femme assise en tailleur, geneviève laporte, 1951geneviève laportegeneviève laporte, 1951odalisque, 1951geneviève laporte, 1951l'amour peintre
geneviève laporte was 17 when she first met picasso, 62 at the time, in paris during the war. she went to interview him for her school newspaper. picasso exploded with anger when she told him that young people did not understand his paintings. nevertheless, they remained in touch.
they began a secret affair in may 1951 when laporte visited the 70 year old picasso at his studio. he was living with françoise gilot, the mother of his two children at the time. a thunderstorm approached. "i said i was going to go home," she said. "at the moment, it was like a fairytale. the room grew dard, and through the skylight i saw a sky like i had never seen before, except in the congo during tropical storms. he told me 'wait a little while, there is going to be a storm'....i have no memory of what happened next.
that summer of 1951, picasso took laporte to st. topez, leaving françoise behind. the vacationed there along with the poet paul eluard & his wife dominique. she would him 2 years later in 1953 when she declined his invitation to move in with him in st. tropez at the same time françoise left the artist.
laporte did not reveal their relationship together until 1972. several portraits of her during that time were mistaken for picasso's other lovers. despite her love for him, she later said that she escaped just in time.