| Françoise Gilot | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Françoise Gilot |
| Born | 26 November 1921 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | Cambridge University, British Institute in Paris |
Françoise Gilot (born November 26, 1921) is a French painter and bestselling author. She is also known as the lover and artistic muse of Pablo Picasso from 1944 to 1953, and the mother of his children, Claude Picasso and Paloma Picasso. She later married the American vaccine pioneer, Jonas Salk. She was awarded a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, in 1990.[1]
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Gilot was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Her father was a businessman and agronomist, and her mother was a watercolor artist. She studied English literature at Cambridge University and the British Institute in Paris (now University of London Institute in Paris).[2] While training to be a lawyer, Gilot was known to skip morning law classes to pursue her true passion: art. She graduated from the Sorbonne with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1938 and from Cambridge University with a degree in English in 1939.[3] Gilot had her first exhibition of paintings in Paris in 1943.[4]
At 21, Gilot met Pablo Picasso, then 61. His mistress, Dora Maar, was devastated to learn that Picasso was replacing her with the much younger artist. Eleven years after their separation, Gilot wrote Life with Picasso, a book that sold over one million copies in dozens of languages, despite an unsuccessful legal challenge from Picasso attempting to stop its publication.
Gilot married Luc Simon in 1954. The couple divorced in 1962. They had a daughter, Aurelia.
In 1969, Gilot was introduced to Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine pioneer,[5] at the home of mutual friends in La Jolla, California. Their shared appreciation of architecture led to a brief courtship and they were married in 1970 in Paris.[6] They remained married until Salk's death in 1995. During her marriage, she continued painting in New York, La Jolla, and Paris.[7]
Gilot lives in New York City and Paris, working on behalf of the Salk Institute in California, and continues to exhibit her work internationally.[5]