olga in armchair, 1917olga in her husband's studioolga a la mantille, 1917olga with picasso, 1919olga in blueolga et paul, 1922
in 1917 picasso met ballerina olga khokhlova while he was designing the ballet "parade" for the ballet russe in rome. by that time she had been performing with sergei dyaghilev's ballet company for 5 years, usually dancing in the corps de ballet rather than as prima. picasso's friends could not understand why he fell for such a common, unremarkable person in their view. on july 12, 1918 they were married in a russian orthodox church at the rue daru in the 7th district of paris - among the guests were dyaghilev, jean cocteau, gertrude stein & henri matisse. as picasso was sure that he was marrying for life, an article in his wedding contract stated that all the property was mutual, including works of art. they were initially happy but their married life would have conflicts - she was of high society while he was more bohemian. on february 4, 1921 their son paul was born - pablo was 40 years old. although he was excited and proud this would begin the deterioration of their relationship. in 1927 picasso began an affair with paulo's nurse, marie-thérèse walter - olga learned of this affair in 1935 from a friend who informed her that walter was pregnant. picasso's hatred of olga began to show in his paintings - he would paint her as a horse or old shrew. later he would say that olga, "wanted too much of me...it was the worst period in my life."olga took paulo to the south of france and filed for divorce. because picasso refused to split his property, as stipulated by french law and his own marriage contact olga refused to divorce. they would remain officially married until her death from cancer in 1955 in cannes, france.