The friendship between Pablo Picasso and world-renowned photographer Lee Miller is the subject of a new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery this summer.
Their fascinating relationship spanned 36 years, from their first meeting in 1937 to Picasso’s death in 1973.
Over the course of their friendship Miller photographed Picasso more than a thousand times, and the artist, in turn, created a remarkable series of portraits of Lee.
Lee Miller and Picasso has been organised by the Lee Miller Archives, and will include 100 photographs, as well as Picasso’s striking Portrait of Lee Miller as l’Arlesienne, painted in 1937.
Highlights will range from intimate snapshots taken on the beaches of the South of France in the late 1930s, to memorable images of the Picasso’s famous visit to Britain in 1950, when he stayed with Miller and her husband Roland Penrose at their Sussex farm.
A touching photograph taken on the liberation of Paris in 1944 when Miller, a war photographer with the US forces, was reunited with Picasso, is one many images in the exhibition which capture the artist amidst the chaos of his studio.
Miller continued to make regular trips to visit Picasso until the early 1970s, and her studio shots offer a fascinating insight into the working methods of this restlessly creative genius.
