Fascinating insight into Picasso the man and the artist

I was curious to know more about Francoise Gilot, the author of this book, after reading The Paris Muse, the novel about Picasso’s previous lover Dora Maar. Life with Picasso is a dense and fascinating account of the ten years Francoise Gilot spent with Picasso and an insight into the art world, Picasso’s friends and contemporaries such as Matisse and Braque, Picasso’s work and his thinking. But it is also an account of the life of Francoise, a talented painter, a fiercely intelligent and independent woman. Caught between the two sides of Picasso - the genius artist and adoring lover and the vicious and abusive man - she finally left him, the only woman to do so.