Jacqueline Roque

Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque (24 February 1927 – 15 October 1986) is best known as the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 11 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of Picasso's other loves.

Early life

Born in 1927 in Paris, she was only two when her father abandoned her mother and her four-year-old brother. Jacqueline never forgave him. Her mother raised her in a cramped concierge's lodge near the Champs Elysées, working long hours as a seamstress. Jacqueline was 18 when her mother died of a stroke. She married André Hutin, an engineer, in 1946 with whom she had a daughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay. The young family moved to Africa when Hutin worked, but four years later returned to France and divorced Hutin. She settled down on the French Riviera and took a job at her cousin's shop, the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris.

Picasso

Pablo Picasso met Jacqueline in 1953 at the pottery when she was 26 years old and he was 72. He romanced her by drawing a dove on her house in chalk and bringing her one rose a day until she agreed to date him six months later. In 1955, when Picasso's first wife Olga Khokhlova died, he was free to marry. They married in Vallauris on 2 March 1961.