Only a privileged few were allowed to visit Picasso at his Boisgeloup residence. Naive artist Elie Lascaux was one of those few, and it was through her that Picasso discovered Boisgeloup. Also pictured are sisters Godon Berthe Lascaux and Lucie Kahnweiler, wife of art dealer and champion of the Cubist movement Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler. Kahnweiler was one of the few people to recognise the significance of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), which he had discovered at the artist’s Bateau Lavoir studio. Assisting Kahnweiler in his work was his wife’s illegitimate daughter, Louise Leiris. Also known by her nickname Zette, Louise would dedicate her life to supporting and promoting modern art. The last member of the group pictured at Boisgeloup is Kahnweiler’s son-in-law, Michel Leiris, a writer best known for L’Âge d’homme. In January 1931 he was made the secretary-archivist of an ethnographic expedition called the “Dakar-Djibouti Mission”, and would go on to write about his experience in L’Afrique fantôme.

© Droits réservés
Localisation : Paris, musée Picasso
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais
(musée Picasso de Paris) / image RMN-GP
© Succession Picasso  2017