing funny about one human being abducting another against their will. Off the record, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing when I read this Denise! Everyone wants to be some brilliant famous genius; until that person not only violates the life and liberty of another, but gets massively embarrassed doing it!! Hahahahahah!