Marina Picasso is the daughter of Pablo Picasso's eldest son. In this extraordinary, heart-breaking memoir she speaks for the first time of the devastating effect Picasso's fame and personality had on her and her family.
She remembers being six years old and standing awkwardly in front of the gates of Picasso's grand house near Cannes, "La Californie". Her father, Paolo, was nervous; her eight-year-old brother, Pablito, held her hand. They were there to collect from her grandfather the weekly allowance that Picasso grudgingly gave his oldest son to support his family. Sometimes they were sent away - the maitre was working or sleeping; on other occasions, the gates would be opened and they would walk into the intimidating, exciting chaos of Picasso's studio to face the man himself and his unpredictable moods.
Looking back, Marina can understand why Picasso had so little interest in his grandchildren; but at the time, she and her brother longed for him to love and understand them - for him to solve their problems. Just a few miles away down the Cote d'Azur, they led a hand-to-mouth existence with a mother who lived in her own little fantasy world. They were utterly dependent on Picasso for their schooling, clothes, the food on their table - and for their futures.
People assumed they were rich and privileged because they were "Picassos"; they were to live their lives under the burden of these assumptions. It was this that caused her brother to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach the day after his grandfather died. Two years later her father was also dead and Marina found herself in the ironic position of being one of the major heirs to Picasso's estate, including the very house, "La Californie", from which she had so often been shut out.
It has taken Marina Picasso fourteen years of analysis to feel ready to speak openly about her past. In this book, she does so for the first time. The result is a vivid and powerful memoir about what it was like, as a young person, to try and forge an identity in the shadow of one of the greatest personalities and cultural icons of the twentieth century. Even Picasso's most fervent admirers cannot fail to be moved by the courage with which Marina Picasso has rebuilt her life from the emotional wreckage that the artist left behind him.
