Review: Lee Miller & Picasso

As part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Picasso’s Portraits exhibition, there have been numerous lectures and talks from people that were affected directly by the great artist, one of which was “Picasso & Sylvette”: a personal memoir from one of Picasso’s many muses.

Most recently, the gallery offered a lecture entitled “Lee Miller & Picasso”: an in-depth look at the famous photographer and her special friendship she held with the famous artist. What’s more, the lecture was given by her son, Antony Penrose, which gave it an intimate and personal feel.

So, who was Lee Miller? Lee Miller was an American photographer who worked extensively for Vogue throughout her life, as well as being a war correspondent, model and portrait photographer. She rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest artists of her time including Pablo, Paul Éluard (the French poet), André Breton and many other surrealists of the epoch. She travelled extensively around the world, even living in Egypt for a time, meeting people wherever she went, camera always in hand.

The crux of the lecture dealt with her incredible friendship with Pablo Picasso, the three-way friendship between Lee, Pablo and Lee’s husband (and Antony’s father) Roland Penrose. In a beautifully-given hour-long talk, Antony offered us an incredible insight into the man and the character of Pablo Picasso: the way in which he used to play games with Antony when he was just 3 or 4 years old, let him wander around his studio and touch all of his sculptures, laugh, joke and even playfully bite him. The personal anecdotes from Antony’s childhood were illustrated with beautiful photos all taken by his amazing mother bringing the whole memoir truly to life. He shared stories of his childhood that seemed so normal at the time, such as the painting on their breakfast room wall, which are now so pertinent to the history of one of the greatest artists ever to paint; the painting on the wall during his childhood was in fact the Weeping Woman, one of the most celebrated pieces in Picasso’s entire oeuvre.

Whether it was photos of little scraps of paper upon which Pablo had sketched a hand-written short, kind note to Antony and Lee, or photos of the family enjoying his presence, the whole lecture was fascinating, it brought the artist joyfully to life and was spoken with tender words; there was clearly a huge two-way affection between Picasso and Antony’s families and it was plain to see from the visible emotion on Antony’s smiling face.

Another excellent and intriguing lecture at the National Portrait Gallery.  For more information about Lee Miller, check out her website here.