A Life of Picasso Volume IV

Clever, amusing, flamboyant and outrageous… Even incomplete, this is Richardson’s masterpiece. * The Times, Books of the Year *
Richardson’s monumental biography…comes at you like a roar… As biographer, Richardson is clever, amusing, flamboyant, outrageous - a worthy match for his subject… Even incomplete, this is Richardson’s masterpiece. – Laura Freeman * The Times *
Magnificent, unparalleled… How [Volume IV] manages to be as gripping as it is, as fresh as it is, only the gods of art can answer… Richardson is both an intimate witness and a ravenous historian… No one will ever again be able to combine Richardson’s personal familiarity with Picasso with such impressive levels of history, insight, detail, gossip and breezy writing. The greatest art biography ever written can never have a proper ending. It’s an incomplete masterpiece. But a masterpiece nevertheless. – Waldemar Januszczak * Sunday Times *
What a magnificent resource this four-volume biography is, unfinished…yet unrivalled in its blend of erudition and gossipy insights. * Financial Times, Books of the Year *
Magisterial… What has always made Richardson’s biographical work on Picasso so alive is the fact of his personal friendship with the artist. It is thrilling to read a narrative in which scholarly prose is regularly interrupted with the phrase “Picasso once told me … ” followed by an entirely fresh anecdote… How lucky we are…that Richardson lived long enough to get this far. – Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *
One of the great biographical enterprises of our times. * New Statesman, The Best Books of 2022 So Far *
Terrifically enjoyable… irresistible. – Alastair Sooke * Daily Telegraph *
No previous biographer of Picasso has commanded such detail, range and depth when dealing with this unendingly inventive and ferociously experimental artist. This fourth volume…reflects Richardson’s gift for merging the personal with the professional. * Literary Review *
Gripping, highly readable and thoughtfully illustrated… It’s hard to imagine that he could be bettered as our guide in the labyrinth of the minotaur. – Stephen Smith * Financial Times *
Enlivened by…anecdotal intimacy… Richardson…has ingeniously deciphered the art without demystifying the artist. – Peter Conrad * Observer *

John Richardson was born in London in 1924. He studied art at the Slade School but soon gave up painting for art criticism. In 1949 he moved to France, where befriended Picasso, Braque, Leger, and Cocteau. The first volume of his magisterial four-volume A Life of Picasso won the Whitbread Prize in 1991. He was also the author of the memoir, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; an essay collection, Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters; and books on Manet and Braque. He wrote for the New York Review of Books, New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He was made a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1993, and served as the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University from 1995 to 1996. He died in 2019.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.