Picasso and His Dogs

- An unusual biography of Picasso through his dogs, richly illustrated with reproductions of his works and archive photographs. The first volume in a series about artists and their dogs

In 1933, Virginia Woolf wrote a biography of the poet Elisabeth Barret Browning, told in the first person by her cocker spaniel, Flush. In 1936, to write her memoirs, All the dogs of my life, Elisabeth von Arnim chose to tell the story of the 14 dogs that had accompanied her throughout her life. In 1957, the dachshund Lump arrived at the home of Pablo Picasso, whose life he shared until 1973. This book charts Picasso’s intimate family life, with Jacqueline, Claude and Paloma, and with the animals that populate the villa La Californie, as well as his artistic life. Inspired by these references, this collection (whose title is a nod to Picasso and Lump) takes a look at the lives and works of the great artists and art lovers of the 20th and 21st centuries from the perspective of their relationship with the ＂dogs of their lives＂. These lighthearted, erudite books offer a unique approach to the life and work of Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Peggy Guggenheim and Yves Saint Laurent...

Jean-Louis Andral, a leading expert on the painter, has been director of the musée Picasso in Antibes since 2008. Martin Bethenod has led numerous positions in the field of culture and contemporary art. He has been president of the Crédac-Centre d’art contemporain in Ivry since 2013 and president of the Archives de la Critique d’Art.