The Triumphant Years, 19

Drawing on exhaustive research from interviews and unpublished archival material, John Richardson has produced the long-awaited third volume of the definitive biography, full of original, groundbreaking new insights into Picasso's life and work. His lively and incisive analysis of the work meshes seamlessly with the rich and detailed narrative of this complex and sensual life. THE TRIUMPHANT YEARS reveals Picasso at the height of his powers, producing not only the costumes and sets for such Diaghilev Ballets Russes productions as Parade and Tricorne but some of his most important sculpture and paintings. These are tumultuous years, Picasso torn between marital respectability with Olga, the Russian ballerina who was his first wife, and the erotic passion of his mistress, Marie-Therese.

Rome and Naples would inspire the classicism in Picasso's work of the early twenties and Richardson reveals how the mercurial, witty Cocteau introduced him to the aristocratic and artistic world of Paris, including the Charles de Noailles art patrons who backed the surrealist films of Bu¤uel and Dali. Picasso was amused by Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists but resisted the advances of Andr‚ Breton and the Surrealists. Sara and Gerald Murphy, whom he met in the south of France, would introduce him to Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
With THE TRIUMPHANT YEARS, Richardson has written a masterful and compelling biography full of valuable and intriguing research about the most important artist of the twentieth century.