Fernande Olivier
Encyclopedia
Fernande Olivier was a French artist and model known primarily for having been the model of painter Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

, and for her written accounts of her relationship with him. Picasso painted over 60 portraits of Olivier.

Youth

Olivier was born of an out-of-wedlock relationship between her mother and a married man. She was raised by an aunt, but she fled when her aunt attempted to enter her into an arranged marriage. Instead she married a man who abused her. In 1900 she left her husband without a formal divorce and moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, at the age of 19. She changed her name so that her husband could not find her.

In the French capital Olivier quickly found work modeling for artists; she was a fixture in the circle of friends of writer Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....

, where she also became friends with Paul Léautaud, Kees Van Dongen
Kees van Dongen
Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen , usually known as Kees van Dongen or just Van Dongen, was a Dutch painter and one of the Fauves. He gained a reputation for his sensuous, at times garish, portraits....

 and Edmond-Marie Poullain. Van Dongen in particular painted her several times.

Relationship with Picasso

She met Picasso at the Bateau-Lavoir in 1904, and by the next year they were living together. Their relationship lasted some seven years and was characterized by its tempestuousness. Both Olivier and Picasso were jealous lovers, and their passions sometimes exploded into violence.
Among his most notable works of his Cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

 period from 1907 to 1909, several were inspired by Olivier. These include Head of a Woman (Fernande). He later admitted that one of the Demoiselles d'Avignon was modeled on her.

In April 1907 Olivier went to a local orphanage and adopted a 13-year-old girl, Raymonde. The small family did not last, however, and upon discovering explicit drawings of Raymonde made by Picasso, Olivier sent the girl back to the orphanage. Olivier made no mention of Raymonde in her memoirs.

When Picasso finally achieved success as an artist, he began to lose interest in Fernande, as she reminded him of more difficult times. Eventually they separated in 1912, leaving Olivier without a way to carry on living in the style to which she had become accustomed. She had no legal right to expect anything from the painter, since she was still technically married to her first husband. To survive, she took various odd jobs, from a cashier at a butcher's to an antiques saleswoman. She also supplemented her income by giving drawing lessons.

Writing career

Twenty years after her relationship with Picasso, she wrote memoirs of their life together. By then Picasso was the most famous artist of the age, and the publication of Olivier's memoirs carried commercial potential. The memoir, entitled Picasso et ses amis (Picasso and his Friends), was published in 1930 in serialized form in the Belgian daily Le Soir
Le Soir
Le Soir is a Berliner Format Belgian newspaper. Le Soir was founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel. It is the most popular Francophone newspaper in Belgium, and considered a newspaper of record.-Editorial stance:...

, despite Picasso's strong opposition. He hired lawyers to prevent the publication of the series (only six articles were published). The payment she received helped her to improve her lifestyle somewhat, but she spent it quickly.

Old Age

Olivier remained forgotten until 1956, when, deaf and suffering from arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....

, she succeeded in persuading Picasso to pay her a small pension in exchange for a promise not to publish anything further about their relationship as long as either of the two was alive. She died in 1966, he in 1973.

Her importance is based not only the memoirs, which were finally published in their entirety in 1988, but on the fact that she was the only one of Picasso's mistresses who knew him before he achieved fame and fortune.

Paul Léautaud describes her in his Journal. Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....

 also had a love affair with her.

External links

  • Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier - exhibit at the US National Gallery of Art
    National Gallery of Art
    The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...

    .
  • Portrait of Fernande Olivier by Kees Van Dongen
    Kees van Dongen
    Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen , usually known as Kees van Dongen or just Van Dongen, was a Dutch painter and one of the Fauves. He gained a reputation for his sensuous, at times garish, portraits....

     at the Musée Fabre
    Musée Fabre
    The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault département.The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 million euro renovation, which was completed in January 2007...

     in Montpellier
    Montpellier
    -Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

    .
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