#AtoZChallenge: Khokhlova, Olga (Picasso)

Olga Khokhlova was Picasso’s first wife and the mother of his first-born son, Paulo. After being rejected by Irène Lagut and after the death of Eva Gouel, Picasso was in his 30s and wanted to settle down. On the rebound from Irène, Picasso went to Rome with the Ballets Russes under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev. His role was to design sets and costumes. One of the young ballerinas was Olga Khokhlova, 25. After meeting Picasso, Olga left the Ballets Russes to travel with Picasso. They went to Spain and Olga met Picasso‘s family, then they went to Paris where they married in 1918. They seemed to be happy, but many of Picasso‘s friends did not like how Picasso was less Bohemian and more upper crust with Olga. Olga tolerated most of Picasso’s friends, except she disdained Max Jacob. After their son was born in 1921, the marriage suffered and was never the same. 

–Portrait d’Olga dans un fauteuil (Olga in an Armchair), Pablo Picasso, 1918, oil on canvas, 130 x 88.8 cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France

Sometime in 1928 when Paulo was around 5 years old, Picasso was walking in front of the Galeries Layfayette and spotted a 17-year-old girl, Marie-Thérèse Walter, with whom he began a long-term affair. After a while, Olga caught on to the affair and she and Paulo moved to the south of France. I was mistaken that Olga would not grant Picasso a divorce, but I have learned that Olga was entitled to half of Picasso‘s wealth under French law, but Picasso did not think this was fair and would not divorce Olga.

From the biography by John Richardson:

Olga went to pieces. For the next 20 years she would live partly at Boisgeloup, partly in Paris hotels, and partly in the Riviera resorts frequented by Picasso so that she could persecute him and his subsequent mistresses. I happened to visit Picasso when she was dying at a clinic in Cannes. Madame Ramié (the wife of Picasso’s potter) used to see Olga most days in order to keep Picasso posted. All Olga had kept was a steamer trunk chockablock with old costumes, empty perfume bottles, letters, and hundreds of photographs. She spent her last days frantically going through them, begging Madame Ramié to persuade her husband to come and see her. Picasso adamantly refused. When she died, she was buried by mistake in an En­glish, rather than a Russian, cemetery.

Paulo had two children of his own. He died in 1975 from illness at only 54 years old.  His oldest child Pablito committed suicide by poison after being barred from Picasso‘s funeral and his daughter Marina wrote a book about her sad family and she runs an orphanage and other charities that helps the poor in Vietnam. Olga died in 1955 from cancer. After 17 years of his affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso had by this time moved on to Dora Maar.

Following is a painting that is really of Olga: 

—Woman with Stiletto (Death of Marat) or La femme au stylet (Mort de Marat), Pablo Picasso, 1931, oil on canvas, 46,5 x 61,5 cm, Musée Picasso, Paris

Picasso painted Olga many times. The paintings changed as their relationship changed. Olga could never move on from the terrible relationship and marriage. She had pestered and tormented Picasso and his various lovers through the years.