“’Papa, draw me a…’ I’d say, and Papa would draw me whatever I’d asked for, and with incredible patience”, Maya recalls her childhood memory with her father, Pablo Picasso. Maya was also the only one who could come to Picasso’s studio when he was painting. Maya said, “I was the ‘boquerona’ (means ‘little anchovy’), as my father called me, in reference to one of the emblems of the city of Malaga. He loved me and forgave me everything.”
Maya Ruiz-Picasso or Maria de la Concepción is Pablo Picasso’s first daughter from his wife, Marie-Thérèse Walter. Maya is one of Picasso’s favorite painting subjects. Between January 1938 and October 1939, he dedicated no less than fourteen portraits of her. Picasso documented her daughter’s growth, from her early years through to adolescence, in his artworks.
The father-daughter close bond between Maya and Picasso is the soul of the exhibition “Maya Ruiz-Picasso, Daughter of Pablo” by The Musée national Picasso-Paris. In the portrait painting series, Maya was depicted in everyday life scenes filled with tenderness and joy. These works also show the way Maya’s existence “nourished and amplified the artist’s fascination with childhood”.
Maya à la poupée et au cheval (1938) is Picasso’s painting of little Maya, playing with her favorite toys. In this work, Maya was portrayed in Picasso’s style of painting called cubism, which combines some different perspectives. Maya’s blue-white-red clothes which remind us of France’s flag, are in contrast with the background. The calm green-blue behind the sitter, color of skin, and doll suggest a sense of affection, kindness, and softness.
Picasso draws Maya when she was 3 months in Portrait de Maya à trois mois (1935). The drawing is in a realistic style, depicting baby Maya putting a finger in her mouth. This work represents Picasso’s fascination with the child world. Picasso made many drawings to study the physical and psychological development of his daughter. He observes her facial shape, hair, eye, and also her favorites and behavior.
© Succession Picasso 2022. https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/
In Première neige Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre (1938), Picasso made a portrait painting of Maya in winter clothes. This is a vibrant painting of a little girl with a sweet smile. This painting also represents the happiness and joy that Maya brings to Picasso’s life.
Maya was born on September 5, 1935. Pablo met Maya’s mother, Marie-Thérèse Walter, in 1927 when she just seventeen. Shortly before the child’s arrival, Picasso was in the process of divorce from his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, whom he had married in 1918. Picasso was also already father to a 14-year-old son, Paul (known as Paulo), from his first wife. Maya’s birth marked the artist’s inner turmoil caused by the changes in his personal life. Even, between May 1935 and February 1936, Picasso decided to stop painting.
Maya’s coming to the world brightens up her father’s life. “During and after the war, Maya inspired her father to create paper cut-outs, cardboard figurines, dolls, and even entire puppet theatres.” Using reused material from his studio, such as wood, wire, thread, fabric, drawing pins, and nails, Picasso made unique child toys that cherished their life that was overshadowed by German occupation.
Maya Ruiz-Picasso, daughter of Pablo is on view from April 16 to December 31, 2022, on the 1 St Floor Of The Hôtel Salé. The co-exhibition, New Masterpieces. La dation Maya Ruiz-Picasso is also displayed on the same date on the Ground Floor Of The Hôtel Salé.