Olga Pensive, hiver 1923, Pastel and pencil on paper, Musée National Picasso, Paris

Olga Khokhlova met Pablo Picasso in Rome in 1917 when she was dancing for Serge de Diaghilev in the “Ballets Russes” and he had been asked by Jean Cocteau to paint the decors for « Parade » on Erik Satie’s music and Leonie Massine’s choreography. They were married a year later with Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau as best men. At the same time her aristocratic family was the victim of Lenin’s revolution in St Petersburg. The exhibition at Musée Picasso in Paris is gripping and drama is around every corner.

Pablo Picasso, Three ballerinas: Olga Khokhlova, Lydia Lopoukova et Loubov Chernicheva, painted after a photography, early 1919, Musée national Picasso-Paris © RMN-Grand Palais /Mathieu Rabeau

Pablo Picasso was already famous when he met the young ballerina whose photographs in the show are riveting. One sees her in London and in Paris, a brilliant member of the « Ballets russes » where she was hired in 1912 in Russia. Born in 1891, in Ukraine, in a family where all men were  officers in the Tsar’s army, Olga escaped the Russain Revolution by the mere fact that she was touring in Europe with Diaghilev. The letters she exchanges with her mother Lydia are so moving that the paintings take another dimension. Especially the one where she recounts visiting the Schukin art collection where she admired « your husband’s paintings ».

Deux photomatons dOlga et Paul Picasso, ca. 1928, © Archives Olga Ruiz-Picasso, FABA

Picasso, who is shown everywhere in the world at the moment, painted one of his most excellent works with Olga. Two struck me especially : the pastel of « Olga pensive » (dreaming Olga) in blue, can be seen from afar in the galleries of the sumptuous Hôtel Salé and a painting of her in black oil on beige canvas which looks like charcoal on paper : only when you come closer, do you discover the beauty of the paint. Close to calligraphy.

There are different sections in the 350 piece show and when Paolo, (Paul) is born in 1921, many charming and softer portraits appear. Paolo on his donkey, Paolo with his mother are added on with photographs of the time in their country house Boisgeloup. Also a whole room is devoted to their different houses.

Olga and Pablo separated in 1935 after he meets Marie Thérèse Walter (in 1927) but they never divorced. Only after her death in 1955, did he remarry. The last part of the show is more tortured.

The show is beautifully curated by Emilia Philippot, who managed to put so much emotion in the mix of paintings and personal documents. I learned a new word « portrait-charge » and had to ask the guard if he knew what it was. He didn’t and we both rushed on our iPhones to find out that it is a style of  caricature. There are five of them in green pencil in the first room which are quite fun.

The visit was ideal with no queues and the beautiful stone of the musuem shining in the morning sun. Don’t miss it. (Musée Pablo Picasso in the Marais, until September 3)

And also “Picasso Primitif”, on the relationship between Picasso and Primitive arts, at Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac until July 23. In Perpignan, the newly restored Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud shows two years 1953-1955 of Picasso’s paintings under the title Picasso-Perpignan.