The friendship of two artists, the love of a dog

December 18, 2007

A couple of months ago I found a book that got my attention. In the cover, Pablo Picasso with a dog. The author and photographer not less than the great David Douglas Duncan, the last of the selected group that changed photojournalism shooting for LIFE magazine, at the time the "mecca" of photography. I should not have been surprised because both masters shared a long lived friendship.

It began in February, 1956 — this bond between two artists. The American photographer was on his way home from Afghanistan. The Spanish painter was sitting in his bathtub at home in the south of France: Voilà! . . . the first Picasso photograph of tens of thousands taken during the next seventeen years when David Douglas Duncan often shared the simple meals, the constant work, the gaiety, the countless explosions of creativity. After other guests had gone, Duncan still remained in the studio — by now his second home. Thus was born a friendship unique in the lives of both men. Two minds, two hearts, each discovering a special communication with the other.

Picasso savors his fish down to the bone, 1957.

David Douglas Duncan was the photographer with the greatest access to Pablo Picasso, access driven by a close friendship. Why was I surprised to see this book? David Douglas Duncan had already published several books about Picasso [The Private World of Pablo Picasso (1958), Viva Picasso: A Centennial Celebration 1881-1981 (1980), Goodbye Picasso (1974)] that were the most intimate photographic record of the artist. But now, in 2006 a new book, entitled Picasso & Lump. Indeed some of the images were published in previous books ... but ...

Pablo Picasso teases his dachshund Lump with a cardboard rabbit he just cut out from a candy box.

... I opened the book and started to see the images and read the text, and I immediately realized this book was something special. David Douglas had created a master piece of storytelling, conveying the unique relationship of Picasso and his dog, Lump. Two masters, one dog, and an amazing book. So, if you are thinking about a book to gift this season, for anyone who loves photography, art and "dogs" this is a very fine choice. I cherish this book, it always makes me smile.

"Lump and Picasso meet for the first time. Mutual love."

____________

[from the cover] One spring morning in 1957, veteran photojournalist David Douglas Duncan paid a visit to his friend and frequent photographic subject Pablo Picasso, at the artist's home near Cannes. As copilot alongside Duncan in his Mercedes Gullwing 300 SL was the photographer's pet dachshund, Lump. Photographer and dog were close companions, but Duncan's nomadic lifestyle and his other dog — a giant, jealous Afghan hound who had tyrannized Lump — made their life in Rome difficult. When they arrived at Picasso's Villa La Californie that magical day, Lump decided that he had found paradise on earth, and that he would move in with Picasso, whether he was welcome or not.
This joyous, previously untold story of artist and his dog offers an uncommonly sensitive image of Picasso. Lump was immortalized in a Picasso portrait painted on a plate the day they met, but that was just the start. In an explosion of forty-five paintings inspired by Velázquez's masterpiece Las Meninas, Picasso replaced the impassive hound in the foreground with jaunty renderings of Lump. Now, as a gift from the artist to his hometown as a youth, all of those luminous canvases are the centerpiece exhibition in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona. Fourteen of the paintings are reproduced here in full color, juxtaposed with Duncan's dramatic and intimate black-and-white photographs of Picasso and Lump, bringing full circle the odyssey of a lucky dachshund who found his way from reluctant road warrior to furry, super-stretched icon of twentieth-century art.

This joyous, previously untold story of artist and his dog offers an uncommonly sensitive image of Picasso. Lump was immortalized in a Picasso portrait painted on a plate the day they met, but that was just the start. In an explosion of forty-five paintings inspired by Velázquez's masterpiece Las Meninas, Picasso replaced the impassive hound in the foreground with jaunty renderings of Lump. Now, as a gift from the artist to his hometown as a youth, all of those luminous canvases are the centerpiece exhibition in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona. Fourteen of the paintings are reproduced here in full color, juxtaposed with Duncan's dramatic and intimate black-and-white photographs of Picasso and Lump, bringing full circle the odyssey of a lucky dachshund who found his way from reluctant road warrior to furry, super-stretched icon of twentieth-century art.