Volume 10, Number 6 · March 28, 1968
Putting Picasso in His Place
By Anthony Blunt
Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods
by Pierre Daix, by Georges Boudaille
New York Graphic Society, 348, 831 illustrations (61 in color) pp., $35.00
The Sculpture of Picasso
by Roland Penrose
Museum of Modern Art, 232, 260 illustrations pp., (paperback, $5.95) (paper)
No artist has ever become such a legend in his lifetime as Picasso, or been so much written about. The obvious competitor is Michelangelo. The unveiling of the Last Judgment in 1541 was awaited as an event of international importance on which ambassadors to the Holy See reported to their masters; princes, cardinals, and men of letters begged to be given the slightest drawing from his hand, often with no success; and three accounts of his career appeared before his death, one of them in effect dictated by himself. But this was and remained an exceptional case, and there are remarkably few instances before the nineteenth century of artists being celebrated by full-dress biographies or monographs during their own lifetime. With the Romantic movement the situation changed. The artist became a genius and attracted interest from a much wider and less expert public than in previous centuries. But even as late as this artists were usually only commemorated by biographies after their death. An obvious exception is Turner, for at the time of his death Ruskin had already published two volumes of Modern Painters, which was conceived as a monument to the artist's genius. Delacroix and Ingres were much discussed in articles and reviews, but no general account of their artistic careers was written till well after their deaths.
Review, 2624 words
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