Françoise Gilot, “On the Wheel of Fortunes” a Woman’s Balancing Act

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A superb expression of a triumphant free spirit, and the balancing act required to maintain it, this watercolor was created … Read more A superb expression of a triumphant free spirit, and the balancing act required to maintain it, this watercolor was created by a woman who embodied female independence—especially remarkable for one who had such interesting taste in men.
As a 21-year-old French art student, she met and soon began a nearly decade-long relationship with 61-year-old Pablo Picasso. The union produced two children including the renowned perfumer and jewelry designer Paloma Picasso. She chronicled the period in her bestseller “My Life with Picasso.”
In later years, she married Jonas Salk, renowned for developing the first anti-polio vaccine. The artist subsequently divided her time between California’s coastal village of La Jolla and the south of France, always continuing to create.
Perhaps Gilot learned how to manage such titans as a young woman. Although she studied art throughout her childhood, her youth was marked by a persistent tug-of-war with her educated, wealthy and strict father who insisted that she study law versus further developing her innate talent for art. The daughter prevailed, and a year after this piece was created, her painting "Paloma à la Guitare," sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby's in London. The output from her 80-year-career included works, with watercolors prominent among them, that can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Centre Pompidou, and now possibly yours.

Signed and dated on lower edge: ‘Françoise Gilot 24.01.00’.
This work is registered in the F. Gilot Archives as number G.3153. See less