Francoise Gilot

Art Brokerage: Francoise Gilot (born November 26, 1921) is a French painter and bestselling author living in New York City and Paris. She is known for being the lover and artistic muse of Pablo Picasso from 1944 to 1953, and the mother of his children, Claude Picasso and Paloma Picasso. She later married the American vaccine pioneer, Jonas Salk. Gilot was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Her father was a businessman and agronomist, and her mother was a watercolor artist. She studied English literature at Cambridge University and the British Institute in Paris (now University of London Institute in Paris). While training to be a lawyer, Gilot was known to skip morning law classes to feed her true passion: art. Despite her mother being an artist herself, the extent of the young woman's artistic pursuits inexplicably drove her away from immediate family to her grandmother's attic. At 21, Gilot met Pablo Picasso, then 61. His mistress, Dora Maar, was devastated to learn that Picasso was replacing her with the much younger artist. Gilot would ultimately raise both of their children: Claude (born 1947) and Paloma (born 1949). The parents often captured their children's antics on canvas. Gilot maintained a relationship with the Spanish painter from 1944 until 1953. Eleven years after their separation Gilot wrote Life with Picasso, a book that sold over one million copies in dozens of languages despite an unsuccessful legal challenge from Picasso attempting to stop its publication. Another legal success was that Gilot secured the Ruiz-Picasso name for her children, Claude and Paloma, by the end of the 1960s. Gilot married Luc Simon in 1954 and the couple divorced in 1962. They had a daughter, Aurelia. In 1969 Gilot was introduced to Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine pioneer, at the home of mutual friends in La Jolla, California. Their shared appreciation of architecture led to a brief courtship and they were married in 1970 in Paris. They remained married until Salk's death in 1995. During her marriage she continued painting in New York, La Jolla, and Paris. Listings wanted by Art Brokerage.