Jacqueline Roque

Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque (24 February 1926 – 15 October 1986) was the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 12 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso's other lovers.

Early life Jacqueline Marie Madeleine Roque was born in 1926, 24 February at 22:00 in Paris, France, to Madeleine Antoinette Longuet and Marie Pierre Georges Roque. She was only two when her father abandoned her mother and her five-year-old brother, André Pierre Georges Roque (born November 1924). Her mother raised her in cramped concierge's quarters near the Champs Elysées, while also working long hours as a seamstress. But soon her mother remarried and the family was happy again. Her new father offered art-lover Jacqueline violin and classical dance lessons. Jacqueline was 18 when her mother Madeleine died of a stroke in 1944. On 4 January 1948 she gave birth to her daughter, Catherine Madeleine Blanche Hutin (now married: Hutin-Blay) and Jacqueline married André Hutin, an engineer. The young family moved to Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) in West Africa where Hutin worked as an engineer. Jacqueline left André and returned to France with Cathy in 1952 and divorced Hutin in November 1954. She settled down on the French Riviera and took a job at Madoura Pottery in Vallauris. She lived in Le Ziquet in Golfe-Juan, Vallauris.

Relationship with Picasso Pablo Picasso met Roque in the summer of 1952 while she was working at Madoura Pottery. At the age of 26, she had taken the role of salesperson in the company's store and was located near the entrance, where Picasso easily noticed her.

Françoise Gilot, Picasso's partner at the time, broke off their relationship at the end of September 1953 and left for Paris with their two children, as she saw Picasso choose and fall in love with Jacqueline. Gilot recalled that when she visited him in July 1954, Picasso continued to live alone, but Roque visited him almost every day.

In the summer of 1954, Picasso went to stay at the large home of Comte Jacques de Lazarme in Perpignan. He arrived there on 6 August with his daughter Maya and his other two children Claude and Paloma. There they were joined by Douglas Cooper, John Richardson, and later Roland Penrose. Roque and her daughter Cathy also joined the group, but had to stay in a local hotel. By the end of 1957, Picasso was searching for a new home due to the rise of nearby developments, and bought Château of Vauvenargues in 1958. To celebrate their marriage, the couple moved to a villa named Notre-Dame-de-Vie, situated on a hillside near Mougins, where Picasso spent his final 12 years. They were deeply in love with each other and Picasso spent 19 years with her, 12 married.

Picasso made the first portrait of his second wife on 2 June 1954. It was exhibited at the Maison de la Pensée Français in Paris in July as Portrait de Madame Z, which was inspired by the name of Jacqueline's house Le Ziquet. A second portrait of Jacqueline seated was completed on 3 June.

It is likely that Picasso's series of paintings Les Femmes d'Alger, derived from Eugène Delacroix's The Women of Algiers was inspired by Roque's beauty; the artist commented that "Delacroix had already met Jacqueline." In 1963 he painted her portrait 160 times, and continued to paint her, in increasingly abstracted forms, until 1972. Richardson observed that whenever he visited Roque after the death of Picasso, she would be utterly distraught, often requiring a doctor to administer tranquillisers. In 1980, her condition seemed to improve and she flew to New York for a Picasso retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Richardson noted that during his visit to Notre-Dame-de-Vie in 1984 or 1985, she seemed more tormented, often declaring, "Pablo is not dead". Jacqueline also barred Picasso's grandson Pablito Picasso (son of Paolo, Picasso's son from his marriage to the Ukrainian dancer Olga Khokhlova) from attending the service, due to Pablo's conflict with Paolo before his death. Pablito was so distraught he drank a bottle of bleach, dying three months later.

Françoise Gilot, Picasso's companion between 1943 and 1953, and mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma, fought with Jacqueline over the distribution of the artist's estate. Gilot and her children had unsuccessfully contested the will on the grounds that Picasso was mentally ill.

After the legal battles and death of Picasso's son Paulo Picasso, a French court ruled that the inheritors to the Picasso estate were Jacqueline, his children and grandchildren: Claude, Paloma, Maya, Bernard and Marina Picasso.

Eventually Claude, Paloma and Jacqueline agreed to establish the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Legacy Picasso created more portraits of his second wife than any other woman in his life. John Richardson, Picasso's biographer, described Picasso's final years before his death as "L'Époque Jacqueline". Arne Glimcher, founder of the Pace Gallery commented, "The range of interpretation of her image is quite extraordinary [...] you see the transformation of his late style only through these portraits of Jacqueline."