Picasso's photos

In 1955, when Pablo Picasso moved to the villa La Californie in the hills above Cannes, France, with Jacqueline Roque, who was to become his second wife, he was considered to be the greatest and most famous artist in the world. Yet he lived simply. The studio was at the center of his life: the ground floor rooms were formerly the salon and dining room of the house, with enormous Art Nouveau windows that gave out onto a large, untended garden, filled with his bronze cast sculptures. He usually started work after lunch and carried on until past midnight. It was where he would receive friends and family, eating, drinking and clowning around as he donned one of his many masks that littered the corners of the rooms. During the years he spent in the Mediterranean, he was surrounded by the things he loved — the water, the sun, Jacqueline — igniting the last great outpouring of his genius. Picasso once compared himself to King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold. He was not wrong.

Pablo Picasso photographed in his studio near Cannes, France in 1956. The Thonet rocking chair in the distance appears in many of his paintings.

Picasso holds a jump-rope for his two youngest children, Claude and Paloma, from his relationship with Françoise Gilot. ‘‘The Bathers at La Garoupe’’ (1957) is in the background. 

Picasso and Jacqueline share a laugh outside their home in 1960. 

Picasso and Jacqueline sharing lunch at home in 1957 with Lump the dachshund. ‘‘Lump, he’s not a dog, he’s not a little man, he’s somebody else,’’ Picasso said.